Spotify begins cracking down on friends who share Family plans

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Some “Premium for Family” subscribers in the US and Germany are getting emails from Spotify to confirm if they live in the same address. The move is the music streaming service’s attempt at cracking down on groups of friends who split the discounted plan meant for families. As some users pointed out, not all families live together but as The Verge reported, there is a fine print in the family plan that says it’s available for “you and up to five people who reside at your same address.” But the company made it easy for its users to sign up with no means to verify a user’s family status, thus making it easy for friends to setup accounts.

With the amount of subscribers who use this plan, it suggests that not all of them abide by this rule. As Billboard reported, almost half of global streaming subscribers use the family plan, which reduces Spotify subscription by as much as 75 percent, with six people using one US$14.99 Spotify family plan. And this is affecting the company’s bottom line, with average revenue per user dropping by 12 percent in the second quarter of this year. It isn’t clear though how aggressively Spotify will be going after these users but best keep an eye out on those accounts before you lose them.