Spotify: A family affair

Spotify has announced a new ‘family’ offer that will enable up to four family members to receive a 50% discount on a premium subscription.

This means that a family of five can legally access (almost) all of the music they need for less than £30. As pointed out by The Daily Digest newsletter published by Motive Unknown, this comes in slightly under Rdio’s offer of £17.99 for two plus £5 per additional account.

Each user will get their own account with independent streaming from the big green river alongside separate playlists and recommendations- removing the possibility of blaming all of those One Direction and Ed Sheeran albums or EDM playlists on each other.

Explaining that Spotify constantly has family groups campaigning outside of their HQ, Chief Content Officer Ken Parks said: “This is one of the most asked for features from our audience. With today’s announcement we’re making it easier than ever for the whole family to experience Spotify Premium on their phones, at home and on the go”.

The new family features will roll out globally over the next few weeks.

In other streaming news, this blog on the NY Times site caused quite a stir this month, with the assertion that streaming has essentially devalued music- not an entirely original opinion but expressed in an interesting way and well worth a read alongside Music Ally’s typically well thought out riposte.

The Gen advocates yearning for a pre-digital world about as much as we recommend riding a Penny Farthing into work today (actually, you are probably already doing this if you live in Hackney). However, its important to pause and occasionally consider such arguments in the face of such an instant and ‘everything all of the time’ music consumption culture.