How would a VPN affect a Spotify Premium and a Duo account?

[MichaelPerkins]

Plan: Premium

Country: United States

Devices & OS: [iPhone 12 pro Max - iOS 14.4.2], [MacBook Pro - macOS 11.2.3]

My Question or Issue

I have been a Spotify Premium cust. for years. My girlfriend whom I've lived with for 2 years, recently moved abroad for her job, for ~1 year. Since she now can no longer listen to Spotify as she did when she lived with me, I started looking into getting a Duo subscription. I read in another Community post where someone else was in my exact position where his girlfriend was studying abroad, and Spotify responded that because she currently does not live with him, tough luck, he will just have to wait until she moves back to the US and back in with him. 

So this made me wonder... I am also currently planning to sign up for a VPN to protect my IP address while online. I am not 100% sure, but a VPN can make a user appear to be as far away as Panama or at the very least, not my current address. So my questions are...

1. What will happen to my normal Spotify Premium account if I suddenly appear to Spotify to be in another country entirely due to a new VPN service?
2. Given that VPNs obscure someone's physical location, how can Spotify reliably know whether or not two people live together and thus qualify for a Duo subscription?*

*I realize that this question makes it sound like I am planning to try to circumvent Spotify's policies by using a VPN. This is not the case, at all. It it not worth the hassle. I would rather just pay for her to have her own Premium account while she's away. I am only asking because I also work in technology and am very curious about how VPN affects subscription services such as Spotify.  

[OneByBoo · Accepted solution]

Hi there @MichaelPerkins,

thanks for reaching out to the Spotify community !

I would address your 2 questions separately however I'll start by saying that Spotify does not support the use of VPN.

To ensure you receive the best performance designed for the app, you should use a solid LAN / WiFi connection.

To your questions:

1. In order to be eligible for a Spotify Premium subscription of any type, a user must provide their country and a payment method which was issued in that same country.

Therefore, once a user changes their physical location they will only be able to do so once they provided the correct payment method.

If you force a change of location, let's say by using VPN, the app will see the inconsistency between the country listed and the payment method listed and will notify you of what needs to be done.

2. As mentioned above, VPN isn't officially supported by Spotify. Therefore, it is not recommended when wishing to receive the best performance of the service.

As it isn't possible to block VPN use, it is not promised your app experience will be flawless.

I hope this shed some light.

Feel free asking any further questions, i'm always around 🙂