Spotify is adding new features to its Family Plan subscriptions to give parents more control over the listening habits of their children. Starting today in Ireland, and “soon” in the other countries where the plan is offered, parents will be able to set the Explicit Content Filter on their children’s accounts, preventing them from playing anything that Spotify marks as explicit. Parents will now have the ability to filter out songs with swearing, violence, drugs and more via an explicit content filter that can be applied to individual accounts. That feature was surprisingly lacking on a plan with the word “family” in it, considering that it might be used by young children.
Other new features include “Family Mix,” giving you access to personalized playlists for the whole family. It’s updated regularly and allows granular control over who can contribute to each session. There’s also a Family Hub making it easier to add and remove users, adjust parental controls and keep your account info up to date.
You’ll still get six individual accounts for $15 per month, as before. Spotify requires that all members reside in the same household, even though tons of people share the feature among friends to save a few bucks. The company recently concluded verification tests to check that Family plans weren’t being abused, but has yet to say whether those will roll out more widely.
