Confused about Premium/Family - need to play music on multiple devices

[CJcalifornia]

Premium Subscriber

Country USA

Device

MacBook Pro - iphones

My Question or Issue

This should be simpler than having to resort to a forum. Is the Premium plan which is $14.99  per user or $14.99 per month for up to 5 users (family plan)? What is the advatage of a family plan if you have to pay $15 per person unless it accomplishes the next questions of mine? And paying $45 per month for a music subscription seems awfully high.

I have 2 kids who both use my Spotify Premium account. We have Amazon Echos & Sonos throughout the house. I want to listen to my music and of course, they each want to listen to their music in their bedrooms. Currently, only one person can listen to their choice of music on anyone device. My goal: each person gets to listen to their music on whichever device happens to be handy. Kid#1 is in the bedroom and has iphone/mac and should be able play her choice of music on either the Echo/through Sonos or wirelessely to a portable speaker and simultaneously, Kid#2 and or I should be able to also play our music on whatever.

How in the world do I accomplish this?

Thanks in advance from a confused and tech overloaded mom!

[landonharris88 · Accepted solution]

Hey @CJcalifornia!

No worries, it definitely can be a little overwhelming sometimes! 

The Spotify Family Premium plan allows you to have up to 5 accounts connected to your single family account, all for 14.99 regardless of how many users you have! 

Your kids (or anyone in your family that resides at your address, for that matter) will have to create their own account and then you, as the account owner, will invite them to your subscription, giving them access to Family Premium (there's a guide that'll walk you through how to do that here!) Then each member will have their own account with their own playlists, music, and get personalized suggestions reflecting their listening habbits, and you can all be listening on your individual accounts at the same time! 

As for your devices (Alexa and Sonos), you will definitely be able to listen on them at the same time, but the way the devices work makes it a little tricky. They allow you to only connect one account at a time, so asking alexa to play a song or playlist will stream it on the account last connected to it, and if that's not the person in that room, it could stop playing music for the person that the account connected to Alexa belongs to (if that makes sense). Your best bet would probably be to connect to these devices with your (or your kid's) iPhone and use them as bluetooth speakers. That way it won't use the Alexa Spotify app, and default to the last account connected, but use the account on the iPhone connected to Alexa. 

There's a little more information about the family plan here too!

[3763920]

Spotify really needs to streamline the process of adding family members, it's extremely frustrating and confusing. Just let account holders click a button to add family... instead they have to be sent links and then the log in process is unclear and full of hoops. WHY.