- “Managed” accounts allow parents to create a Spotify experience for their child
- Previously reserved for Premium Family accounts, it is now available to everyone
- Managed accounts are music only, with no messages, but are wrapped
Tired of waiting for your Wrapped summary to find out that KPop Demon Hunters claims the top spot Again — and it certainly wouldn’t be your fault?
Good news: Spotify is expanding its managed account service (which the big green streaming machine launched about two years ago, as part of its paid family subscriptions) to the free, ad-supported service.
This gives young listeners the opportunity to have their own personalized Spotify experience (including their own Wrapped Summary), but within what Spotify calls a “focused, music-only experience.”
With managed accounts (which must be set up by an adult “account manager,” usually a parent or guardian), young listeners can create their own playlists and receive personalized recommendations for new music. Yes, our favorite Daylist feature, as well as a packed summary at the end of each year, are both built-in.
The company tells me that while 90% of parents using Spotify agree that listening to music on the platform is a good use of their children’s time (compared to just a third of parents when asked the same question about games), parents don’t really want their Wrapped playlists to be influenced by their nine-year-old.
Spotify also reports that more than 70% of kids now listen to music every week, but kids asking their parents to play their favorite tune (often a lot) can cause family friction, especially when kids fight for airtime with a sibling, or simply ignore what mom might want to listen to in the car.
Managed Accounts on Spotify: What You Need to Know (And Why They’re Golden)
As shown in the image above, the process of creating a managed account is simple using the “Add Account” tab. As every parent in the UK knows, plans are afoot to ban under-16s from social media. So this can only be seen as a smart and welcome move on Spotify’s part.
The basics are: In addition to Spotify’s filters for explicit lyrics or content, parents and guardians can manually filter content and manage playback of specific artists or tracks.
Video looping and Canvas visuals are also always disabled by default for managed accounts. During its initial rollout, Spotify says 60% of parents opted to keep video content turned off, which is why in this broader rollout – it’s coming to 17 markets worldwide today – it’s turned off by default.
Additionally, the default features of managed accounts mean they are automatically set to private and unsearchable, with no profile photos (just avatars), and younger listeners won’t have access to messages.
Spotify tells me that managed accounts are generally aimed at children aged 7 to 12, who aren’t yet ready to create a full account but want to establish their identity and explore their love of music on their own, through their own managed account.
Again, managed accounts are currently only for music, meaning no podcasts, videos, or audiobooks. But Spotify says the experience will evolve as the company continues to work closely with parents as well as Spotify’s team of six external partners, including the Spotify Safety Advisory Council.
Does your child need their own phone? No, there is a device switching option, which locks the account holder’s content with a PIN, so the managed account holder can start streaming with the default and added controls and filters deployed.
And when your children grow up (it happens so quickly!), what happens? Once a child reaches the minimum age for their respective market, they can “request” the primary account holder to upgrade to a full account. Once the owner of a managed account turns 18, that young person can change their own account to a regular account, so no playlists are left behind.
Follow TechRadar on Google News And add us as your favorite source to get our news, reviews and expert opinions in your feeds.
The best Bluetooth speakers for every budget
