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.

[cliffordboobyer]

Hey @cliffordboobyer,

Thanks for coming to the Community.

Right now, Audiobooks in Premium is available only on select plans and is limited to plan managers.

This means if you joined a Duo or Family plan as a member you won’t have access to the free listening time, but this is something that will be explored in the future to allow Family and Duo users to have more flexibility from their audiobooks access 🙂

For more info, you can also visit the following Newsroom article: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-10-03/audiobooks-included-in-spotify-premium/.

Hope this clears things up!

[Maxim · Accepted solution]

Hey @cliffordboobyer,

Thanks for coming to the Community.

Right now, Audiobooks in Premium is available only on select plans and is limited to plan managers.

This means if you joined a Duo or Family plan as a member you won’t have access to the free listening time, but this is something that will be explored in the future to allow Family and Duo users to have more flexibility from their audiobooks access 🙂

For more info, you can also visit the following Newsroom article: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-10-03/audiobooks-included-in-spotify-premium/.

Hope this clears things up!

[dm79]

Can I reassign my wife as the family plan manager? She needs access to audio books and I don't.

[Maxim]

@dm79,

To ensure that we can offer you the best help that we can, could you please create your own thread? Doing so is easy. Simply select the appropriate board here, and then select “Start a Topic.”

Thank you very much!

[ohjkla]

This is a ridiculous policy. You pay for premium and only one of you is allowed premium access

[Unusualgirl]

I'm just wondering what you mean by this being 'something to explore'? Is there a time frame? I can't see why it's a piece of functionality that needs consideration - no other limitations exist for plan members versus plan managers as far as I've seen. If it's a technical limitation at this point then you should state that, instead of it seeming like you don't think it's important or should be allowed at all. It's a major downside to a otherwise really attractive addition to premium! 

[db360]

I have to agree with the user above about this lack of forethought on audiobooks for family members. Right now I have a family account and each of my sons wanted to listen to books. We’re paying a significant monthly fee however a main feature is missing to them? I’m wondering now whether to subscribe to audible instead and cancel the family plan? I would rather stay with Spotify if possible however I would like this feature added please. 

[leeming101]

Giving one user additional access in a family plan makes it extremely hard to continue to split the costs fairly with other members!

[mjm2705]

I've just found this thread as my wife couldn't listen to an audiobook that I could ... This is a crazy limitation that needs to be resolved or the price of family re-evaluated as it appears that the plan value proposition has shifted. 

I was looking forward to Supremium but if this limitation applies when that launches it will be a 'no' from me!

[Mumismad]

Timeframe please - this is crazy but more importantly, inequitable.  How about sorting these issues before release and creating the hype that leads everyone to expect the same service across a premium plan 

[NeilEnnis]

Only one family member has true "Premium" access.  The rest of the family has "Premium Light"  That's not really in spirit of a family plan, and really nasty considering you just put your prices up.

[Blanaybr]

Like others I don’t agree that one person in the family plan/duo (plan manager) should only have access to audiobooks as it is very unfair, it would be good if Spotify could consider giving plan managers the ability to spilt hours amongst those that they share there account with, however the right amount of hours to make it worthwhile should be allocated to family / duo accounts in order to make this a fair deal especially given the cost we pay! 

[shanus88]

what a load of Baloney Spotify, get**bleep** together!

[Helsgibbons]

I’d like to add my frustration to the other replies. As a PP said, doing this shortly after putting prices up is very unfair. 

[OliverH1]

How daft is this? Like others here because I share the cost of a family plan with my wife, but only I can listen to audiobooks. Where's the justification?

[5it4acqz9ixu2o3k2yi9]

There is always problems with spotify! I've complained in the past about the 'explicit content' filter not filtering peoples playlists with explicit titles. Also, you cannot change addresses, so have to cancel the whole account and start again. In summary, Spotify has a very low standard of software and it's design and integration team must only work 1 day per week. Another massive fail from spotify. Well done 😞

[Jperry]

This is ridiculous, what’s the point of paying for premium? Spotify scam. 

[Gabyohm]

It is not a fair access to audiobooks for Spotify Family users. The addition of audiobooks is awesome but the permission to download, restricted to the plan manager is not right. I was super excited to get my daughter to listen to an audiobook but extremely disappointed to find she couldn't access them! An update to allow all family users to benefit from this great initiative would be welcome. I don't think Apple Books has that kind of limitation.

[The_B888ts]

I am rather frustrated with the lack of response from Spotify on this thread. Akin to all the other users who have posted here, I do not think it is prudent for Spotify to allow only Plan Managers to have access to the 15-hour audiobook allotment. There is absolutely no reason that Plan Members should be treated differently than the Manager with respect to this. Especially considering that Members — in large part — consist of children unable to pay for their own Premium accounts; children deserve access to audiobook titles in their developing years.

Do better, Spotify.

[lyubasha21]

 I completely agree with everything said above. All family members in the premium subscription need to have access to listen to audiobooks for free, otherwise it becomes a useless feature when plan manager does not even listen to audiobooks. Spotify you can do better than that. We are paying a lot of money to have premium subscription and all members need to have the same privilege.