What Spotify’s New QR Code Check Means for Family Plan Members

Some Spotify Family plan members are being told to prove they live with the person who pays for the plan by scanning a QR code. According to 9to5Google, those who miss a 7-day window drop to the free tier and cannot join another Family or Duo plan for 12 months.

Spotify describes the process on a support page, and users on Reddit have reported receiving the prompts, according to 9to5Google and autoevolution. Spotify has not publicly announced a broader crackdown, autoevolution noted.

What it means for people on a shared Family plan

A plan member who gets a notification has 7 days to finish the check. Both people must be in the same place, because the plan manager shows the code on their phone and the member scans it with a phone camera, according to the sources.

The manager finds the code by tapping their profile picture, then Your Premium, then Manage, according to Spotify's instructions as relayed by 9to5Google and PCMag.

Members who do not complete the scan in time are automatically moved to the free plan, 9to5Google reported. They can still choose another plan at Spotify's Premium page, including an Individual plan. They cannot join a different Family or Duo plan for 12 months.

The rule is aimed at people who share a plan across households. One Reddit user quoted by autoevolution said they had shared a plan with relatives for about 7 years and had lived far from them for the last 6. Another said two brothers on their plan live in a different state.

Who is being asked to verify

It is not clear how widely the check is being applied. Autoevolution reported that several Reddit users with relatives living elsewhere said their plans still worked normally and they had received no re-verification email. The outlet said the rollout could be an experiment, or it could target accounts Spotify flagged for certain reasons, though it said there was not enough data to know.

Spotify's terms say the Family plan is for “family members residing at the same address,” according to autoevolution. 9to5Google also noted that the Family plan terms require users to live in the same household.

The cost of splitting a plan

The financial stakes explain why sharing is common. In the U.S., Premium Individual costs $12.99 per month and Duo, which covers 2 accounts, costs $18.99, according to autoevolution. The Family plan costs $21.99 per month for up to 6 accounts. Autoevolution put the per-account cost on a full plan at $3.66.

PCMag said that splitting a Family plan among even a few people can cut the cost considerably compared with individual subscriptions.

How the check works and how users are getting around it

The code is designed to be hard to reuse. Reddit users told 9to5Google it changes every few seconds, which makes a screenshot unreliable. Autoevolution put the refresh rate at 3 seconds, so members must scan the code live.

Users have already reported a workaround. According to 9to5Google, PCMag and autoevolution, the manager opens the code on one phone and video-calls the member, who scans it from the screen with a second device. PCMag said each person needs separate devices for the code and the video call. Autoevolution speculated that Spotify may eventually close that gap, but the company has not said so.

How this fits with earlier checks

PCMag described the QR code as Spotify's second major attempt to limit Family plan sharing. The service already asks members to confirm they share the manager's address. 9to5Google reported that those address checks carry the same 12-month ban, though it said the QR method is considerably harder to get around.

Autoevolution also linked the move to a wider trend. It said Google has been restricting YouTube Premium Family access to people who live at the same location as the administrator, with users who fail verification demoted to the ad-supported tier.

What to watch next

Spotify has not said how many accounts will see the prompt or whether it plans a wider rollout. Users who receive a notification have 7 days from when it first appears to act, according to Spotify's support page as reported by 9to5Google.

Sources: 9to5Google, autoevolution, PCMag Australia