Spotify has commenced the crackdown on its Premium family plan users so as to reduce the revenue leakage occurring from fraud and abuse. Some family plan users share their log-in details with people who are not necessarily part of their family.
It is estimated that Spotify loses a lot of money from family plan users. Last year, a Billboard report claimed that nearly half of all streaming customers were on family plans, which cost far less per user than the standard $10-per-month individual plans. The Premium Family plan is $15 a month for up to six people. This means that sharing the plan with non-family members will see each person paying as little as $2.50 for its services.
So Spotify updated its its terms and conditions for Premium Family subscribers, requiring that they provide location data “from time to time” to ensure that customers are actually all in the same family.
The family plan new terms rolled out first on Aug. 19 in Ireland and on Sept. 5 in the US.
The company tested this initiative last year and asked for exact GPS coordinates but had to stop the pilot program because of customers complaints, according to TechCrunch. Customers were not comfortable sharing their exact (GPS) location. Now it intends on rolling the location data requests out fully, reigniting privacy concerns and raising the question of how much is too much when it comes to your personal information.
Now if you fail to meet the criteria of living at the same address, Spotify notes that it can terminate or suspend your family plan.
