Music streaming services like Spotify offer great value for money, but what if the family plan is too big for you and you don’t want to pay double the price of a subscription plan? signed only? Spotify Duo Might be exactly what you need if that sounds like you.
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What is Spotify Duo?
Spotify Duo is simply a subscription level that offers a Spotify Premium account for two for less than two individual Premium subscriptions, or the Premium Family Plan, which offers Spotify Premium for six people.
Spotify Duo costs $12.99 a month. In contrast, a single subscription costs $9.99 and the Family Plan costs $14.99. So you save a lot over $20 for both individual subscriptions. It’s just two dollars cheaper than the family plan, and it costs you four subscription slots. However, if you only need Spotify for two, there’s little reason to pay the extra two bucks.
One cool feature of Spotify Duo is that you can have a “Duo mix” shared playlist with others, similar to the “family mix” of the top-level option.
There are terms and conditions for Spotify Duo. Subscriptions are for two people living in the same household. So couples, roommates or other couples living together at the same address are eligible. If you live at different addresses, you are not allowed to use Spotify Duo.
Spotify Duo Eligibility Details
There are three main requirements that anyone using Spotify Duo must meet to be eligible.
- The first is that both the “primary” account holder and the “sub” account holder must reside at the same physical address.
- The second requirement is that both account holders provide their own home addresses. If the two addresses do not match, you cannot use Duo.
- You also agree to the possibility that you may be asked to verify your address from time to time.
Spotify’s terms and conditions state that they reserve the right to suspend or cancel your Duo subscription if they believe you’re not following the rules.
Spotify Premium perks
Whichever Premium subscription level you choose, you get the same perks, but what are they? Why not just use Spotify’s free tier?
The biggest reason to pay for the premium plan is that you get no ads. Unless you’re feeling nostalgic with the experience of listening to music on the radio, you’ll likely enjoy the ad-free experience. We think a podcast also benefits from the lack of ads, so Premium is a more appealing option if you’re a podcast fan.
The free version of Spotify also doesn’t allow you to control which songs are playing. You get a limited number of skips, so the experience is more like a radio than a premium option and might not be to your musical taste.
You can download music to your smartphone and enjoy offline music anywhere without using expensive mobile data or worrying about signal strength. Just play your saved music and forget about the signal bars. You can also access high-quality downloads or streaming, which is noticeable on more expensive headphones.
Overall, we consider Spotify’s free tier too limited to be a mainstream music streaming service. For a more detailed Spotify Premium review, see Is Spotify Premium Worth It?
When is Family Planning Better?
If you have more than two people Those who want Spotify Premium, the Family plan is by far the cheapest way to do it. Even if you only use three of the six slots, it’s still a better deal. Of course, the more people in your family plan, the cheaper it will be.
Enforce Spotify account sharing
Of course, when using a family plan (or Duo), you might be tempted to share the cost with people who don’t live with you. If you do this, you are in breach of the terms and conditions and risk having your account suspended.
It’s not clear exactly how Spotify will detect and enforce these rules. In 2018, Spotify experimented with GPS-based authenticationbut this idea is no longer valid.
In other words, as far as we can see, it works on an honor system. Whether you take advantage of this fact or not is something we will leave on your moral compass. However, what “duo” or “family” legally means is certainly easy to explain, and it doesn’t seem like Spotify is pushing matters too much.
Just keep in mind that, going forward, you won’t have any recourse if Spotify decides to enforce its policies.
Spotify Duo Alternatives
There are many other streaming services to choose from these days, but none of them offer a direct competitor to Duo at the time of writing. While services like Apple Music, Amazon Musicor YouTube Music offers single and family subscriptions, you won’t find options for two.
Of course, if you’re already a Spotify user and just want to add one to your subscription, you already know that you’re happy with what the service has to offer.
It’s only a matter of when you decide between the different services before diving in. There’s more to it than just price.
For example, YouTube Premium includes both ad-free YouTube and music services.
In addition, it is essential to subscribe to a service that hosts the music you want to listen to. If your favorite artist isn’t on Spotify, you’ll have to go elsewhere.
Is Spotify Premium Duo for you?
With all the relevant information across the board, it’s time to find out if the Spotify Premium Duo plan is right for you instead of having separate accounts.
If you are two people living at the same place who want Spotify Premium, check the “yes” column. If you’re happy with it, that’s a great thing.
A side note is that the main account holder is responsible for the entire bill. So if you’re splitting expenses with someone, you’ll have to accumulate cash and get it back from them. If you’re a sub-account user, just remember that the primary account holder has permission to start you up. So be nice to them!
