Here’s Why Spotify Duo Might Be the Best Music Streaming Plan for You

Couple enjoying Spotify Duo
Couple enjoying Spotify Duo

Our in-depth analysis of what Spotify Duo is and who can maximize the value with this plan.

Most group-type subscription plans offered by music streaming providers are usually structured as family plans. But with the launch of Spotify Duo in 2020, listeners now get more flexibility before deciding on a plan that creates the most value for their dollar.

But in what ways is Spotify Duo different from other plans, and how do I know if it’s worth it for me?

One clear difference between Spotify Duo and other plans, such as Spotify Family, is definitely the pricing model. But many other factors are equally important and should be considered alongside pricing.

Unfortunately, it can take a while to analyze and decide if the plan is worth investing in, and most people just aren’t aware of where to start. This is where our guide can come in handy and help you assess all the essential factors before you consider switching to Spotify Duo. Read on to learn more!

What Is Spotify Duo?

Spotify Duo is the latest Premium plan launched by Spotify in 2020, targeting couples (or even roommates and siblings) who live together.

This Spotify 2-person plan essentially offers discounts on the subscription fees for any two people who live at the same address, not necessarily couples.

Each person on this plan has their own Premium account, allowing them to enjoy all of the benefits an individual Premium user would have experienced – at a lower cost.

There is no need to share any login credentials or take turns using the service. Moreover, all of your past saved music and playlists will be retained even after you join the Duo plan.

The person signing up for the plan first will become the Plan Manager. The Plan Manager will be the one:

You will not be able to change the Plan Manager once you’ve signed up for the plan.

How Is Spotify Duo Different From the Other Spotify Premium Plans?

You can choose from four different Spotify Premium plans:

The four different types of Spotify Premium Plans.
The four different types of Spotify Premium Plans.

The following are the main ways Spotify Duo differs from the other plans:

Monthly subscription fees

Woman smiling with dollar bills in hand.
Woman smiling with dollar bills in hand.

Spotify Duo allows up to 2 Premium accounts for only US$12.99, which works out to only US$6.50 per account.

This works out to a monthly saving of US$3.49 if you’re currently on the Individual Premium Plan, or US$1.50 if you’ve been underutilizing your Family Plan with just two members.

But of course, there will be no savings if you change from the Premium Student Plan to Duo. That said, Spotify Premium Duo might still be the best plan that allows you to get the most out of your money whenever your student status eligibility has ceased.

Number of accounts

Spotify Duo runs as a two-account Premium model plan. This means that at any point in time, up to two Premium accounts can be registered for this plan.

Raise your hand if you’re one of the few listeners who has signed up for the family plan without maximizing the number of accounts allowed, only because it would give you a discount of up to US$2 per account compared to the Individual Plan.

Thankfully, the introduction of Duo has introduced more flexibility in terms of the plans offered by Spotify, offering users a way of fully enjoying Premium plan benefits at a discounted rate! No more looking outside of your living space to capitalize on the best of Spotify!

Duo Mix

Duo Mix was a feature only available to people on the Spotify Duo plan when it was first released.

With Duo Mix, you and a friend can share a playlist, and Spotify will suggest songs you might both like based on your listening activity.

On top of that, there are also two mood options for you to choose from. Chill mode for lazy Sundays with easy-to-listen-to laidback tempo and Upbeat mode for your road trips to help lift your spirits with an increase in music tempo.

Spotify Duo Mix.
Spotify Duo Mix.

The Duo Mix features are similar to those offered by Family Mix, an exclusive feature made available only to those on the Family Plan.

However, both Duo and Family Mix have been phased out by Spotify in all markets, as of May 2022.

Not to worry, the silver lining in this scenario is that Spotify’s “Blend,” launched in August 2021 and largely inspired by both Duo and Family Mix, continues to be a trending feature of the platform today.

Instead of limiting the number and type of participants to only those in your Premium plan, Blend allows you to create a collaborative playlist with up to 10 members, regardless of their plan type.

With Blend, you lose the feature of changing the playlist with a switch of the mood, from Chill to Upbeat. However, this feature can be easily replicated by creating multiple Blends with different genres of music saved in them.

Spotify Blend continues to be a rage among users.
Spotify Blend continues to be a rage among users.

You lose some, but you also win some.

With the dropping of the mood feature, Spotify has come up with a new feature that allows users to blend with some of their favourite artists like BTS or Charli XCX. This feature also allows you to find out how alike your music preferences are to those of your favorite artists.

Who Can Get Spotify Duo?

Any two people who live at the same residential address can get Spotify Duo.

Apart from having the same residential address, you can only change your group plans, such as Duo or Family, with Spotify once in every 12 months.

If you have already switched from one group plan to another in the past 12 months, you’ll have to be on the new group plan for 12 months before you’re allowed to make the change again.

How Spotify verifies your residential address

You must be thinking about how the verification is done and if there’s any way you could get around this requirement to enjoy the Duo plan even when living at different addresses.

Years ago, Spotify rolled out preliminary testing of responses for its family users, which required them to verify their addresses via GPS. However, the platform scrapped this idea due to the mounting backlash faced.

Today, Spotify will do its first level of verification during the sign-up phase, where the Plan Manager has to input their residential address.

A sharing link to invite another member to the plan will be provided, in which the member would also have to key in their residential address. This is the first-level verification where Spotify will check that both have entered the same address.

Subsequently, Spotify can request for re-verification of your residential address at any point in time to re-confirm your eligibility for the plan.

It is also worth noting that only the Plan Manager has the visibility and rights to view and make changes to the residential address registered for the plan.

If at any point in time a change of residential address was initiated by the Plan Manager, the member would also be required to re-input his/her address for verification purposes.

Spotify reserves the right to terminate or suspend your plan if they assess that you both are actually living at different addresses and no longer meet the Duo plan’s requirements.

Is Spotify Duo Worth It?

Spotify Duo is certainly worth it if you’re among the users who has either:

  • Signed up for the Individual Premium plan despite having another member of your house on Premium, too; or
  • Underutilizing the Family plan to enjoy the savings from a per-account standpoint as opposed to the Individual plan

Here’s a quick summary of the pros and cons of Spotify Duo.

What We Like
  • Savings in subscription fees
  • Enjoy all of the Individual Premium plan benefits at discounted price
  • Each user gets their own account – no need for sharing login credentials
  • Have your own personalized playlist and customized recommendations from Spotify
  • No need to take turns in using the service (if you’ve been sharing your Individual Premium account)
What We Don't Like
  • Hassle of splitting the fees personally with the other user (for Plan Manager)
  • Hassle of re-verifying addresses as and when requested by Spotify
  • The invited member runs the risk of getting kicked out of the plan (the ability to do so lies solely with the Plan Manager)

Spotify Duo vs. sharing of one Individual Premium plan

If you’ve been sharing your Individual Premium plan with others, you may have already faced disruptions in your listening experience.

This happens because another device is also trying to stream music from your account. This ends up pausing the music that has been playing from your current device.

What’s worse is that the recommendations from Spotify on the new releases and weekly mix might not even be from genres that you enjoy. No thanks to the different listening tastes from the other user you’ve shared your plan with.

With just US$3 more, you’d be able to truly experience an uninterrupted Premium listening experience that Spotify promises with Spotify Duo. You’d also be able to enjoy having suggestions from Spotify that are specifically catered to your tastes.

Spotify Duo vs. two Premium Student plans

If you and another member are eligible for the Premium Student plan, keeping to the Student plan would be the best way to get your money’s worth.

Especially so when your motivation to convert to the Spotify Duo plan is the ability to have a shared playlist via Duo Mix, which has now been phased out and replaced by Blend.

The Student plan also comes with additional perks such as access to Hulu and Showtime, which are only made exclusive to members of the Student plan.

Do other music streaming platforms offer any Spotify Duo alternatives?

No other music streaming platform has any similar offers as Spotify Duo.

The only Premium group plan that most other providers have offered is the Family plan, usually ranging from five to six accounts per plan.

How to Get Spotify Duo?

The 3-step process to get Spotify Duo.
The 3-step process to get Spotify Duo.

Now that you have read through the analysis of Spotify Duo, the next step would be to find out how to get it.

The process of signing up on Spotify Duo will depend on whether or not the Plan Manager has subscribed to Spotify Premium before. As discussed earlier, the Plan Manager is the key person who manages the subscription. So before signing up for Spotify Duo, you’ll need to decide on who the Plan Manager will be.

How to sign up to Spotify Duo: for new users

Once the Plan Manager has been decided, setting up Spotify Duo is pretty easy. Here’s how you can get on the plan.

  1. Head on to the Spotify Duo webpage and click on the “Get Started” button.

    Spotify Duo Get Started Page.
    Spotify Duo Get Started Page.
  2. Login to Spotify with your existing account credentials or sign up for an account if you do not already have one.

    Account login page on Spotify.
    Account login page on Spotify.
  3. Enter in your payment details and click on the green button called “Continue purchase” or “Buy Now”, depending on your chosen payment option, to proceed with the activation of the plan.
    If you have never subscribed to any of Spotify’s Premium plans, you will be able to get a free one-month trial of any of the Premium plans available.

    Enter your payment details to buy the Duo Plan.
    Enter your payment details to buy the Duo Plan.
  4. You can now invite someone to join you on your Spotify Duo plan by clicking on the “Invite Someone” button.

    Inviting member on Duo (From: Spotify Support Page).
    Inviting member on Duo (From: Spotify Support Page)
  5. Send out the invite to the person you wish to share this plan with.

    Sending Invite to join Duo (From: Spotify Support Page)
    Creating invite link for Spotify Duo partner (From: Spotify Support Page)
  6. The other person will receive the invite and should accept the invite by clicking on the “Accept Invite” button.

    The member accepts your invite (From: Spotify Support Page)
    The member accepts your invite (From: Spotify Support Page)
  7. The joining member will then be requested to enter their residential address after logging in to their Spotify account.

    Confirmation of address (From: Spotify Support Page)
    Confirmation of address (From: Spotify Support Page)
  8. Once the addresses entered by both parties are the same and verified, you will be given access to the Spotify Duo plan.

    Welcome to Duo Page (From: Spotify Support Page)
    Spotify Duo welcome page (From: Spotify Support Page)

How to remove a member from your Spotify Duo plan

It takes the same steps to add and remove members from your Spotify Duo plan.

Simply click on the user profile you’d like to remove from your plan on the page that you went to when sending out the initial invite (Step 4 of how to join the plan) and select remove. A pop-up window confirming the removal will show, requesting your confirmation.

How to get Spotify Duo with an existing Premium plan

Spotify's pop-up window prompts users to confirm the removal of members from the Spotify Duo plan (From: Reddit/BottledMaster)
Spotify’s pop-up window prompts users to confirm the removal of members from the Spotify Duo plan (From: Reddit/BottledMaster)

If you’re already on a Premium plan and would like to switch over to Spotify Duo, you’ll need to check your current plan’s end date so you can properly utilize the benefits of the plan you’ve already paid for.

Otherwise, you’ll either have to forgo the prepaid amount before the switch or write to Spotify to get a refund on the unused period.

Do note that if your subscription fees are paid through a third-party, such as your local telecommunication company or iTunes, getting a refund might not be as straightforward as opposed to direct subscription with Spotify.

To play it safe, you could also consider canceling your Spotify Premium plan first before signing up for a new plan.

Next, you should not have switched to other Group plans, i.e., Duo or Family, more than once during the last 12-month period in order to sign up to a new plan. If you have, you will be prompted with a pop-up window informing you that you cannot join the plan.

You can change your Spotify group plan only once in 12 months.
You can change your Spotify group plan only once in 12 months.

In summary, your existing playlists and blends will still be retained with Spotify Duo. It is simply a change of plan that gives you more value for every dollar.

Conclusion

Spotify Duo: Making bonding over music happen effortlessly.
Spotify Duo: Making bonding over music happen effortlessly.

We hope this article will have helped you decide if Spotify Duo is worth your money (or not).

However, objectively speaking (at the time of writing), the Duo plan is the best choice to upgrade to if you’re looking to enjoy Spotify Premium with another person living under the same roof – at lower rates – without all the hassle of sharing each other’s login details.

Besides, you get tracks curated specially for you and can bond with your friend or sibling or roommate even – anywhere and on any device, as long as Spotify has verified that you both live at the same address.

So, which plan did you ultimately choose and why? Do share your experience in the comments below!

1 comment

  1. I have 6 months premium plan for FREE, ending in March 2023. If I sign up for DUO will I lose those free months?

    It looks like I will lose my 6 months, or exactly 4 months of free premium.

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