Spotify is asking some Premium Family members to prove they live with the plan manager by scanning a QR code in person. According to Digital Trends, anyone who gets the request has 7 days to finish the check. Members who don’t are removed from the plan, drop to the free tier and can’t join another Family or Duo plan for 12 months.
How does the Spotify QR code check work?
Spotify’s help page says Family plans have always required members to share the manager’s address. What’s new is how some members get checked. Beyond the address form, certain members may be asked to verify with a QR code instead. Here’s the official process:
- The plan manager opens the Spotify mobile app, taps their profile picture, then Your Premium, then Manage, where the QR code shows up.
- The member points their own phone’s camera at the code.
- Both people have to be in the same place, and the scan has to happen within 7 days of the notification.
It only works in the mobile app, and both phones need the latest version. The code changes every few seconds, so the scan has to be done in person.
What happens if you miss it?
Miss the 7-day window, or fail the check, and you’re removed from the plan and moved to the free version. The penalty goes further: for 12 months from the date of the failure, you can’t join any other Family or Duo plan. You can rejoin the same plan you left, and you can pick another kind of plan, such as an individual one, at spotify.com/premium.
What about the address check?
The QR code sits alongside the address check, which also applies when someone joins a plan, when the manager changes the address, or when Spotify can’t confirm the address on file. In that case the member gets an email and the same 7 days to verify again. Pass, and you stay on Premium Family. Fail, and you go to the free tier.
Two rules from Spotify’s support page are worth remembering: only addresses in the country where your payment method was issued are accepted, and you can’t use someone else’s address. If autocomplete doesn’t find your street, type the full address and select Find. If that still fails, choose the nearest building, street or public space.
What if the scan doesn’t work?
Spotify’s troubleshooting tips are short:
- Make sure both phones are running the latest version of the app.
- Check that the date and time are correct on both devices.
- Close and reopen the app.
- Scan in person from the manager’s screen, not from a photo or screenshot.
Should you worry about missing it?
The weak spot is the notice itself. On Spotify’s community forum, users describe missing the deadline because the notification arrived by email and went unseen. So check the inbox and spam folder of the email tied to the account, especially if a member lives far from the manager, like a kid in a college dorm in another state or a relative overseas. In those cases, plan a day to be together or ask the manager to travel with the code, and you avoid a year-long lockout.
If you share the plan with people from other households, you have three options: keep it as is and risk the check, move each person to an individual plan, or reshuffle who lives where. Before you decide, compare plan prices on Spotify’s official page, since they vary by country and change over time.
The message from Spotify is plain: a family plan is meant for people who share a home, and the company wants to confirm it in practice. If subscription costs are on your mind, see how Netflix raised prices in Brazil, and if you listen to music on Spotify, you may also like our look at Deezer’s AI music filter.
