Family members showing audiobooks locked, even under premium family account

[cliffordboobyer]

Plan

Premium Family

Device

(iPad)

Operating System

(iOS latest)

My Question or Issue

Hi, when i browse my app under my account, I can see audiobooks which are able to be played. However when I use my kids premium family login under their iPad, same audiobooks shown as locked. What gives? Some kind of early restrictions or teething issues as it seems audiobooks for streaming is quite new.

[LukeJL]

The new feature only provides for 15 hours of audiobooks listening to the Spotify Premium Family - Plan Manager. However, I want to make it available to other Plan Members. I cannot even purchase hours for one of my Plan Members. Additionally, there's not another plan to upgrade to so I can have 2-3 of our Plan Members to have access to audio books with this new feature.

[timpage]

Yes, it's really not good enough.  Paying for a family premium subscription we expect everyone in the family to be able to access the same features. I'd also be happy to pay a little more to add audiobook access to others in the family, but like you say that's not even an option. Let's hope that this is just because included audiobooks are new and they haven't worked out the subscription model quite right yet 

[x77sc77x]

It's actually super lame that only the account plan manager has access to listening to audio books. We pay for a premium fam plan, and my wife wants to listen to audiobooks, and not being able to do so is actually kind of stupid. 

[Lauren87]

I've been a loyal member of Spotify for years, our recent change to the Duo account, which my husband 'manages', means that I have found (after joining) that I do not have access to the premium feature of audiobook listening as he does, or as the individual subscription does. You cannot call the Duo or family accounts premium if one or more members do not have the same access to premium features. So disappointed, Spotify, and annoyed, not least because he doesn't even listen to audiobooks, whereas I do, so the credits are going to waste. 

If we were to cancel the subscription and swap managers, which seems to be the only (inconvenient, and still unfair) solution, we would be having to pay more money per month than we currently do because Spotify have increased their prices since becoming duo members 😞 disappointed, angry, and frustrated.

[Natatatat]

This is exactly what I'm trying to do - it makes absolutely no sense that for some reason or the other, my husband ended up as the Plan Manager even though we pay for the Premium Family account through our joint card. He has zero interest in audiobooks, I do. The hours only applying to the Plan Manager is the stupidest idea ever - they should be allocated to the entire plan, or at least let the Plan Manager allocate them to specific members. Otherwise, we are paying for a Premium feature that will never be used. 

I was told by Customer Support that we'd have to cancel our plan entirely, set a new one up with me as the Plan Manager and have the payment method on my account, and reset everything else up so I can use the hours WE are paying for. 

Spotify - Do better. Fix this. 

[transmodal]

+1 to the above comments about feeling frustrated by this limitation 😭

hopefully more comments will help prioritize getting this feature moved up in the backlog

[Gabyohm]

Let's do it 🙏
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[thedesignthinker1000]

Hmm, this doesn't align with the Spotify Newsroom  where it states "...we’re offering each Premium individual, as well as plan managers for Family and Duo accounts, 15 hours of listening per month." Yet, the lock icon persists on my Premium Family individual members. 

[mjm2705]

This is all shaping up to be part of the (doomed to fail) strategy to increase revenue via the much rumoured Supremium tier!

Goes like this:

Shareholders demand growth ... subscriber numbers plateauing (at best) ... need to raise prices!

Raise prices ... not enough revenue growth!

HiFi tier!  Trumped by Apple, Tidal & Amazon ... Doh!

Tease audiobooks, provide audiobooks (but just 15 hours and not to family plan members) 

Launch Supremium ... you get lossless audio, loads of audiobooks and some features that were previously included but slowly stripped away ... charge more per month!

Add Supremium Family ... additional cost but, hey, you all get audiobooks now ... what a great deal eh?

Some will buy it, many won’t (you would probably be cheaper with Apple Music + Audible (or watch Amazon come up with a package with similar benefits for 25% less!)

Needless to say, in time the shareholders will demand more growth (or bail out because the subscriber numbers have dropped off due to the Supremium con trick) 

Only ends one way!

[nataaly1]

I think its BS that students can not have audiobooks we also pay 

[lazbob03]

+1 @Spotify please sort this out... What's the point in the 'Premium' family plan if can't use all the 'Premium' services?

[badmanj]

This is just ludicrous. And so sneaky too - had to hunt for this information. Is it made clear anywhere at all when signing up for the family membership?

[Gabyohm]

Audiiobooks are a new addition to Spotify that happened in the last few months.
There was no release made regarding the fact that only the plan manager would be able to enjoy the included 15 hours listening time.
We all stumbled on that truth when we tried to recommend to our family to listen to books but the only option they had, was to buy them!

[Singeden]

The limitations placed on audiobook listening (only plan managers have access) is absolutely infuriating and I am inclined to move to another music streaming platform if this inequality is not corrected soon. Every member of a Premium plan should be given their own 15 hours of audiobook listening. Fix this now.

[MikeCampy5]

This is one very stupid software package. 1) Why can't there all members of the family or duo plan access audiobooks???

2) Why can't we change the manager of the account???

A very shoddy app!!!

[Megsy22]

Only the 'owner' of Premium Duo subscriptions can listen to audiobooks, the second Premium subscriber cannot. Both users on a Premium Duo subscription are paying for Premium so both should have access to audiobooks.

[camwcooper]

I’m curious how the owner of Spotify explains to their spouse/partner that only they get audiobook access. Because I sure am having trouble explaining it to my wife!  Ya cheap bastards!

[0bfeb3cj5mxm3cmkiq98]

Hi, this just happen to me is there still any plans to allow family members access?

charles

[jasonboyd]

It’s really crazy that only one member of a family plan has this benefit. I’m not even sure how often we’d use it individually, but the fact that we couldn’t use it when we both wanted really detracts from it being a benefit at all.

[jvconnect]

Ditto everything. How can we get this changed asap?