Audiobooks and plan manager

[KJS81]

I want to start listening to audiobooks on my premium family plan, but have just discovered my husband is our plan manager and so only he can.  He has no interest in audiobooks.  This is absolutely ridiculous that we can't make use of a feature we're paying for and it seems that there's no quickfix to change plan manager, a simple feature you'd expect.  Spotify you need to either grant all members in a plan access to the same 'premium' features or make it easier to change plan manager.  I'm very tempted to cancel our plan because of this and seek an alternative provider.  Had a few issues with Spotify recently and this is the icing on the cake. 

I can see that many others have complained about this for months now and yet Spotify cares so little about their customers that nothing has changed.  Awful.

[Billy-J · Accepted solution]

Hey @KJS81, thanks for reaching out to the Community!

I am sorry to hear that you feel this way. I will make sure to pass your feedback on to the right teams, and you can always create a new Idea about this here as it does reach Spotify's internal teams. 

It is correct that only the plan's manager who has access to audiobook listening time included with the plan. Unfortunately, there isn't a way to change the plan manager of any of the shared plans (Premium Family, Duo). However, the plan's manager can cancel the plan, and then a different member (for example, you), could start a new plan as the manager and invite the other members to the plan (and the current plan's manager would be a member).

The plan manager can cancel the plan following these steps but keep in mind that all members on that plan will also be reverted to Spotify Free. For additional information on audiobooks included in Premium plans, check out this page. 

There are some options for members as well, but they are only available in select markets at the moment. If you're in a region where they're live, you can check out this page, as well as this one for more info.

I hope this helps. 

[Joshfriday]

By canceling the plan and creating a new one would that erase all info associated with the old account? Playlists, liked songs, etc…

[Novy]

Hey there @Joshfriday,

Thanks for reaching out!

No worries, cancelling or switching your subscription won't cause you to lose any of your saved content. If your account reverts to the free service, you'll lose your downloads though, but that's about it. You can re-download everything once you're back on Premium. 

In addition to that, keep in mind that Family/Duo members can only switch plans once every 12 months.

Hope this helps. If anything else comes up, the Community will be here.

Cheers!

[#5]

I want to share an audiobook with a family member on my plan. Why can't this be done. Seems ridiculous

[upinatem]

So, we're forced to pay more for audiobooks on Family Plans because there's no way to switch to a Family Basic plan anymore (at least not on our account) but then only one person on the family plan can actually use it.

Spotify, I hate you so bad. Such a scumbag company. Switching to Apple Music, full stop.

[aaroncuyler]

Spotify, 

I have seen multiple threads/ideas about this. I know that the Ideas portal for alot of companies is where customer suggestions go to die or never be addressed. Please can you make this not the case for audiobooks? If we are paying extra to add members then all the features of Spotify should be available. It's ridiculous to make a family member get a individual account just to have audio books. 

Thanks, 

[aslll]

This is an absolutely ridiculous and, frankly, outrageous feature. Not only because of the limited access, it also touches on the concept of privacy. As a Duo member, and an independent adult, I need the approval of my husband (plan manager) everytime when I want to listen to an audiobook. Therefore my husband knows everything that I'm listening to. It's absolutely ridiculous. I know something about app design, so I know it's not a technical issue, it can be solved easily. I understand the concerns from parents, but you can simply add a parental control option over kids account under the same Family/Duo plan. I really don't understand why you chose to design it in this way. It's an unnecessary headache for users. 

[Mic_17_uk]

I'll echo my displeasure of this. I'm plan manager but have no interest in audiobooks. My 12 year old son asked me if he could listen to an audiobook. I said, audiobooks are included in premium and each of us has premium in the family plan. Turns out only I have premium and the rest of my family have only some of premium.

I see the suggestion above about changing the plan manager to the person who wants to listen to audiobooks. Would you suggest I make my 12 year old the plan manager?? What would you suggest Spotify? 

[sallycatriona]

Hey all, I don't know if this helps but it's really easy to have two Spotify profiles logged into one device. My mum is the plan manager but I'm the audiobook fiend so I have her account and my account simultaneously logged in on my phone. If I want to listen to an audiobook I just switch accounts, I don't need to input the password everytime I only had to put it on once. It does mean if I'm listening to an audiobook and she opens her phone and starts to listen to music I'll suddenly start listening to her music. But that hasn't really been much of an issue 

As an aside I mainly listen to audiobooks on Libby and Borrowbox as I can download them for 3 weeks at a time for free using my library account. I would highly recommend checking out the options at your local library if you like audiobooks. 

[Chamendra]

Hi 
If I follow the only way possible to change the manager we need to stop subscribing and create a new duo/family plan with me as the manager, but then @spotify you wont honor the price we currently play for the plan 😞
Cause the price for the plan has gone up since we subscribed a while back.

I find this unfair. Like either
1) give every user access to audiobooks (and idk split the time amongst everyone maybe)
2) make it possible and easy to just switch the plan manager
3) or fine make it a massive hassle by having to unsubscribe and re-subscribe but please honor the price I currently pay for being a long term user of your service

[Ccycook]

Agree!! This is agravating!!!!