Setting up a managed account

For: Parents or legal guardians

If you’re a Premium Family plan manager, check out Setting up a managed account on Premium Family.

Learn more about managed accounts for young listeners, or check out our Parental guide for important information.

How to create a managed account

To create a managed account, the parent or legal guardian needs their own account. If they don’t have one, they need to sign up first.

You can also change an existing Spotify account to a managed account.

• Creating a new managed account

  On mobile

  1. Tap your profile picture at the top.
  2. Tap Settings and privacy .
  3. Tap Parental controls.
  4. Tap Create next to Create a managed account.

  Alternatively, you can create a new managed account on your account page:

  1. Go to your account page.
  2. Under Account, select Parental controls.
  3. Select Create next to Create a managed account.

• Changing an existing account to a managed account

  To change a young listener’s account to a managed account, they need to log in to their account first.

  1. Tap their profile picture at the top.
  2. Tap Settings and privacy.
  3. Tap Parental controls.
  4. Tap the link ‘Invite a parent or guardian to manage your account’.
  5. Tap Continue, then scan the QR code or login temporarily by tapping Parent login.
  6. Follow the on-screen instructions to give parental consent and set up the managed account. Note: For detailed steps, see ‘Giving parental consent’ below.

  Important: When you change an account to a managed account, the young listener will immediately lose access to some content and features - including any active add-ons, which will be canceled automatically. Their listening history and some of their personal information will be deleted. You have 7 days to undo this change. After that, the change becomes permanent, and the process to delete the data begins.

  Change back from a managed account

  When you change a young listener’s account into a managed account, we send you an email confirmation.

  If you want to undo this change, you have to click the Change back button in our email.

  Note: You have 7 days to change back from a managed account. Once the account is changed back, it will be on the free, ad-supported plan.

• Upgrade a managed account to Premium

  If you’ve already created a managed account on our free, ad-supported plan and want to upgrade it to Premium, you need to be the plan manager of a Premium Family account. Check out How to change Premium plans.

Then, follow the steps to:

• Give parental consent
• Choose a parental controls PIN
• Enter a name and date of birth for the young listener
• Set parental controls
• Log in to the managed account

Note: You can change these settings anytime in Parental controls.

Giving parental consent

When creating a managed account, we ask you to confirm you’re the parent or guardian and provide consent using one of the methods below, which may include verification through Yoti, a trusted digital identity company. For more information about how we process your personal data, see our Privacy Policy.

Visit our Safety and Privacy center for more details about our partnership with Yoti.

• Photo of your ID

  We’ll take a photo of your passport, driver’s license, or national ID.

  Note: We don’t store your photo.

  1. Select Continue.
  2. Select Get started.
  3. Select the type of ID you want to use, and Continue.
  4. Follow the instructions to position your ID in the frame, and take photos. Note: We may ask you to enable camera access.
  5. While we verify the ID, confirm you’re the parent or guardian of the young listener.
  6. Select Continue to confirm.

• Credit or debit card

  We’ll check your card details for parental consent.

  Note: We won’t charge or save your card.

  1. Enter your card details.
  2. Select Check card details.
  3. While we verify the card, confirm you’re the parent or guardian of the young listener.
  4. Select Continue to confirm.

Logging in to the managed account

How you log in depends on whether you share a device with the young listener.

• If you’re logging in on another device

  1. Open the Spotify app on the young listener's device.
  2. Log in using the parent or guardian’s details.
  3. On the Who’s listening? page, select the managed account.

  Or use a QR code to log in:

  1. Tap your profile picture at the top.
  2. Tap Settings and privacy .
  3. Tap Parental controls.
  4. Select the young listener’s account.
  5. Tap Login options at the top.
  6. Select Log in on another device.
  7. On the young listener’s device, open the camera or QR code scanner.
  8. Scan the QR code.
  9. Tap the link to log them in.

  Having trouble?

  • Check both devices have the latest app version
  • Refresh the QR code and scan again

• If you’re logging in on the same device

  1. Log in to the Spotify app using the parent or guardian’s details.
  2. Tap on the profile picture.
  3. Tap Settings and privacy .
  4. Tap Parental controls.
  5. Select the young listener’s account.
  6. Tap Login options at the top.
  7. Select Log in on this device.
  8. Tap the button to log in to the managed account.

  To switch between accounts:

  1. Tap on the profile picture.
  2. Select the account you want to switch to.

  Note: You’ll need to enter the parental controls PIN if the account you’re switching to requires it.

Control managed account settings

Under Parental controls, you can:

• Manage playback of content labeled as explicit, videos and Canvas, and specific artists or songs
• Change your PIN
• Edit each managed account’s name and date of birth
• Create and delete managed accounts

• Manage the playback of content

  For each managed account, you can decide to enable or not these content settings:

  1. Tap your profile picture at the top.
  2. Tap Settings and privacy .
  3. Tap Parental controls.
  4. Select the managed account.
  5. Switch the toggle on or off next to Explicit content and/or Videos and Canvas. Note: If the managed account is on our free plan, video ads can’t be turned off and Canvas visuals will still sometimes show with audio ads.
  6. Tap Manage artists or songs to choose specific artists or songs that this young listener won’t be able to play. Note: This lets you both view and update content the young listener can’t play, and search for new artists or songs to manage, all in one place.

  Additionally, you can manage playback of specific artists or songs directly from their page, either on your device or the young listener’s:

  Your device

  1. On your account, tap next to the artist or song.
  2. Select Manage playback for young listeners.
  3. Turn off to disable playback next to the account’s name.
  4. Tap Done to save changes.

  Young listener’s device

  1. On the managed account, tap next to the artist or song.
  2. Select Disable playback.
  3. Enter your PIN.
  4. Tap Yes, Disable to save changes.

  Notes:

  • Disabling playback of a song labeled as explicit will disable both the explicit and clean versions. To disable playback of only songs labeled as explicit, see the details above on content settings.
  • Some songs have multiple versions, such as remixes. Make sure you disable each individually.
  • From your device, you can re-enable playback of an artist or song by repeating the steps above but switch the toggle on instead. It’s not possible to re-enable playback from the young listener’s device.
  • Any song, artist, or explicit content that young listeners were allowed to consume before you disabled playback may be reflected in their listening history.

• Change your PIN

  1. Tap your profile picture at the top.
  2. Tap Settings and privacy .
  3. Tap Parental controls.
  4. Select Change PIN.
  5. Enter the new PIN, and tap Save at the top of the screen.

• Edit name and date of birth

  On mobile

  1. Tap your profile picture at the top.
  2. Tap Settings and privacy .
  3. Tap Parental controls.
  4. Select the managed account.
  5. Tap their name or date of birth, and make any changes.
  6. Tap Save at the top of the screen.

  On your account page

  1. Go to your account page.
  2. Under Account, select Parental controls.
  3. Select the managed account.
  4. Select their name or date of birth, and make any changes.
  5. Select Save profile.

• Delete a managed account

  Note: The managed account and its data will be permanently deleted and removed from your plan.

  On mobile

  1. Tap your profile picture at the top.
  2. Tap Settings and privacy .
  3. Tap Parental controls.
  4. Select the managed account you want to delete.
  5. Scroll down to Delete account, and tap Delete.
  6. Tap Delete again to confirm.

  On your account page

  1. Go to your account page.
  2. Under Account, select Parental controls.
  3. Select the young listener’s profile.
  4. Select Delete account.