> That is interesting and I wonder how you prevent password sharing.
I think the Spotify example above is the correct model here: you'll never "prevent" password sharing so long as passwords are easily shared. (Even the idea of trying to use Google or Facebook accounts is just externalizing how easily the passwords are shared to a third party. There's still plenty of shared/group Google and Facebook accounts around.)
But what the Spotify example (among others now too) show is that you can incentivize people to use their own individual accounts by making it easier to accounts to band together in billing cycles as a group (or family) and making that bundling convenient and cheap enough that they prefer it to account sharing. (Plenty of people still share Spotify accounts, but it is certainly far fewer than if they didn't have such a strong family plan option that encourages people to use individual accounts.)
Agreed, my wife and I have shared a single Spotify account since forever: I would just “offline” playlists and then block network access to Spotify. But now that their family plans are well priced and our kid is starting to want to use Spotify we’ll be getting a family plan soon.
I think the Spotify example above is the correct model here: you'll never "prevent" password sharing so long as passwords are easily shared. (Even the idea of trying to use Google or Facebook accounts is just externalizing how easily the passwords are shared to a third party. There's still plenty of shared/group Google and Facebook accounts around.)
But what the Spotify example (among others now too) show is that you can incentivize people to use their own individual accounts by making it easier to accounts to band together in billing cycles as a group (or family) and making that bundling convenient and cheap enough that they prefer it to account sharing. (Plenty of people still share Spotify accounts, but it is certainly far fewer than if they didn't have such a strong family plan option that encourages people to use individual accounts.)