Spotify Controversially Attempts to Prevent Abuse of Family Plans

• Spotify is trying to crack down on users who share their premium family plans with friends and other users to exploit the system.
• The company is now requesting GPS coordinates of family plan users.
• The decision came shortly after the music streaming company reported a dip in per-user revenue generation in Q2 2018.

It is not a secret that there are countless users who have access to Spotify Premium Family Plans share their accounts with friends. However, it seems like Spotify is not too happy about people sharing their accounts if they are not in the same location. The music streaming giant is requesting GPS coordinates of some users to confirm that all members of the “Premium for Family” plans live in the same geographical location.

Dear @Spotify:

I‘m a user of the Family-subscription and can’t understand why you want to track the location via GPS? 😅 Some families don’t live together, but they still are family. May they work abroad or like to travel. So rethink this. Please#familybybloodbutnotbylocation

— caesar salad (@FlorianKadrija) September 20, 2018

The move by Spotify does make sense when it comes to preventing abuse of the plans, and it can definitely deter third-party sellers providing access to accounts for cheap. However, there are countless Premium users who have family members in different locations, and the implementation of GPS verification has left many unhappy.

According to a report, almost half of Spotify’s user base makes use of family plans. Many choose to share the plans with friends or acquaintances as the discounted family plans offer as much as 75% off compared to getting plans for single users.

https://twitter.com/unaligned/status/1041875669704237057

A large number of “Premium for Family” members received emails from Spotify in the US and Germany. With Spotify’s average revenue per user dipping in the previous financial quarter and the company losing the number one spot in the US the company does not seem too happy and wants to crack down on users who take advantage of the family plans. It is unknown how aggressively the music streaming company will be going after users who exploit the plans. However, with the current amount of backlash the company is facing on social media over its decision, it is unknown how the company will proceed.

If the streaming giant continues to see dips in per-user revenue, it is likely that strict action will be taken against users to exploit the system to get access to the premium service for cheap. A Spotify spokesperson spoke about the decision to implement GPS coordinate collection stating “Spotify is currently testing improvements to the user experience of Premium for Family with small user groups in select markets. We are always testing new products and experiences at Spotify, but have no further news to share regarding this particular feature test at this time.”

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