Spotify Knows Its Family Plan Gets Abused

If you’re on its family plan, expect Spotify to get in touch about confirming your home address.

Spotify is cracking down on users who share an account but live separately. The music streaming giant has sent out emails to several subscribers that might be cheating its system.

In this industry, the problem affects all services. It just gets magnified for Spotify as the most popular music streaming service in the world. Spotify has more than 80 million subscribers. There’s an opportunity to make even more money if it can disband illegitimate accounts on the family plan, however.

The family plan’s much more appealing than the $10/mo for individuals. But there does seem to be a stipulation in Spotify’s end-user agreement that the family plan, priced at $15/mo, can be distributed for up to six people who “reside at your same address. So the trickery does indeed break rules.

Here’s what the email says:

Anyone who does not hit the ‘Confirm Now’ button and hand over GPS data could lose access to the family plan. Spotify wants to know where users on the same account are living and take action.

Users, meanwhile, are responding negatively. The truth is that, while the family plan might be indeed for people who live together, there are many instances where families are not sharing residences for periods of time or at all. Still, Spotify does have its policy laid out despite users not realizing the limitations.

Spotify went public earlier this year, and thus it needs to continue making progress in an effort to satisfy investors. As the family plan gets abused, Spotify loses out on potential revenue.