Spotify Duo account manager change / audiobooks assigned to the wrong account

[JosiahWilliams]

My wife and I share a Spotify Duo account. When setting up our account and merging our individual accounts, we paid no mind to who would be the account manager as it's linked to our joint bank account. With the rollout of audiobooks included with premium, we are now realizing that only the account manager (which is assigned to my wife's account) is the only account able to listen to audiobooks. My wife does not care for audiobooks but I fully planned on listening; however, there does not seem to be a way to change account managers at any point in time after the account has been opened.

Because of this structure, my wife's access to audiobooks goes to waste and I cannot access the books I'd otherwise be listening to. Is there something I am missing or am I just completely out of luck? Really hope there's a solution to this issue as it seems like something that should be addressed.

[ttth12]

I reached out to Spotify about this exact issue today as well. Very disappointing as only one member of the account can listen to audiobooks even though both are paying. I am not the Plan Manager as well so I am unable to listen to books, too. 

[Kazadoom]

Ran into the same issue, if it cant be fixed we might as well go back to a standard account since I only care about the audiobook, which I cant access.

[Joan]

Hi there folks,

Thanks for reaching out. 

As you mentioned, at the moment only the plan managers of Duo or Family subscriptions have access to audiobooks, so if necessary, you can switch the owners like so - have the current owner cancel the subscription, wait until all accounts revert to free (on the next billing date) and then the new manager can make a new plan and invite the members again. Keep in mind that going from one owner to another counts as a switch of plans, so this procedure can only be done once every 12 months, as otherwise the members may face issues joining.

Hope this helps.

[Lauren87]

We have run into same issue. We switched to Duo plan under husband's name. He does not listen to audiobooks, I do, and now that credit is just going to waste. What was advertised was a premium duo account, but Spotify can't claim that my account is comparable to my husband's with 1-2 fewer audiobooks a month, so mine, or yours, surely cannot be called premium. Also, because if the time we switched to duo accounts, if we go cancel our membership and then rejoin with me as the account manager, which currently seems to be the only solution, we will end up havig to pay a higher monthly fee because Spotify have increased their prices in the meantime. Very annoying, I hope they come up with a solution soon.

[Noel18]

What a complete pain in the **bleep** to have to jump through all these hoops to change plan managers. Rather than tie it to the "plan manager", allow us to assign a book listener and only let us change book listeners once a year. I have two kids away at college.. I really don't want to fuss with kicking them back to free and then re-inviting them back. As a software developer myself I understand this was probably the easy route to take, but come on, don't take the lazy route. I'd be willing to bet that if HiFi ever rolls out it will also be tied to the plan manager's account which will be really annoying because I would want HiFi assigned to my account and audiobooks assigned to my wife's account. Your dev team must have literally zero foresight.

[goofygum]

Why in the heck can't both have access to audiobooks? It's a duo account, isn't it? what a conn. Seriously below the belt. 

[LoLoAtreides]

As far as I am concerned, this is a non-solution. It almost further complicates the situation. Why not allow the audiobooks but limit the number of hours allowed per user? Or split the listening hours evenly. There has to be a better resolution. Seems like laziness and apathy on Spotify's part. 

[DuoPlanDisappointmen]

I used to Love Spotify.
Now, I can't tell if the app is bad or its false advertising to feed the greed. I bought two premium accounts and as far as I'm aware I'm still waiting on product still paying month to month. If it's not resolved, I will be jumping ship the moment I find a better service.

[robbwallacemedia]

Can the developers not just make a toggle so that you can toggle the audio books between plan members? Closing my account etc seems a little redundant. You must have the resources for this solution.

[Wellybelly]

This is so unfair! I've been arguing with my husband since the day I've found out he has access and I don't! Very disappointed 😞 

[emmaeast]

This is a very poor and inconvenient work around. As many users agree, both users should be able to access audiobooks on the premium duo membership. Charge us more, to have this feature! 

[dctocali]

Agree with others. This is not a solution. Had many of us known this issue beforehand, we would have made the main account person the one who listens to audiobooks. Please fix this.

[jeh-see]

This is a poor solution. Having existing costumers cancel their subscription to start a new one is a very inconvenient and not a good costumer experience. Please make it possible to change who the account manager is once a year or better yet give the ability to assign which member gets to listen to audiobooks. This can also be a once-a-year only change. My husband and I share a premium account coming from our joint account and the audiobooks are wasted being assigned to him. 

[madriance17]

Joan, 

So I need to cancel my premium account in order to have my wife be the account manager on a duo account?  I've had my account for many years.  What happens to my playlists?  My wife is the one who listens to books not me.  Is this something Spotify is working to remedy? 

Matt

[Go3187]

If this had been advertised as such, my partner and I would have never opted for a duo plan. We’re switching back ASAP, but the choice now is either that she doesn’t listen to audiobooks for a whole month (the billing period just started and I’m the account manager), or that we pay for both a duo membership and a single premium one for the month. Not impressed at all.

[Natlear]

Does anyone know what happens to existing playlists if we follow the suggested resolution of cancelling and rejoining with the other person as the plan manager? 

[Yordan]

Hey @Natlear,

Don't worry - you keep all your playlists and saved music when your account switches to Free. The only thing you may lose is any music you had downloaded for offline listening, but you can redownload it once you folks resubscribe to Duo.

If you need any help with the invite check out this article.

Hope this clears things up.

[danman338]

The only acceptable solution would be what "Noel18" suggested. Let us assign a listener once every 12 months. I would assume it's this way because of some contract when audiobooks were added to the mix.

[spot1fydoesntwork]

The acceptable solution would be to share the listening hours between users. It advertised as 15 hours a month, let us use that on any account!