Spotify Family Plan Guide: Price, Features, How It Works

Looking to save money on your music streaming without giving up your own playlists? The Spotify Family Plan offers a budget-friendly solution so that six people can share one subscription.

However, without sacrificing your independent control over your account, each person keeps their own account and personalized experience. Money-saving and personalization? All in one.

What Is the Spotify Family Plan?

The Spotify Family Plan is a subscription option ($19.99/Mon.) that allows up to 6 people living at the same address to share one premium plan. Each member gets their own separate account with full access to Spotify Premium features: ad-free listening, offline downloads, unlimited skips, and more.

The Family Plan also includes some extra perks. For example, it gives access to Spotify Kids, a standalone app designed with parental controls and age-appropriate content. It may also include a selection of Spotify Audiobooks, depending on your region and subscription level.

If you’re only interested in music and don’t need audiobooks, there’s a slightly cheaper version of the Family Plan in some regions that doesn’t include audiobook credits.

Spotify Subscription Prices: Family vs. Other Plans

Note: The Student Plan is priced at $5.99 per month but requires verification through a third party called SheerID. Only actively enrolled students qualify. This could be a bit tricky. Moreover, the Spotify Family Plan is obviously cheaper than the Student Plan.

Still weighing? Remember, factors like audio quality and library size matter, too. Except for comparison horizontally inside Spotify itself, you can also make a comparison vertically, like checking information in Amazon Music VS Spotify.

How Does Spotify Family Plan Work?

One thing many users care about is how each separate account works or co-works.

Well, each member enjoys their own separate account, which means personal playlists, recommendations, and listening history stay private and tailored to their tastes. This setup ensures everyone gets a fully personalized experience without overlapping or sharing music libraries.

Each account can be used on up to five different devices, providing flexibility to listen on smartphones, tablets, computers, or other supported devices without needing to log in and out constantly.

Want to Share One Spotify Account Across Multiple Devices?

One key requirement of the Spotify Family Plan is that all members must reside at the same address. This rule helps Spotify ensure the plan is used by actual families rather than unrelated groups sharing an account.

While Spotify does conduct occasional checks, such as verifying addresses through account settings or monitoring device locations, the enforcement tends to be relatively relaxed in practice.

However, if a member frequently logs in from a different city or country, Spotify may flag the account and could limit or remove access to maintain compliance with their policies.

While VPNs can’t perfectly replicate a home address, using a reliable VPN like LightningX VPN to connect through servers in the same general area may help reduce location mismatches and lower the chance of being flagged.

That said, it’s important to understand that using a VPN doesn’t guarantee full compliance with Spotify’s rules. However, LightningX VPN can still be a valuable tool. It not only manages location issues but also protects your online privacy and secures your internet connection, especially if multiple members use Spotify across different devices and places.

And sharing a single Spotify account means sharing the same playlists, listening history, and recommendations. This can cause problems because everyone’s music tastes get mixed together, making the listening experience often less enjoyable than with separate accounts.

How to Invite Members to Join

Getting people onto your Spotify Family Plan is pretty simple. As the account owner, you’ll find an option to send an invite link right inside your Spotify settings.

Once someone clicks on it, they just need to log into their Spotify account or sign up if they don’t have one yet.

If a family member moves out or stops using the plan, you can remove them from your account dashboard and invite someone new. Keep in mind, though, that swapping members too often might have some restrictions, so it’s good to keep track of who’s on your plan.

Key Features & Benefits of the Family Plan

For starters, no ads, just uninterrupted music. Each user gets full access to the option to download music for offline listening, which is super useful for travel or simply saving on mobile data.

In some regions, the plan also includes access to audiobooks, though availability and credit limits may vary depending on the version of the plan.

Families with younger listeners can take advantage of parental controls. It lets families set boundaries on what younger members can access, including a separate Spotify Kids app designed for age-appropriate content.

Collaborative playlists give everyone a chance to shape the household’s listening experience, from everyday background music to special events. Billing stays under one account, which helps keep things organized and straightforward.

Here’s a short list:

• Ad-Free Listening: Enjoy music without ads getting in the way.
• Offline Downloads: Users can save songs to listen to (even when they’re offline).
• Audiobook Access: Some plans include audiobooks, though availability depends on where you live.
• Parental Controls: Gives parents tools to limit what kids can hear, plus a separate Spotify Kids app.
• Collaborative Playlists: Family members can all add songs to shared playlists.
• Centralized Billing: One payment covers the whole family, keeping things simple.

How to Sign Up for Spotify Family Plan

Just follow these steps to set things up:

1. Open the Spotify website or app.

2. Click your profile icon (on the top right corner of this page) and select “Account”.

3. Choose “Manage your subscription”.

4. Choose “Join Premium”.

5. Scroll down and find “Premium Family” and click “Get Premium Family”.

6.Confirm your home address and select payment method (Credit or debit card/ PayPal): Spotify requires you to enter your address to verify household eligibility.

7. If you have an existing Premium plan, upgrade: In most cases, Spotify will handle the switch automatically.

8. Cancel manually if billed through a third party: If you subscribed via Apple, Google, or a mobile provider, cancel that plan first.

If you’re unsure whether your existing subscription needs to be canceled before switching, it’s best to check your billing source. We’ve outlined the process in “How to Cancel Spotify Premium”.

Upgrading to the Family Plan doesn’t affect your playlists, saved music, or recommendations. All user data stays the same – you’re only changing the plan type.

(Occasionally, users encounter small glitches after switching plans. Learning how to clear Spotify cache often resolves these issues.)

Spotify Family vs. Individual Plan: Which One’s Better?

Choosing between Spotify’s Family and Individual plans depends mostly on how many people will be using the service.

The Individual Plan works well if you mostly listen alone and prefer managing your music independently.

The Family Plan, meanwhile, is ideal for families or roommates who share a household but want to keep their tastes separate. Beyond cost savings, the Family Plan includes parental controls, which can be helpful for families with kids.

One practical difference is device usage: while the Individual Plan allows streaming on one device at a time, the Family Plan supports simultaneous streaming on different devices for all members. This means no more interruptions when multiple people want to listen at once.

For Individual Plan users looking to share music, Spotify Codes provide a quick way to send songs or playlists to friends without sharing full accounts. It’s a neat workaround for sharing music socially while keeping your account private.

Alternatively, Spotify also offers Spotify Sessions, which let multiple users listen together in real time, synchronizing playback and even allowing collaborative playlist control. Check how to start a Spotify session.

FAQ – Common Questions You Might Have

Q: Can one person use a Family Plan just to save money?

Technically, the Family Plan is meant for people living at the same address. While some users share the plan with friends or strangers to split costs, this practice goes against Spotify’s terms of service.

Additionally, Spotify may occasionally check addresses or device locations, and accounts found violating the rules risk being removed from the plan.

Q: Can family members import their playlists from another account?

Each Spotify account is independent, so playlists don’t transfer automatically. However, users can manually share playlists by following or exporting them using third-party tools. Everyone keeps their own music library separate.

Q: Are parental restrictions easy to manage?

Spotify provides straightforward parental controls through the Family Plan. The plan owner can create a separate Spotify Kids account with curated, age-appropriate content, making it simple to control what younger listeners access.

Q: How does Spotify verify the “same household” rule?

Spotify verifies this primarily through the address provided at signup and may use device location data periodically. Enforcement varies, but repeated use from different locations can lead to account restrictions.

Final Verdict: Is Spotify Family Plan Worth It?

The Spotify Family Plan delivers strong value by combining multiple accounts into one subscription without compromising personalization. It’s a practical and convenient option for anyone wanting to share costs while keeping their own music tastes separate.