Spotify has confirmed that it is asking some Premium Family members to scan a QR code with the person who manages the plan, and that the checks will keep going. Co-CEO Alex Norström addressed it on the company’s earnings call on 22 October, calling it a “routine improvement of our verification methods”.
The point is to prove that everyone on a Family plan lives at the same address. A member who is flagged gets seven days to finish the scan. Miss it and they fall back to the free tier, and every other Family or Duo plan is closed to them for a year.
How the scan works
Spotify’s help page says both people have to be in the same place, and the check works only in the mobile app. Reports from users say the manager opens the code from the profile picture, then Your Premium, then Manage, while the member scans it from a pop-up on their own phone.
The QR step sits alongside the older address check, where members enter their home address on joining, after the manager changes address, or whenever Spotify can’t verify it. A failed address check carries the same year-long restriction.
No end date
Asked on the call about a crackdown, Norström rejected the word and said the work “is not something that has an end date”, adding that the Family plan has existed for 12 to 13 years and is a large part of the subscriber base, according to 9to5Google’s account of the call. Neither Spotify nor that report says which countries are being checked or how many members have received the prompt.
Family plans in Pakistan
Spotify sells Premium Family in Pakistan. Its Pakistan Premium page lists Rs. 679 a month for up to six accounts “residing at the same address”, against Rs. 379 for Individual and Rs. 519 for Duo. We couldn’t confirm whether the QR prompt has reached Pakistani accounts yet.
Anyone sharing a plan with relatives in another city should expect the same rule to apply: the terms require a shared address. The Individual plan stays open to someone who is removed.
