Spotify is making some changes to the “Kids” accounts or profiles to ensure their choice of songs does not mess up the algorithm for adults. Parents with Spotify’s Family plan can now try to keep their kids’ playlists away from their algorithm and recommendations.
Spotify couldn’t fully separate adult and kids profiles?
The Spotify Family plan allows a family to enroll multiple members, with each having a personal and custom profile. However, these profiles for kids weren’t completely segregated in the backend.
The choice of songs, genre, and pattern of listening from the kids’ profiles seemed to filter into the accounts of adults. Needless to say, this messed up the algorithm and recommendations for a parent’s Spotify profile.
To address this, Spotify launched a dedicated app for kids’ accounts. Thereafter, the streaming giant added a feature to exclude specific playlists from a user’s taste profile. However, these features still fall short of completely separating the profiles, songs, algorithms, and recommendations.
Spotify Family gets new setting to manage ‘Family’ profiles
Moving forward, Spotify is trying a seemingly simpler technique to keep the two profiles from intermixing recommendations. The company has reportedly launched a pilot in three countries, “to test managed accounts for users under the age of 13”
“For parents and guardians, managed accounts enable them to better tailor the content that is available to young listeners via in-app controls—like managing the playback of Canvas, videos, and content labeled as explicit. They will now also be able to decide whether a young listener can play certain artists or tracks with Spotify’s new control feature.”
Currently, Spotify offers the Spotify Premium Family plan for $19.99 per month. It is testing the new settings in Denmark, New Zealand, and Sweden. Although Spotify hasn’t confirmed yet, the new method to keep the two recommendation algorithms separate could soon arrive for US subscribers.
