Family Sharing download charges?

The short answer is, it depends.

First, Apple Music provides streaming and downloads, but only for as long as you have access to a subscription either individually or by Family Sharing. In that case you can just download it for free.

Alternatively, if you wish to keep a copy permanently so even if you get completely cut off from the Apple Music service, you have to buy a copy. See:

Add music from the Apple Music catalog to your library - Apple Support - Add and download music from Apple Music - Apple Support - examples Why does it show the tracks price when I … - Apple Community

Read the next section as to who ends up paying for it if you choose to go that route. Basically it depends upon if you have enough money in your Apple Account to pay for it, or if the charges have to roll over to the Organizer's payment method.

From: How to share purchases with your family - How to share purchases with your family - Apple Support

"When you turn on purchase sharing, everyone in your family gets access to apps, music, movies, TV shows, and books that family members buy. The family organizer is billed for family members' purchases"

The second phrase is a bit over-simplified because others can still pay for their own items, they just have to use personal account balance to do so. Turning on purchase sharing simply activates the feature whereby if a family member does not have adequate personal balance to pay for something then the organizer's payment method (e.g., credit card) will be charged.

Read the document for the link to "learn how purchases are billed if a family member has Apple ID balance". This tells you how it works.

The payment method for Family Sharing is automatic:

1. If anybody in the family buys or subscribes to something, Apple first attempts to charge the item to that individual's Apple Account (Apple ID) balance, if any.

2. If a family member does not have enough personal Apple Account balance, any excess will be charged to the Family Organizer's primary payment method (usually a card of some kind). The Organizer's personal balance will not be used for purchases made by other family members. If it cannot bill the primary payment method, the Organizer will need to make another payment method the primary method.

- "Some purchases, including gifts, can't be billed to Apple ID balance and will be charged to the family organizer's payment method." "Some subscriptions might not be charged to Apple ID balance."

Ref:

- Family purchases and payments - How to share purchases with your family - Apple Support

- How apps, content, and subscriptions from Apple are billed - How apps, content, and subscriptions from Apple are billed - Apple Support

- Check your Apple ID balance - Check your Apple Account balance - Apple Support

- Change, add, or remove Apple ID payment methods - Change, add, or remove Apple ID payment methods - Apple Support

Just so it is clear. Music from Apple comes in two flavors. One requires an active Apple Music subscription to play. You can download an offline version which I believe it will play for a short while without being in touch with Apple but after a certain period of time it will want to "call home" and check there is still a subscription active. If it can't find one then it disappears from your device. The other is DRM-free. You buy a copy and it will play even if you go live on the moon for a year.

At times Apple goes a bit overboard in minimalism in language so don't confuse Apple Music with music you have bought from Apple. ;-)

Realize that even if you bought something, if a distributor pulls the item from the Store it will no longer be available for downloading again should you not have your own local copy. I would therefore recommend you always keep multiple backups of everything. I regard iCloud and re-downloading as more a convenience rather than Apple providing a 100% reliable archiving and backup service.

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