Whether you are a new subscriber to the family plan or you are renewing your subscription, there are a few rules you will need to know before you can begin your family’s Spotify experience. These rules will ensure you have a smooth and easy subscription. These rules include verifying your home address, streaming quality, and sharing with your friends.
Verification of home address
Earlier this year, Spotify launched a test to verify your home address. However, this was quickly scrubbed due to privacy concerns.
Spotify’s family plan requires two to five members to live at the same address. It also has rules about sharing the family plan with friends. The company has also tried to limit the number of family plan subscribers. It is unclear if it will eventually cancel these accounts.
Spotify has started verifying the addresses of those that have a premium family account. It has also updated its terms of service for family plan accounts. This suggests that it is not going to abandon its location sharing requirement anytime soon.
As part of the verification process, Spotify will check if your account is connected to a Wi-Fi address in your household. It will then ask you to re-verify your home address. This is to check for fraud. If you do not verify your home address, you will lose access to your premium family plan.
The new rule may have some positives and some negatives. For example, it might drive customers to competitors that offer lenient family plans. It is also unclear how strict these requirements are.
As for the competition, Apple Music doesn’t require a family to be in the same house. Tidal offers a very lenient family plan. The only thing that is not so lenient is the number of users that can be included in a family plan. You can have as many as six premium accounts for $15 a month.
It’s hard to tell how long Spotify will remain competitive, but it seems that the company is doing whatever it can to keep its users happy.
Cost
Earlier this year, Spotify announced that it will be updating its family plan rules. This new policy will make it harder for family members to share their subscription costs.
It is also likely that Spotify will encourage customers to switch to a competitor’s more lenient family plan. This could lead to a lot of switching and may affect Spotify’s bottom line. Despite these changes, it is still possible for you to find a cheaper premium plan. You should try a free trial before making any decision.
In addition to updating its family plan rules, Spotify will also be asking users to verify their address periodically. This will involve using GPS data to confirm your home location. This has caused controversy and has drawn criticism from privacy advocates.
If you move, you will lose access to your Spotify account. If your address does not meet the new criteria, you will be removed from your family plan. You will no longer be able to add your friends to your family plan.
If you do not want to give Spotify location data, you can opt out. However, it is important to note that this will only be used for verification. If you don’t, you will have to purchase a more expensive individual premium plan.
It is worth noting that some streaming services, such as Tidal, do not require users to provide their location information. Instead, they provide ad-free music downloads for a low monthly price.
If you choose to cancel your Spotify subscription, you will need to contact customer support to update your account. If you’re unsure whether you’re a member of a family plan, you can call the company’s customer service.
Sharing with friends
Streaming service Spotify has decided to enforce some rules on its family plan. Apparently, they are trying to curb the practice of sharing the service with friends. It seems that Spotify wants to discourage the sharing of family plans, mainly because it costs the company money.
According to Billboard, nearly half of all streaming customers are on some type of family plan. Those who choose to share a family plan with their friends will pay less per person than those who get individual subscriptions. However, that doesn’t mean that friends who live together can’t abuse the feature.
It’s not exactly clear how Spotify enforces the rules on its family plan. It’s possible that they use geotagging to show your friends’ music choices. They may also use your location for other reasons, like checking your address.
It appears that Spotify has started asking its users to verify their addresses, a move that has garnered criticism from privacy advocates. They will do this through an email invitation. In addition to asking you to prove your address, they’ll periodically check it with Google Maps.
Although Spotify doesn’t require that all family members live in the same house, they do want to make sure that you’re not using the service to commit fraud. If you fail to confirm your address, you will be barred from sharing the service with your family. Moreover, you can’t remove your own family members from your account.
In August, Spotify updated their terms of service. They’ve said that they use GPS data to verify your address, but they don’t tell you how. They may also ask you to re-verify your home address at some point in the future. This is likely to make some family plan subscribers switch to competing services that don’t require you to live with your family.
Group Sessions
Streaming music service Spotify has just announced a new feature – Group Session. This will allow two or more Premium subscribers to share playback control. This is a step up from the collaborative playlists that Spotify has offered in the past.
The new feature is available to all Premium users worldwide when the rollout is complete. It’s the first of a number of Group Sessions that Spotify is planning to roll out in the future.
In addition to being a party mode, the Group Session feature also lets you control what’s playing. You can add songs, pause and skip tracks, or hide tracks from your playlist. You can even choose a theme for the night.
Initially, only two to five users can join a Spotify group session at any given time. If you want to play music for more than five people, you’ll need a Spotify Premium account.
The Group Session link can be shared with friends and family. The URL is a handy way to share your playlists with a group of people. The group can then listen to the content in real time. The Group Session link is also handy for long-distance couples who want to listen to music together.
The Group Session feature is available only on the mobile version of the Spotify app. It’s been in testing since last year.
The new Group Session feature is a step up from the collaborative playlists Spotify has offered in the past. You can choose a theme for the night, and everyone in the group can control what’s playing.
The Group Session feature is still in beta. It’s not a perfect solution.
Streaming quality
Those who are considering using a streaming service like Spotify should be aware of the rules for streaming quality. These rules can vary from service to service. Generally, it is best to stick with a service that uses lossy compression for audio streams. That way, you won’t rack up extra data.
The most popular music streaming services use lossy compression to reduce storage space. In other words, they discard bits of data that are not distinguishable from the rest of the track. While the lossy compression used by these services is more efficient than the Ogg codec, it is not a perfect option.
Depending on your internet connection, you can stream music from Spotify at anywhere from 96 Kbps to 320 Kbps. While the quality can be improved through normalization, you cannot change the bitrate.
If you want to listen to music in high quality, you need to upgrade your plan. You can do this by paying $10 a month or by committing to a Premium tier. If you opt for the Premium tier, you’ll get 320 Kbps streaming for desktop or mobile.
Spotify also offers four fixed playback tiers: Low (24 Kbps), Normal (96 Kbps), High (160 Kbps) and Very High (320 Kbps). You can use these tiers to adjust the audio quality on your device. The Normal tier covers most of the music’s dynamic range. However, if you’re listening to orchestral or film tracks, the Quiet setting is better.
For a family of three, it’s best to go with the Premium Family plan. It works out to $8 per person. It includes a one-month free trial.
The Premium plan also allows for explicit content filters. It will delete downloaded songs after 30 days.