Spotify rolling out parental controls to match Apple Music

Spotify announced that it is updating its Family Plans to allow parents greater control over what music their kids can access.

Rival Apple Music already offers such controls, thanks to Apple’s broader push to help parents more easily monitor their kids’ use of gadgets and share content across family devices.

Now Spotify will update its Premium Family plan to let parents filter out explicit content on their kids’ accounts. For $15 per month, Spotify’s family service allows up to six users who reside at the same address to share an account.

In practice, these family accounts have functioned separately, with little overlap or interaction. The controls are part of a new administrative hub that attempts to centralize some aspects of the various accounts.

This includes creating a Family Mix that generates personalized playlists based on all family users’ listening habits. Parent administrators can control whose listening preferences contribute to the playlist.

The Family Hub will also make it easier to add or remove users and to adjust parental controls.

The update has gone live in Ireland and will be gradually rolling out to users around the globe.

While hardly revolutionary, it’s an important move as Spotify and Apple Music continue to battle for the users just now entering streaming markets.

With family plans costing about the same, tighter controls and safeguards for kids could be an important factor for family-oriented users who are weighing their options.