Spotify ramps up policy enforcement on family plans

As reported by Music Business Worldwide, Spotify appears to be stepping up enforcement of existing policies regarding Family and Duo subscription plans by requiring users to scan a QR code in person on the plan manager’s device in order to maintain access to it.

据《音乐商业全球》（Music Business Worldwide）报道，Spotify 似乎正在加强对“家庭”（Family）和“双人”（Duo）订阅计划现有政策的执行力度，要求用户必须在计划管理者的设备上现场扫描二维码，以维持对该计划的访问权限。

Those who fail to scan the address verification QR code within seven days will see their account demoted to the free tier and be barred from joining any other Duo or Family plan for 12 months.

未能在此后七天内扫描地址验证二维码的用户，其账户将被降级至免费层级，并被禁止在 12 个月内加入任何其他“双人”或“家庭”计划。

Spotify’s support documentation verifies the policy after users on Reddit began posting reports of receiving the QR prompt. The enforcement stems from Spotify’s requirement that family plan members reside at the same address—a seemingly reasonable policy in concept.

在 Reddit 用户开始发布收到二维码提示的报告后，Spotify 的支持文档证实了这一政策。该执行措施源于 Spotify 要求家庭计划成员必须居住在同一地址的规定——这一政策在概念上看似合理。

But what if you have a child away in college, a spouse who works on the road, or any number of other circumstances that might see families separated by physical distance? The policy could extend beyond friend groups looking to save a buck, affecting actual families who thought they were using the program as intended.

但如果你的孩子在外地上大学、配偶在外地工作，或者有其他各种可能导致家庭成员在物理空间上分离的情况，该怎么办呢？这项政策的影响范围可能不仅限于那些为了省钱而拼单的朋友圈，还会波及那些认为自己是在按预期使用该服务的真正家庭。

Goldman Sachs analysts, in their October 15 Music in the Air: 10 Years On report, made available by HITS Daily Double, estimate that “a meaningful share of family plan users are not actual household members, but rather friends sharing a plan to reduce costs.” The report goes on to add, “We see additional monetization upside from tightening household verification on multi-user plans. Most family plans require members to reside at the same address, but enforcement has been minimal in practice.”

高盛分析师在 10 月 15 日发布的《音乐在空中：十年回顾》（Music in the Air: 10 Years On）报告（由 HITS Daily Double 提供）中估计，“相当大比例的家庭计划用户并非真正的家庭成员，而是为了降低成本而共享计划的朋友。”报告进一步补充道：“我们认为，通过加强对多用户计划的家庭成员验证，可以获得额外的货币化收益。大多数家庭计划都要求成员居住在同一地址，但在实践中，执行力度一直很小。”

If the pressure on the accounts policy from Wall Street sounds familiar, it should. Streaming services have often turned a blind eye to account sharing during their growth periods, only to walk back the leniency once viewers are hooked.

如果华尔街对账户政策施加的压力听起来很耳熟，那是因为事实确实如此。流媒体服务在增长期往往对账户共享睁一只眼闭一只眼，一旦用户产生依赖，便会收回这种宽容。

Netflix tweeted in March of 2017 that “Love is sharing a password” before launching its own enforcement policies in May of 2023. Later that year, Netflix raised prices up to 17 percent, and by April of 2024, the company saw the policy pay off with 9.3 million added subscriptions and a 54 percent bump in operating income.

Netflix 在 2017 年 3 月曾发推文称“爱就是分享密码”，随后在 2023 年 5 月推出了自己的强制执行政策。同年晚些时候，Netflix 将价格提高了 17%。截至 2024 年 4 月，该政策已见成效，公司新增了 930 万订阅用户，营业收入增长了 54%。

Netflix isn’t alone in the practice, as competitors like Max (now HBO again) and Disney+/Hulu eventually followed suit with their own policy enforcement.

Netflix 并非唯一采取此类做法的公司，Max（现已改回 HBO）和 Disney+/Hulu 等竞争对手最终也纷纷效仿，实施了各自的政策执行措施。

Goldman’s report argues that while family plans are great for getting subscribers onto the platform, “the per-user monetization of these plans materially lags individual plan pricing. In our view, these plans offer a greater value proposition to consumers than the standard individual tier, which we believe gives DSPs the opportunity to capture more value through higher pricing increases or by tightening the definition/eligibility of the family plan, without meaningfully impacting demand.”

高盛的报告指出，虽然家庭计划对于吸引用户加入平台非常有效，但“这些计划的单用户货币化水平明显落后于个人计划定价。在我们看来，这些计划为消费者提供的价值主张高于标准个人层级，我们认为这为数字服务提供商（DSP）提供了机会，可以通过提高价格或收紧家庭计划的定义/资格来获取更多价值，且不会对需求产生重大影响。”

In short, analysts are confident that music streaming services such as Spotify can enforce strict account policies, raise prices, and still make more money. So if you go to load up your favorite playlist on a shared account, you might soon be getting a warning that it’s time to check in with your plan manager.

简而言之，分析师们确信，像 Spotify 这样的音乐流媒体服务可以执行严格的账户政策，提高价格，并依然能赚取更多利润。因此，如果你在共享账户上加载自己最喜欢的播放列表时，可能很快就会收到警告，提示你需要与计划管理者进行核对。

If that’s physically impossible to do within seven days, you might need to look into an alternative streaming service—or start digging through drawers until you find that old iPod.

如果七天内无法完成这一操作，你可能需要考虑寻找其他的流媒体服务，或者开始翻箱倒柜，找出那个旧的 iPod。