What you need to know
- Spotify announced that it’s removing the Premium lock on Managed Account, making them free for all parents to create for kids under 13.
- Managed Accounts are a music-only experience, meaning kids’ profiles will be private, non-discoverable in search, and parents can filter out explicit content and more.
- Kids will have access to popular playlists like Discover Weekly, Daylist, and Made for You.
Managed Accounts with parental controls are a good way for parents to get their kids into Spotify, but it was locked to Premium. Spotify’s changing that this week, and it might be a huge win for parents.
Spotify announced this morning (July 15) that it’s making Managed Accounts free for all parents on Spotify globally. It doesn’t matter which Spotify plan you’re on. Spotify says parents can “create a free Managed Account for their child in the U.S., UK, Australia, France, Germany, and the Netherlands, with many more countries either already live or following soon.” It teases Canada, New Zealand, and multiple European countries are coming soon.
Setting up a Managed Account is fairly simple. Parents can open Spotify > (side menu) Add Account > Create a Managed Account. Ads will be present if you’re on a free account; however, Spotify says these will offer “helpful information about how to get the most out of the app.”
Managed Accounts are focused on kids under 13. The experience is purely music-based, providing access to Spotify’s music library and playlists (including playlist creation). Since a Managed Account is music-only, Spotify says its videos and Canvas content are turned off by default.
A few music discovery playlists that users have on Spotify are available for Managed Accounts. Kids can receive their own Discover Weekly, Made for You mixes, and Daylist. It’s worth mentioning that while these playlists lean on the kids’ taste in music, they will also adhere to the settings their parents have chosen. Spotify Wrapped is a huge year-end celebration of your listening habits, and kids will get one, too.
Safety in mind
Spotify has become a little more social over the years. Managed Accounts take a step back from those features. The company states Managed Accounts will not have access to messages and cannot upload custom profile pictures. What’s more, a Managed Account is immediately made private and cannot be discovered via search.
Parents will have a dashboard of parental controls for their child’s account. Users can filter out certain content they’d rather keep their kids away from, such as explicit music. Parents will also find settings to “manually manage the playback of specific artists or songs.” If parents need to change anything, they can easily return to their parental dashboard for a Managed Account and alter its settings.
Android Central’s Take
This is management made easy for parents. I’ve got a few family members that I know would’ve loved this a few years earlier. Better late than never, right? I think that these Managed Accounts should’ve always been free. It’s not a bad thing to have had free for parents, as I’m sure many let their child use their account. There are still parents that will continue to do so, but at least there’s the option to give them their own “account.”