How to Make Your Own Yoto Cards

One of my favorite things about the Yoto player is that you can make your own cards. You can record yourself or a family member reading your child’s favorite book, link a card to a podcast, or create music or audio cards from CDs you have a home.

Never heard of the Yoto player before? Head over to my Yoto player review to learn what a Yoto player is and how it works.

You can also check out my recommended list of the best yoto cards to purchase for kids of all ages if you don’t want to make your own.

This post contains some affiliate links for your convenience (which means if you make a purchase after clicking a link I will earn a small commission but it won’t cost you a penny more)!  Read my full disclosure policy.

What is a Make Your Own (MYO) Card?

Yoto’s Make your own cards or MYO for short, are blank cards that connect to a playlist of audio files you’ve uploaded or have access to online in your account.

You can reuse Make Your Own cards over and over as they can be rewritten. It’s also a great way to link regular cards you have purchased to a physical card if you’ve happened to have lost the original card.

Where to get Make your Own Yoto cards

Yoto Children Friendly Audio Card - Make Your Own Cards - 5 Blank Yoto Cards for Kids for Yoto Player and Yoto App – for Boys and Girls Age 3–8 Years

Did you know that you probably already own a Make Your Own card?

That’s right! Your welcome card is a re-writeable make your own card. You can follow the instructions below using this card to test out the make your own features.

If you are looking for more, I have found the best luck buying make your own cards directly from Yoto.

You can also purchase them from Amazon but I find they usually sell out the fastest here!

What Kind of Audio Files can you Use?

Files that are uploaded should be in mp3 or AAC/M4A format.

You can add any mp3 files from voice files you’ve recorded to music files you’ve downloaded, to audiobooks that you own. You are also able to link to online radio stations and podcasts (more on this below).

Yoto makes it easy to record your own audio files.

You can either use the Yoto app to record your audio files or use a third-party recording program to do so and then put them in a playlist with other mp3 files.

How to make your own Yoto Cards

Yoto makes it really easy to make your own cards.

All you need is your own mp3 recordings or audio files, the Yoto app, and a blank make your own card.

First, log in to your Yoto account (either on the app or on a web browser) and head over to the Make Your Own section.

Click on “Add a playlist“.

1. Upload your Audio Files

Here you can create a playlist of audio files by uploading separate mp3 or AAC/M4A files.

Note that there are some restrictions on file uploads.

You can only put 100 tracks on each card. Each track has a maximum of 1-hour running time and a maximum of 100MB file size limit with a 500MB maximum card size limit.

With these limits, you can put on A LOT on a card!

I recommend waiting until you have all of your files ready to upload and save them in a folder before moving to the next step.

Give your playlist a name and then upload your files using the upload button.

If any of your files have trouble uploading, simply delete the file and try again. I’ve found that if I try to upload too many at a time, sometimes the uploads get stuck or fail. Uploading the audio files in smaller batches seems to work better.

You can also rearrange your audio files by clicking and dragging the three blue lines and moving it around on your playlist.

2. Add Yoto Icons

You can then adjust the icon for each chapter/file.

This is the image that will show up on your Yoto player.

Just click on the icon beside each audio file and select an icon from the existing icon library or upload your own icon.

Yoto has a few pre-loaded icons you can choose from but I love using this Yoto Icons website to find Yoto icons other people in the Yoto community have created.

We also love using favicons emojis as Yoto icons.

You can always change and add to playlists in the future. Just head back to the make your own section and make any adjustments you’d like.

3. Add a Playlist Cover

Yoto has a few default images you can use for the playlist cover. You can click the “random” button to select one of these.

However, I find it’s always fun to customize them. There are a few different ways we can do this.

If you have a Cricut Machine, you can create a cover image in Cricut Design Space and make use of its print and then cut function.

If you don’t have a Cricut machine, you could use Microsoft Word or Google Docs to create a card cover.

4. Link Your Playlist to a Make Your Own Card

Once your playlist is created, you can link it to a make your own card in the Yoto app.

in the Make your Own section on the Yoto app, find your playlist and click the three buttons on the right.

Select “Link to a card” and follow the prompts by inserting the card when it tells you to.

A green checkmark will appear if everything was linked correctly.

How to Link a Podcast or Radio Station to a Make Your Own Card

One of the coolest things about the Yoto is that there is already a list of podcasts and radio stations you can create make your own cards with. These stations and podcasts can also be played without owning a Yoto! (You can just listen to them on your phone through the Yoto app.)

If you want to create a physical card for your kids to use though, you can link these stations to a make your own card.

All you have to do is open the Yoto app, find the podcast or radio station you want to link, select it, press the 3 vertical dots, and select “Link to a card“. Then you can follow the same steps you would normally follow to link any other make your own card (inserting the card into the Yoto when prompted; wait for the green checkmark).

In order to link a radio station or podcast that is NOT available in the Yoto app, you’ll need to do a bit more digging.

You’ll first need to find the stream link to the radio or podcast. This can be tricky to find and will not be covered in this tutorial since it greatly varies how you can get this depending on the radio station. Most of the time it will involve inspecting the page source and looking for a URL for the radio station. I recommend doing a few google searches to find a tutorial on a specific radio station.

Once you have the stream link, you can create a new playlist and “Add Stream” instead of adding files. This is where you’ll paste your stream link. Then you can proceed to link the card to a make your card as normal.

To add a podcast, there is a new tab at the top that allows you to paste the podcast RSS feed. Use that area for podcasts.

Frequently Asked Questions

How big are Yoto cards?

Yoto cards are the same size as a standard credit card. They do not store any data on them themselves but instead link to content stored on your Yoto or through the internet.

Can Yoto cards be shared?

Yoto cards purchased from the Yoto store can be resold secondhand and used on another Yoto player. However, people are reporting that the access to the card will eventually disappear on the Yoto player it was first played on.

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