Canceling isn't closing
Spotify keeps these apart, and so should your family. Canceling Premium stops the charge. Spotify says Premium runs until the next billing date, then the account switches to its plan with ads and no monthly charge, and you keep your playlists and saved music.
Closing the account is the other thing, and Spotify's page calls it deleting your data permanently. After closing, Spotify emails a link that can reactivate the account within 7 days. After those 7 days it can't be brought back and the deletion begins. Any audiobooks bought on the account go too.
So the gentle order is: cancel first, save what matters, and close later, or never. Nothing has to be decided the first week.
If you pay for a Family or Duo plan
Then you're what Spotify calls the plan manager, the only person who signs up and pays; Spotify never charges the other members. Its Duo page says the plan manager can't be changed once the plan is created, and its Family page offers no way to hand the plan to someone else.
Here's the part that should take a worry away. Every member has a separate account and logs in with their own details, and Spotify says you keep your playlists, saved music and settings whichever plan you move to or from. So when your plan ends, your partner and children lose Premium from the next payment date, not their music. One of them starts a new plan from their own account and invites the others. Spotify notes that a member can only switch plans once every 12 months, so if that gets in the way, ask its support team.
A child's managed account moves to the plan with ads if the Family plan is canceled.
How your family reaches Spotify
Spotify's own way to cancel is the account page, which needs your login, and its terms say a username and password are for your personal use only. So your family's way is to write to Spotify: its Contact us page offers a message to its support team, which asks you to log in first, so they'd use a Spotify account of their own. It says there's no support by phone. If Premium came through a phone or internet company, Spotify says to cancel with that company.
What Spotify asks a family to show isn't published anywhere on its support site, so they should expect to be asked, and have a copy of the death certificate ready in case.
One thing they can't do is take the account over as theirs. The terms also say your rights under them can't be transferred to anyone.
Saving the playlists
This is the part to do now, while it's easy. Spotify publishes new playlists to your profile by default, and anyone you share a playlist with can play it, follow it and pass it on. Its playlists page also describes Add to other playlist, which copies every track into a playlist of your own.
So ask the people who'd want them to copy the ones they love into their own accounts. A copy in their account is theirs, and it doesn't depend on what happens to yours. The playlist called Gym that you haven't opened since 2019 can be left to its fate.
What to write down
- That you have a Spotify account, and the email address it's under
- Whether you pay Spotify or another company, and whether it's a Family or Duo plan with other people on it
- Who should cancel it, and whether you'd like it closed or just left on the plan with ads
- Which playlists matter, and who should have a copy
