Spotify is expanding free access to kid-friendly managed accounts, allowing parents and guardians on any plan in the US, UK, Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands to open a managed account for a child aged under 13. Free managed accounts are already available in some markets and are soon coming to others, such as Canada, New Zealand and many countries in Europe and Latin America.

The company debuted managed accounts on the Premium Family plan in October last year. These offer younger users a way to use Spotify with parental oversight, including personalized recommendations and the ability to create playlists. Managed accounts are focused on audio — Spotify disables videos and Canvas looping visuals by default. Several privacy and safety measures are enabled: no messaging functions, profiles are unsearchable and private, and young users can't upload profile photos (though they can use avatars).

Explicit content is automatically filtered out, and parents can determine which songs and artists their children can listen to. With younger kids having their own profiles, parents' recommendations should better match their actual listening habits, and Spotify Wrapped should more accurately reflect their own listening.

To add a managed account, open the menu from the home screen in the Spotify app, then tap Add account > Add a child under 13/create a managed account. You can then decide whether to enable videos or explicit content before opening the account.