Spotify is expanding free access to kid-friendly managed accounts

Spotify is expanding free access to kid-friendly managed accounts Younger users can have their own profiles with personalized recommendations and playlists. Spotify is making managed accounts free in more markets. Starting today, parents and guardians on any plan in the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands can open a managed account for a child aged under 13. Spotify says free managed accounts are already available in some markets and are soon coming to others, such as Canada, New Zealand and many countries in Europe and Latin America. The company debuted managed accounts on the Premium Family plan in October last year. These offer younger users a way to use Spotify with parental oversight. They include personalized recommendations and the ability to create playlists. Managed accounts are focused on audio — Spotify disables videos and Canvas looping visuals on such accounts by default. Several privacy and safety measures are enabled too. There are no messaging functions and profiles are unsearchable and private. Young users with a managed account can't upload a profile photo, though they can use an avatar. Explicit content is automatically filtered out, and parents and guardians can determine which songs and artists their children can listen to. With younger kids having their own profiles, that means your own recommendations should better match what you actually listen to. Your Spotify Wrapped should more accurately reflect your own listening habits too, unless perhaps your offspring badger you to play their favorites all the time in the car. To add a managed account, open the menu from the home screen in the Spotify app, then tap Add account > Add a child under 13/create a managed account. You should then see a screen that explains what a managed account is. Tap Continue, then you can decide whether to enable videos or explicit content before opening the managed account.