Family plan: Spotify verifies households
In the future, Spotify intends to use QR codes to verify that all members of a family subscription live in the same household. Those who fail the check risk being banned.
If you share a Spotify account with other people, there is either the Duo or the Family subscription. In the latter, up to six people share the same subscription – and are supposed to all live in the same household. Until now, this has hardly been verified. You only had to confirm that you live at a certain address. That is now set to change. On a support page, the streaming service has announced a new control mechanism using a QR code. With this, Spotify wants to verify whether this information is actually correct.
How the check works
Spotify does not check all «family members» at the same time. The company selects individual members at random and decides when the check takes place. If you are selected, you will be prompted to scan a QR code from the subscription manager's smartphone.
Source: Spotify
Reddit users report that the QR code changes automatically every few seconds. The «rolling code» is intended to prevent your «head of the family» from simply sending you a screenshot. Spotify itself does not confirm whether it will actually work this way. After the request for the check, you have seven days to complete it. Critical voices are complaining about the short one-week deadline. If the subscription manager is on vacation for two weeks, for example, that is already a problem.
Subscription suspension looms
Anyone who fails the check will not only be kicked out of the subscription, but will also be barred from joining any Family or Duo subscription for a year. With this, Spotify wants to ensure that more people who are in a Family subscription without living in the same household switch to an individual subscription. During the suspension period, you are only allowed to take out a single subscription or use the free version of Spotify.
It is currently not yet clear when and in which countries this QR address verification will be introduced. The QR code is displayed to the subscription manager under «Your Premium Plan» > «Manage». To ensure everything runs smoothly, Spotify advises keeping the app up to date at all times.
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