Spotify cracks down on family plan sharing

Spotify's Premium for Family plan is a good deal: $15 a month snags you up to six ad-free accounts on the service, which would normally cost $10 each. It's not a surprise, then, that people have been sharing the accounts among friends to save a few bucks. Now Spotify appears to be cracking down on the practice.

According to the terms of the Premium for Family account, people sharing a family account are required to reside at the same address. The German news site Spiegel Online reports that Spotify has begun sending emails to some Premium for Family subscribers asking for confirmation of their home address. If they do not comply, the email says they could lose access to their plan.

While the Premium for Family plan is certainly a way for friends to save some money by going in on a plan together, it's also true that many families do not live in the same household. What's more, some people are concerned about Spotify's request for this kind of personal data and see it as an intrusion of privacy.

This moves comes on the heels of Spotify's crackdown on the usage of hacked apps to bypass ads for free users. Clearly the company is concerned about the bottom line, especially with a recent Billboard report that states that, though Spotify's user base is steadily growing, its revenue is shrinking. The report points specifically to family plans as the reason.

Via: The Verge

Source: Spiegel Online



via Engadget RSS Feed https://ift.tt/2OVGMK9
RSS Feed

If New feed item from http://www.engadget.com/rss-full.xml, then send me


Unsubscribe from these notifications or sign in to manage your Email Applets.

IFTTT

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Evernote cuts staff as user growth stalls

Image
Note-taking app Evernote has fallen on hard times of late, culminating in its latest spate of job cuts impacting 15 percent of its workforce (54 employees). CEO Chris O' Neil -- an ex-Googler who took the reins in 2015 -- announced the firings at an all-hands meeting earlier today, reports TechCrunch . In a message on the Evernote blog , O' Neill admitted he'd set "incredibly aggressive goals" for the company in 2018. He continued: "Going forward, we are streamlining certain functions, like sales, so we can continue to speed up and scale others, like product development and engineering." The layoffs follow an exec exodus just weeks ago and the company's recent brand refresh (complete with a refined logo and wordmark). But critics are more concerned about its product, especially the free tier, which they claim lacks the perks to...
Read more

The best air conditioner

Image
By Liam McCabe This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter . When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read the full article here . After six summers of researching, testing, and recommending window air conditioners, we've learned that quiet and affordable ACs make most people the happiest—and we think the LG LW8016ER will fit the bill in most rooms. This 8,000 Btu unit cools as efficiently and effectively as any model with an equal Btu rating, and runs at a lower volume and deeper pitch than others at this price. Little extra features like a fresh-air vent, two-axis fan blades, and a removable drain plug help set it apart, too. The LG LW8016ER is a top choice for an office or den, and some people will find it quiet enough for a bedroom, too. If our main pic...
Read more

We won't see a 'universal' vape oil cartridge anytime soon

Image
Pre-loaded cartridges of cannabis concentrate are currently among the most popular means of consumption, and for good reason. They're discreet to use and easy to handle, a far cry from the dark days of 2016 when we had to dribble hash oil or load wax into narrow-mouthed vape pens by hand. But, frustratingly, an ever increasing number of oil cartridge manufacturers employ one-off design standards so that their products won't work with those of their competitors, thereby locking customers into proprietary ecosystems. We've already seen this with nicotine vaporizers -- which has a seen a massive rise in "pod systems" in the last few years, each outfitted with a unique canister and battery built to be incompatible with those of their competition. Is it too late for the burgeoning cannabis industry to set a universal standard for their product designs? ...
Read more