Audio Book Family Sharing Family Sharing Audiobooks

[#1]

Our family has a Premium Family account. I am wanting to purchase audio books which my children have to read for school this year and want to know that if I purchase the books under the Plan Managers Account can we share the books with the kids accounts or do they have to be purchased through their own account?

[Lyubka · Accepted solution]

Hey there,

Thanks for posting in the Community!

Currently, it's not possible to share an audiobook with Family Plan members. The purchase is bound to a specific account and can be used only with the account used for the purchase. With that being said, your kids needs to purchase the audiobooks they'd like to read through their own accounts. 

More info about Audiobooks you can find in this support article.

Hope this clears things up. If you have any questions or need anything else, the Community is here for you.

[#3]

I have a family plan that I pay for. My son bought an audio book in his account as part of our family plan (with my $). The book was expensive and I would like to listen to it too, but it is not in my library. Is there a way for me to listen to it without paying for it again? He is at college. Thank you.

[CPvdVyver]

Spotify needs to channge this it looks like this is possible with the competition. I also cant share a book with my wife, it will be my last purchase from them. 

[Foxworsb]

My husband and i agree. We will only be downloading on audible now. We assumed this feature was already available when he bought 4 books for our business, but they are not. But he has no problem with my audible library. 

[timdredge]

This needs to be fixed now. It is an error. Your competition allows this and you should too. 

[questionmarkmcclure]

It would be a great Spotify feature for either my wife, or me, to be able to play a purchased audiobook for our children without having to purchase it again.

Be better than your competition and you'll get more subscribers!

[1274128462]

I am trying to support authors and provide competition for Audible. This makes it a lot harder to do so. I am recently switching from YouTube Music because of their practices and price hike. Please don't make me switch to Amazon Music because of difficulties like this. 

[Chunk7]

It only makes sense that you should be able to share the audio books with the members in the family account.  Your poor business model drives me to your competition.

[alienUser]

Bad bad bad... fell into the same trap.  we've been very happy to be away from Amazon Music but this is a huge ding for Spotify...

[1240954853]

Come on Spotify!  This is just a money making scheme to make family members purchase books on each separate account.  

[jonnyknight]

I bought an audiobook with the intent of sharing it with my wife when I was done and now I learn it's not possible. This is a terrible policy and I'm having a hard time understanding why I could've bought a physical copy of the book for less money and then shared it with whomever I wanted but not with the digital audiobook?! Really sours my impression of Spotify.

[Sineady126]

This is rubbish, like everyone else here I’ve bought two books hoping to share with my husband. I don’t understand why you can’t share an audiobook if it’s on a shared account, that you pay a premium for. Huge thumbs down from me. I think once we have listened to our books (on one account) it will be time to find a new provider!

[Mama_Possum]

We have a family account. My son is the account holder. I want to purchase books and play them on my device. How do I do this as a family member?

[mal_rs]

This is a joke paying a family premium yet its not family premium, you are going to lose subscriptions because of this.

[frankearl91]

Yeah this is ridiculous! I thought Spotify was my new go to but without the ability to share with my wife I might as well not buy the book

[sblocks94]

It would even be helpful if the manager could choose someone else as the person who has access. Like if a dad is paying and doesn't use it, the audiobook feature could be designated to his daughter, etc

[AndyWithers76]

Wow!!!! Isn't this awful! The fact that you limit to 15hrs is bad enough, but locking it only to the plan manager is a terrible customer experience. Boo Spotify!!!!

[MakeFreeAudiobooksFr]

This at a minimum. I don’t read at all, my wife does a ton. I setup the account because I normally handle stuff like that and now I’m the only one who can use the 15 hours. This is ridiculous, a more covert way of trying to break password sharing.

[Alice227]

Well looks like I'm not the only one deceived by Spotify's family plan. I like books and everyone else likes music... Win win right? Wrong! Since my husband set up the account I can't listen to the books. What a load of garbage.