Free audiobook listening time for all Premium members

[SamBuzz]

While I'm grateful for the move to bring audiobooks to Spotify, the exclusive benefit of free audiobooks for the "plan manager" in duo and family memberships seems unjust. It diminishes the premium experience for other members who pay the same amount as their friends and family but don't enjoy the full premium benefits. 

I acknowledge the cost-effectiveness of duo and family memberships, but the solution to a fairer listening experience could be to distribute the 15 hours among all members in your party. This way, duo members, for instance, would get 7.5 hours free—a reasonable compromise for the reduced cost.

It ensures fairness to all users and gives users the option to customise their audiobook time based on their plan size and budget.

[ForWhomTheBellTolls]

As an avid audiobook listener, 15 hours is about 1-2 books of the books I listen to. It's unfathomable that you can't afford to give every member - regardless of the plan - 15 hours each to use per month. To give that to just one member of a Duo or Family plan is a waste of time. If you're too poor to offer it to multiple members on an account, then just stop offering it to anyone.                                                                                                                                                                           

[Countrygrl97]

I as plan manager would be willing to add at least one or more member as a tiered package to utilize audiobooks. I see a lot of plan managers saying this for all members in their premium/duo account but in mine not all members would utilize this feature. I would be nice to be able to use one service for music and audiobooks and make it easier to remember one bill than multiple.

[AlejaR]

Updated on 2023-11-25

Hey @ForWhomTheBellTolls,

Thanks for bringing your feedback to the Idea Exchange!

We’re closing this idea since it doesn’t meet one of our Idea Exchange guidelines, namely point 7: “No pricing, subscription or content related requests".

We'll be closing this idea, as it would require changing a subscription tier and we cannot influence those as per our guidelines.

Feel free to submit your idea(s) again, making sure that it adheres to the above guidelines.

Thanks for understanding.

[Noahr7]

Agree with the above comments. As a good gesture to your premium members, how about at least offering credits or refunds for Members who purchase audiobooks until this gets sorted out?

[AlysRose]

I find pretty absurd that the post has to have a certain number of votes for Spotify to consider something that should be there in the first place. Especially considering that pretty much no one knows about this forum and the vote thing.

I don't even understand how Spotify could have come up with the idea that only the plan manager can have all the premium benefits.

It's totally unfair. My partner and I have the duo membership and we pay half each but he can't listen to audiobooks.

Please consider doing this without waiting for people to vote this post. It's the right and obvious thing to do.

[KGuerra29]

Hi there,

I have the Duo Premium Plan for my partner and I. I am the one who manages the account and received notice from Spotify of the new Audiobook feature - a fantastic idea and great addition!!! 🙂

However, my partner and I travel often solo, as a family or separately with our kids to the next school event, sport event, etc and utilize Spotify often. One of our goals we set for ourselves recently is to "read" more but since we're always on the go, we thought this feature would be great. We realized though, the audiobook feature is ONLY for the primary account holder (me) and is not extended to her. We are pretty disappointed and do hope that Spotify will extend this feature for my partner and for other Duo/Family Premium Plans in this same boat.

If this is something that Spotify will not be extending anytime in the near future, please let me know so that I can coordinate with cancelling my subscription. Thank you for your time and consideration on this matter. I hope to hear from someone soon.

Warm Regards,

Kelly

[Jsnarski]

Hi! I am so happy to see that you are offering free audiobook time on the premium membership! My husband and I share a duo membership, and we feel like we are “being honest” by paying for the duo instead of sharing one membership. I was really disappointed to learn that as the duo “member”, I won’t be able to listen to any of the free audiobook hours. I commute daily, and was very excited about this new feature! It seems like if you are in a duo membership, and paying for two members, you should either each get 15 hours of free audio time, or at least be able to share the hours on the duo account. Excited for the change, but disappointed I’ll not be able to use it. Thanks for taking into consideration my input!

[Castro2006]

Yes.. thats why i pay premium so me n my family can have full access this is Bull!!!

[Jmanrique12]

I feel deceived after agreeing to a Premium Duo plan with my Husband. The advertising for the plan makes it seem like both Premium account users will have access to all of the same things, but we don't. I cannot use Audiobooks! My Husband, the account manager (apparently the only user who can use Audiobooks) doesn't even use them!! If Spotify doesn't allow all Premium members equal access to everything then why even have the Duo account option? Additionally, if Spotify is not going to change this policy, they should at the very least allow for account managers to "gift" their monthly audiobook hours to the other Duo account member.

[bobdhall]

I couldn’t agree more. I would like to suggest that Spotify either allow a duo membership to be enjoyed by both members or provide the ability to transfer the plan manager role to the other member. My wife would enjoy the 15 hours of free audiobook access far more than me, yet she is not permitted to do so under your present policy. This seems unfair. Please consider revising this policy. Thank you.