Spotify has announced an option for families that allows them to add discounted accounts to a primary Spotify account, very much like a carrier family plan. After signing up for a standard $9.99 Spotify Premium subscription, users in the US can add up to four more premium accounts for $5 each, a 50% discount. A family of five can thus get a premium account for each member for a total of $29.99 a month.

Each family member gets his or her own unique login, library, playlists, and access to ad-free and downloaded music on his or her computers, phones, tablets, and whatever else they have that runs Spotify. Strangely, Spotify is only announcing the new feature for the United States at the moment, despite being fairly focused on Europe before the US launch. According to the short press release, the feature will be rolled out worldwide in "the upcoming weeks."

Family members must be invited from a Spotify Premium account to take advantage of the discounted pricing. (The feature may not be enabled in all apps just yet - the promotional page says that "Spotify Family is coming soon.") It's not clear what measures, if any, Spotify is putting in place to keep non-relatives from taking advantage of the discount.

Source: Spotify