Someone should probably inform Spotify that the “traditional” definition of what a family is has been changing the past decades and that it doesn’t necessarily mean people living in the same house. Apparently, the music streaming giant is checking up on its Premium for Family users and asking them to confirm their home address through GPS. They even use the threat of losing access to the plan if users do not respond. Obviously, a lot of users are not that happy about this latest development.
To be fair, it’s clearly stated on the Spotify website that to avail of the Premium for Family plan, two to five people that are added to the plan must live in the same house. Obviously, not everyone who avails of the plan, which ranges from $14.99 – $29.99 depending on the number of users, live in the same house. Probably not everyone are family members even. But nevertheless, even if you’re related, it doesn’t necessarily mean you are residing in the same house.
It seems like Spotify wants to make sure that all the users under the family plan are indeed related and living in the same residence. They’ve been sending out notifications to users in the US, asking them to confirm their home address through GPS data, And if you don’t respond or confirm, “you may lose access to the plan.” They just want to confirm the information so that you can avail of the huge discount that they offer for the Premium for Family plan.
Aside from the aforementioned issue about family members not living in the same house, there’s also the issue about privacy and security. When you click on the link in the email, it will lead you to a series of pages that explain why Spotify is doing this and that they will only be using your GPS data to verify your location “and nothing else.” But in this age where leaks and phishing activity is so prevalent, it’s not surprising that people are skeptical.
Password and account sharing has been a major concern from streaming services like Spotify, Netflix, Hulu, etc. This is probably one of the reasons why they are cracking down on those who don’t live in the same house. But they will probably lose even more subscribers if they start policing their users’ password activity. Let’s see if this “hostile user experience” will affect Spotify’s user base eventually.
VIA: Quartzy
