Spotify co-CEO Alex Norstrom said on this week's earnings call that new QR-code checks for Premium Family members who do not share a household are a continuing verification update, not a one-time crackdown, The Verge reported Thursday¹.

The Verge, citing TechCrunch's account of the call, said Norstrom was answering a question about a "crackdown" on sharing¹. He said, "This is not as much a crackdown as it is actually a routine improvement of our verification methods," according to the report¹.

The method requires scanning a code from the plan manager's phone¹. The Verge said the code refreshes every few seconds and that anyone who misses a seven-day window is barred from joining a different Family or Duo plan for 12 months¹.

Norstrom said Family Plan has been around for about 12 or 13 years and makes up a significant share of Spotify's subscribers, so the company intends to keep closing gaps as people find them¹. He said the work has no end date and is not a one-off implementation, The Verge reported¹.

Spotify has previously said Family plans are only for people living in the same household and has tried other limits on sharing¹. The Verge said some users have looked for workarounds to stay on shared Premium accounts¹. Independent confirmation of how widely the checks are rolling out, and how many accounts have been removed, was not in the report¹.

Sources

1. The VergeSpotify says yes, it is busting people for using Family Plan sharing too widelyOct 22, 7:02 PM

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