Spotify's New QR Check Could Ban You From Family Plans for a Year
Splitting a Spotify Premium Family plan with friends across town just got a lot harder, as Spotify has started asking some Premium Family members to prove they live with the plan manager by scanning a QR code in person. The check, which began reaching users around October 19, is laid out on Spotify's Family plan verification support page. Members who miss it can be shut out of every other Family and Duo plan for a full year.
The plan manager opens the Spotify mobile app, taps their profile picture, then goes to Your Premium and Manage to bring up the code. The member scans it with their phone camera. Both people need to be in the same place, because the code refreshes every few seconds. That detail is the whole point: a screenshot sent over a group chat will likely expire before anyone can use it. Spotify also says the check only works in the mobile app, so a manager who handles billing from a laptop will need the app on their phone.
Members get seven days from the time the notification arrives to complete the scan. If they miss that window or can't finish the verification, Spotify's support page says they can't join a different Family or Duo plan for 12 months. Reports add that those members drop to Spotify's free, ad-supported tier. They can still buy their own Premium plan, such as Individual, from Spotify's Premium page during that year.
The QR step doesn't replace Spotify's older address check. Members are still asked to enter the plan manager's full home address when they join, when the manager moves, or when Spotify can't confirm a match. The difference is that an address can be borrowed, while being in the same room can't. Under the old system, anyone who knew the manager's address could usually pass from anywhere.
The support page describes it as something Spotify may ask of some members, which points to a targeted or gradual rollout rather than a sweep of every Family account at once.
Netflix took a similar approach in 2023, restricting password sharing and charging $7.99 a month for members outside the household. Despite complaints, they gained 5.9 million subscribers in the second quarter and 8.8 million in the third. Spotify doesn't offer a paid add-on for people outside the household, but the goal appears similar: encourage users sharing accounts to pay for their own subscriptions.
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