A music app for early childhood.
NILLA turns nursery rhymes into active play, and teaches the language of music creation.
Nursery Rhymes
Music is our first language.
A music album, with lyrics and movement cues in real time.
Tap to try.
NILLA Nursery Rhymes is a new music album and audio player for the first years of life, created by Brooklyn musician and producer Onili. It reimagines classic nursery rhymes with rich original production across multiple languages, recorded with over 30 musicians including children. While the music plays, the parent-led app offers three synchronized layers: lyrics with translations, movement prompts timed to the music, and plain-language developmental insights rooted in early childhood science. The caregiver is the DJ. No screen is required for the child. Calm, minimal, and carefully designed, music that kids love and parents can enjoy while moving and connecting with their child.
For ages 3 to 5, there's a child-led version (Kid Mode) with no on-screen words, since children that age aren't reading yet. The animated movement cues are still being built.
Studio Mindset
Music-making literacy.
An age-appropriate program that teaches kids the language of music production, through songs and movement (for 0-2 yo), and interactive play (for 3-5 yo).
Tap a symbol, watch it come alive with the song.
Children have music in them long before they can read notes or play an instrument.
Studio Mindset introduces them to the building blocks of digital music creation. The physics of sound and the symbolic language of music as it is made today, in song form, like nursery rhymes.
Next: these will be tools they use to make their own music.
0 to 6: brains at peak learning power.
The neuroscience of early-childhood development, made accessible through a curated library that links to the most fascinating researchers and authors, plus the science behind each Nursery Rhyme, in plain language.
By singing, moving, and playing together with you, kids build the skills that matter most in early childhood: language, focus, memory, movement, self-regulation, and connection.
Read moreThese are the years when the brain is most open and most capable, ready to catch nearly anything you give it. It is also when children build the architecture for learning itself, the foundation that makes all future learning easier.
Nursery rhymes are more than songs children love. They are powerful tools, building language, memory, movement, self-regulation, and connection.
NILLA translates the science into plain language for caregivers, so you can see what is happening beneath the surface, support it through music and play, and make the most of the time you spend together.
Tap a song to see what it builds.
Go to Big Brains for a deeper dive into each song, plus resources and recommendations.
Kid Mode
A player kids can use on their own.
The full app with the text layer removed, for pre-literate kids. An interactive audio experience and a first visual familiarity with music-making software, preparing them for what comes next.
Introduction to music-making software for tiny humans, without the buttons that make grownups cry.
Get NILLA
Become a founding familyThe crew behind NILLA
"I knew I was a musician before I could talk. There was so much music in me as a child, but no way to bring it into the world through learning an instrument. The ideas arrived long before the tools. It was only when I got my first four-track recorder that I could turn the music in my mind into something real."
NILLA changes that, giving young children age-appropriate tools to understand music's creative language and begin their own music-making journey.
A multi-medium artist based in France. Amandine created the cut-paper world of NILLA by hand, and helped shape the brand image as well as the full digital world.
Tony played on almost all the Nursery Rhymes songs, and is the voice behind Tony.
Kids Teach
Kids teach kids.
We are looking for children ages 4 to 10 to join the NILLA kids crew and teach other kids through video.
If your child loves to show, explain, and lead, come be part of it.
Join the kids crew ↓NILLA Home Studio
A music-making app for kids.
Nursery Rhymes and Studio Mindset in video form, plus interactive games and hands-on tools for making music.
This is the next chapter we’re building, not ready yet. Nursery Rhymes and Studio Mindset (NILLA 0–5) are what’s available today.
Connect with NILLA
Join the kids crew.
We only use this to get in touch. Nothing else.