Family members showing audiobooks locked, even under premium family account

[cliffordboobyer]

Plan

Premium Family

Device

(iPad)

Operating System

(iOS latest)

My Question or Issue

Hi, when i browse my app under my account, I can see audiobooks which are able to be played. However when I use my kids premium family login under their iPad, same audiobooks shown as locked. What gives? Some kind of early restrictions or teething issues as it seems audiobooks for streaming is quite new.

[hzvlpl_m-mx45]

I am on a Premium Duo Account with my housemate. She is the Account Manager and I am an Account Member. 

We realised today that despite paying exactly the same amount each month, she is able to access audiobooks for free and I have to pay per audiobook to access the same content. 

This feels extremely unfair. Can someone please tell me what is being done to fix this, and how quickly we can expect a resolution? 

And, why is there no intermediary plan to discount this unfair service while we wait for a solution?

[Maxim]

Hey @hzvlpl_m-mx45,

Thanks for coming to the Community.

Right now, Audiobooks in Premium is available only on select plans and is limited to plan managers.

This means if you joined a Duo or Family plan as a member you won’t have access to the free listening time, but this is something that will be explored in the future to allow Family and Duo users to have more flexibility from their audiobooks access 🙂

For more info, you can also visit the following Newsroom article: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-10-03/audiobooks-included-in-spotify-premium/.

Hope this clears things up!

[Brismark58]

I totally get the audiobook inclusion on Premium Duo is a new thing, but my wife and I have totally different book tastes and it seems so unfair that she can’t access free books. How long before a decision is made on including both Premium Duo members?

[CharlotteP0402]

Currently premium users who are part of a family plan do not get access to the 15 hours of free audiobooks that the family plan manager and other premium users get. I think this should change so all family plan members have access to audiobooks. Not only will this be a great way for young people and children to interact with more literature but it will also make the app more inclusive of all premium users.

[aa23243432rwq]

The new Audiobooks feature is great, however I was disappointed to find out that it only applied to the plan manager.

In my household, I am the plan manager but another member would benefit the most from the Audiobooks feature.

Is there a plan/roadmap to extend the feature beyond just the plan manager? I already pay for the Premium plan, so I have no willingness to pay additional amounts to enable my plan members to access Audiobooks if the feature is included (15 hours/month) for me.

[Duoaudiobook]

Currently only premium duo plan managers can use the audiobook hours. The plan members cannot and the plan manager cannot be changed. This prevents premium users from being able to access premium features.

The audiobook hours should be usable by both members of the plan. It does not make sense that the arbitrary selection of the plan manager when signing up for premium duo determines who is able to access benefits like audio book hours. 

[VeronicaEsiste]

It is very clear and makes no sense and should be changed ASAP 

[Maxim · Accepted solution]

Hey @cliffordboobyer,

Thanks for coming to the Community.

Right now, Audiobooks in Premium is available only on select plans and is limited to plan managers.

This means if you joined a Duo or Family plan as a member you won’t have access to the free listening time, but this is something that will be explored in the future to allow Family and Duo users to have more flexibility from their audiobooks access 🙂

For more info, you can also visit the following Newsroom article: https://newsroom.spotify.com/2023-10-03/audiobooks-included-in-spotify-premium/.

Hope this clears things up!

[dm79]

Can I reassign my wife as the family plan manager? She needs access to audio books and I don't.

[Maxim]

@dm79,

To ensure that we can offer you the best help that we can, could you please create your own thread? Doing so is easy. Simply select the appropriate board here, and then select “Start a Topic.”

Thank you very much!

[ohjkla]

This is a ridiculous policy. You pay for premium and only one of you is allowed premium access

[lucybeesley]

This is such a disappointing choice, and really, makes no sense. All the other premium benefits are shared across the family, so why limit this to just the Manager. I now can't make use of this feature, as I am not our plan manager, but when we are already paying a premium fee why should we have to pay again? 

[Unusualgirl]

I'm just wondering what you mean by this being 'something to explore'? Is there a time frame? I can't see why it's a piece of functionality that needs consideration - no other limitations exist for plan members versus plan managers as far as I've seen. If it's a technical limitation at this point then you should state that, instead of it seeming like you don't think it's important or should be allowed at all. It's a major downside to a otherwise really attractive addition to premium! 

[db360]

I have to agree with the user above about this lack of forethought on audiobooks for family members. Right now I have a family account and each of my sons wanted to listen to books. We’re paying a significant monthly fee however a main feature is missing to them? I’m wondering now whether to subscribe to audible instead and cancel the family plan? I would rather stay with Spotify if possible however I would like this feature added please. 

[leeming101]

Giving one user additional access in a family plan makes it extremely hard to continue to split the costs fairly with other members!

[mjm2705]

I've just found this thread as my wife couldn't listen to an audiobook that I could ... This is a crazy limitation that needs to be resolved or the price of family re-evaluated as it appears that the plan value proposition has shifted. 

I was looking forward to Supremium but if this limitation applies when that launches it will be a 'no' from me!

[alxtrry]

Ridiculously unfair and extremely disappointing for all other members of my family, who are now annoyed that I'm the "plan manager". Please change this to include all premium members ASAP. 

[Robbycuk]

I was looking to upgrade to premium family, and use the audiobooks feature to justify stopping our audible subscription. I’ve now seen that audiobooks are only available to the plan manager, and only for 15 hours/month - bad move Spotify, you’ve just made me lose the desire to upgrade to the family plan. My daughters reaction to this news said it all - “why would you do that?”
Without having these features unrestricted, this feels really underhand and not actually an additional benefit at all.

It makes me reconsider staying with Spotify after being a Premium subscriber for many, many years and look to an alternative supplier. 😞

Please, reconsider and allow unrestricted access to audiobooks for all members of a family plan

[Lizzieepton]

Throwing my voice into the ring because hopefully the more people who do the more likely Spotify is too listen! Very frustrating for this not to be a shared feature especially when out of my and my partner I'm the one who listens to audiobooks and was planning on switching from audible for this. Please fix this it makes no sense.