Premium Family plan does not work well with Sonos. Playback is getting paused.

[SzymonW]

I have Premium Family plan and Sonos sound system at home. I linked my Spotify account to Sonos. When at work I listen Spotify on mobile, but whenever my wife starts Spotify on Sonos that pauses my playback and I got message: "Spotify has been paused because your account is used somewhere else". My wife has her own Spotify account under my Family plan, but obviously Sonos app can be linked only to one of our accounts. Relinking the Spotify account to Sonos everytime we want to use Sonos will be a huge pain. So what are my options? 

Do I need to have 3rd Spotify account? Ideally I would like Sonos to be always linked to either mine or her account and never get my playback paused by Spotify regardless if single account is used simultaneously.

How is similar constraint handled by Apple Music or Google Play?

[joensson]

I know this is an old thread, but for others having the same question.

Yes, you can add multiple Spotify accounts to Sonos.

Note, that by default Sonos will continue to use whatever user was selected in the previous playback session. So it is up to the user at your house to remember selecting their own user when starting playback on the Sonos.

https://sonos.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/2768

This also means that if you were at home and started playback with your user, went to work the next day - and your wife got home and simply tapped the play button on the speaker - it would continue playing using your account.

Another 'feature' is that if both you and your wife add to a shared playlist the Sonos will remember which account added a given track to the playlist, and when that track is played it will use whatever account that added it - even though the Sonos app shows your wife as the currently selected user in this case, it still uses whatever account was used when adding the number to the playlist.

So even if your wife at home remember to switch accounts in the app, you (or your wife) can still get the spotify error about "your account is being used elsewhere", if one of the tracks you added to the playlist is being played while she is signed in and you are using Spotify at work.

[rf94z]

This doesn't really answer the question. Sure, Spotify on Sonos can support two accounts, but the Premium Family account is one account. It can't be added a second time. When Sonos is using Spotify and Spotify is started on another device, it'll stop on Sonos using a Premium Family account. There doesn't seem to be a workaround for this. Sonos is the only reason to have a Premium Family account for me, so I'll be canceling it.

[Lyubka]

Hey @rf94z,

Thank you for your reply in this thread. 

We thing that there might be a misunderstanding here. Each person on the Premium Family plan uses their own account, this is not only one account. Only one person though (the plan manager) can invite/remove members and manage plan payments.  More info on how Premium Family works you can find in this support article.

Currently, you can log in and listen to Spotify on as many devices as you like, but you can only play on one device at a time with one account. 

Hope this clear things up! If you have any other questions or need anything else, the Community is here for you.