Spotify is cracking down on Family plans again, and the penalty can lock you out for a year
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When Spotify launched its Premium Family plan in 2014, it was intended for people who live together, but that hasn’t stopped some subscribers from splitting the cost with friends or relatives who live elsewhere. The company has tried to enforce that rule multiple times, and now it is introducing another way to check whether everyone on a plan really belongs to the same household.
Some Premium Family members may now be asked to verify where they live by scanning a QR code displayed on the plan manager’s phone. Both people need to be in the same place when the scan happens, and Spotify says the code changes every few seconds, making it difficult to simply send a screenshot to someone elsewhere.
Missing the check could lock you out for a year
Spotify gives members seven days after receiving the notification to complete the QR scan. Anyone who misses that window or cannot complete the verification will be prevented from joining a different Family or Duo plan for 12 months, although they can still sign up for another Premium option.
The company already asks Family members to provide their full address when they join, when the plan manager changes address, or whenever Spotify cannot confirm the address on file. Spotify also says it does not track users’ locations and only checks addresses for verification.
Spotify has been down this road before
Spotify tried a more direct approach back in 2018, when some Family subscribers in the U.S. and Germany were asked to confirm their home address by sharing GPS information. The test raised complaints because not every family lives under one roof, with separated parents being one obvious example.
The same problem has not completely disappeared eight years later. A student living away from home, a parent traveling for work, or relatives living separately could still struggle to complete an in-person check within seven days, even if they genuinely consider themselves one family. As for the QR code scan method of verification itself, unless we are missing something, I’m sure users will still be able to find a workaround.
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