Spotify brings parent-managed kids' accounts to its free tier

Spotify announced on Wednesday that it’s bringing parent-managed accounts for kids to its free tier. Families in the six countries can now create a Managed Account for their child, a feature that had previously been available only to paid subscribers. Managed Accounts, which launched in 2024, is a shared-account feature that lets parents control what their children listen to on the platform.

Because Managed Accounts are separate from a parent’s own account, a child’s music choices won’t affect the parent’s recommendation algorithm or show up in their annual Spotify Wrapped. Kids can still add songs to their favorites, build their own playlists, and get their own personalized recommendations — the account works like a scaled-down version of a regular Spotify profile, with parental guardrails attached. Parents, meanwhile, can control and restrict playback of specific artists and songs; by default, children can’t listen to music labeled explicit, and video playback is disabled by default too. Interactivity features are limited as well, so kids don’t get access to age-gated features like Messages.

The expansion gives parents more granular control over what their child listens to without requiring the more restrictive standalone Spotify Kids app. To set one up, Family Plan account holders go to their account page in the app, select “Add a Member,” then tap “Add a listener aged under 13 (or the market equivalent).” From there, parents are guided through setup steps including choosing a display name and configuring content preferences, which they can adjust at any time.

The move reflects a broader pattern among major tech companies of giving parents more control over how their children use online platforms, partly in response to regulatory pressure. Spotify says it plans to bring Managed Accounts to more countries soon.

Why it matters

Extending a paid-tier parental control to free users lowers the barrier for families to get child safety features on Spotify without a subscription — a move that tracks with intensifying regulatory scrutiny of how platforms handle young users generally.