Family Sharing Confusing With Apple Music

[Noble Actual]

Apple Music just launched and so far, there isn't a way for it to allow individuals in family sharing to have their own separate music.

We all have separate iCloud accounts but share one iTunes account for purchases.

Anyone figured out a way in Apple Music to allow each family member not be able to see the other one's music/playlist/etc.

 

[iFanaddic]

I believe they've said that it would be seperate during the keynote itself... From what I got from it, recommendations and playlists will be unique to every family members.

 

[gsmornot]

So it launches tomorrow with two tiers: one for single and one for family (up to 6).

For the family one, Apple states that you need to enable Family Sharing, but how will it work from there?

One thing that is super annoying about iTunes radio is that everyone can not have their own separate radios/playlist. Basically we all have separate iCloud accounts but share 1 iTunes account for purchases.

Apple Music needs to allow everyone in the family to have their music separated. If not, Apple Music will be pretty disappointing.

Family Sharing will force you to give everyone their own iCloud and iTunes logins. You then invite everyone to the family and from then forward all purchases are billed to your card. Each account will have radio stations all their own along with playlists all their own. Each person in the family will have access to the apps each other person buys. You can turn this off but based on your question it seems you want everyone to work as if you're sharing your login but without the overlap that has been part of sharing. Family Sharing will give you this.

Where Family Sharing gets some is when everyone is old enough and pays for iTunes themselves. Going to a single card is not what they wanted. It works for me because I was already the single payer but had to deal with overlap. Now gone since I setup Family Sharing.

 

[Noble Actual]

Family Sharing will force you to give everyone their own iCloud and iTunes logins. You then invite everyone to the family and from then forward all purchases are billed to your card. Each account will have radio stations all their own along with playlists all their own. Each person in the family will have access to the apps each other person buys. You can turn this off but based on your question it seems you want everyone to work as if you're sharing your login but without the overlap that has been part of sharing. Family Sharing will give you this.

Where Family Sharing gets some is when everyone is old enough and pays for iTunes themselves. Going to a single card is not what they wanted. It works for me because I was already the single payer but had to deal with overlap. Now gone since I setup Family Sharing.

Just tried it, and Apple Music is not letting me do it.

1. Same scenario: 4 individual iCloud accounts, 1 iTunes purchase account with Family Sharing
2. Go into Apple Music, see that account is set up with the Family purchase account
3. Download a song on my device, it gets added to all three other devices
4. Want it so that I can download a song/make a playlist/customize radio on mine and it doesn't download on others

 

[gsmornot]

Just tried it, and Apple Music is not letting me do it.

1. Same scenario: 4 individual iCloud accounts, 1 iTunes purchase account with Family Sharing
2. Go into Apple Music, see that account is set up with the Family purchase account
3. Download a song on my device, it gets added to all three other devices
4. Want it so that I can download a song/make a playlist/customize radio on mine and it doesn't download on others

I have been playing with this and so far when I add something to one of my devices its not added to others in my family. I have tried adding songs to my music, making playlists etc and so far no overlap with family.

 

[Phil A.]

Just tried it, and Apple Music is not letting me do it.

1. Same scenario: 4 individual iCloud accounts, 1 iTunes purchase account with Family Sharing
2. Go into Apple Music, see that account is set up with the Family purchase account
3. Download a song on my device, it gets added to all three other devices
4. Want it so that I can download a song/make a playlist/customize radio on mine and it doesn't download on others

It's the '1 iTunes purchase account' that's causing the problem:

1) Add the 4 individual iCloud accounts to the family created when you started family sharing
2) Use these individual iCloud accounts as "iCloud purchasing accounts" on the individual devices and in Apple music
3) Everyone will then have their own music library and it won't be updated by anyone else's downloads

If you use a single account on every device, then every device will sync up whatever is in that account (that's how it's designed to work so it syncs across 1 account's multiple devices)

 

[gsmornot]

You can't have family sharing and have everyone logged into the same iTunes account at the same time can you? Maybe you can. If you do, that is indeed the issue. Everyone needs iCloud and iTunes accounts that belong to them. The only thing shared is the credit card. (plus the shared services added like calendar, reminders, etc)

 

[bwfc0907]

Just tried it, and Apple Music is not letting me do it.

1. Same scenario: 4 individual iCloud accounts, 1 iTunes purchase account with Family Sharing
2. Go into Apple Music, see that account is set up with the Family purchase account
3. Download a song on my device, it gets added to all three other devices
4. Want it so that I can download a song/make a playlist/customize radio on mine and it doesn't download on others

Is it because you have download purchases on all devices in the iTunes settings? Just a thought?

 

[Goalieed]

I have the same setting as the OP, as picked the individual plan. When I started one stream one one device it would auto-pause the previous device. I just switched my subscription to the family plan and now it doesn't auto-stop and seems to play two streams off the single itunesID (App Store ID) and AppleID

 

[Graz9]

I have the same setting as the OP, as picked the individual plan. When I started one stream one one device it would auto-pause the previous device. I just switched my subscription to the family plan and now it doesn't auto-stop and seems to play two streams off the single itunesID (App Store ID) and AppleID

For those that have enabled this, if you go into your apple ID from music and view the subscriptions for Apple Music on a family members device, does it show you the subscription options. Mine seems to imply that the family member needs to chose one?

 

[Goalieed]

For my family we aren't using the family sharing, (ie, all devices are using the same iTunes iD) and just switching to the family plan allows both my iPad and my iPhone to stream concurrently.

 

[gsmornot]

For my family we aren't using the family sharing, (ie, all devices are using the same iTunes iD) and just switching to the family plan allows both my iPad and my iPhone to stream concurrently.

Do you have other devices that are with other family members?

 

[Goalieed]

Just getting them installed now. All of my family using the same iTunes account and separate iCloud account per the original poster.

 

[Marcus_D]

Now, what if you wanted to add a CD which is not in Apple's Music catalog? i.e. rip an audiobook CD.

Would ALL kids/family members be able to access the songs - as it used to work with iTunes Match and the former common AppleID approach?

How do you deal with a scenario like that? We weren't able to find a solution, unfortunately.

 

[andsoitgoes]

Now, what if you wanted to add a CD which is not in Apple's Music catalog? i.e. rip an audiobook CD.

Would ALL kids/family members be able to access the songs - as it used to work with iTunes Match and the former common AppleID approach?

How do you deal with a scenario like that? We weren't able to find a solution, unfortunately.

This is the exact issue I've been trying to figure out.

My kids need access to some music I've ripped for them (it's learning tracks for violin). With iCloud Music Library on, I can't sync the tracks from the computer, it tells me that it can access my "iCloud Music Library"... great, right? Nope.

I know we seem to be dealing with a weird mix since you can't share Match with your family, but yet there doesn't seem to be an alternative. What I'm NOT willing to do is pay for match again to get this working, that's never going to happen and would be a mess anyway.

I was so excited to sign up for this, but I'm now really peeved that it works so terribly for this situation.

 

[whsbuss]

This is the exact issue I've been trying to figure out.

My kids need access to some music I've ripped for them (it's learning tracks for violin). With iCloud Music Library on, I can't sync the tracks from the computer, it tells me that it can access my "iCloud Music Library"... great, right? Nope.

I know we seem to be dealing with a weird mix since you can't share Match with your family, but yet there doesn't seem to be an alternative. What I'm NOT willing to do is pay for match again to get this working, that's never going to happen and would be a mess anyway.

I was so excited to sign up for this, but I'm now really peeved that it works so terribly for this situation.

Can't you place the uploaded/ripped tracks to your music library, create a playlist if needed, then share with them?

 

[stiwi]

It's the '1 iTunes purchase account' that's causing the problem:

1) Add the 4 individual iCloud accounts to the family created when you started family sharing
2) Use these individual iCloud accounts as "iCloud purchasing accounts" on the individual devices and in Apple music
3) Everyone will then have their own music library and it won't be updated by anyone else's downloads

If you use a single account on every device, then every device will sync up whatever is in that account (that's how it's designed to work so it syncs across 1 account's multiple devices)

You are correct but it seems in your scenario you have to forget about using 1 iTunes account on all devices (as per the OP request). This effectively means that all other members will not have an access to in-app purchases.

So it seems it can't be done properly for Apple music, but how about shared storage? So when sharing the storage, can everyone keep their personal iCloud account & the same shared iTunes account? Will the iCloud storage sharing work in this case or all users would also have to change their iTunes account to their personal iCloud account (so same scenario as for Apple Music share?).