Stevie Bonifield

is a news writer covering all things consumer tech. Stevie started out at Laptop Mag writing news and reviews on hardware, gaming, and AI.

Spotify co-CEO Alex Norström confirmed on this week’s earnings call that the company is trying to catch Spotify Family plan users who don’t actually live together with a new QR code verification method that requires scanning the plan manager’s phone. TechCrunch reports that in response to a question about the “crackdown,” he called it a “routine improvement” instead:

This is not as much a crackdown as it is actually a routine improvement of our verification methods for our Family Plan. Family Plan has existed for a long while. It has been around for, I think it is now close to 12, 13 years in Spotify history, and it makes up a pretty significant proportion of our subscriber base.

As such, it is important for us to just make sure over time that we improve the verification methods that we have.…