How does an Apple Music Family Plan work using iTunes on Mac (or PC)?

Hi,

The biggest cons of "Apple Music Family Subscription" are:

1. The songs uploaded via iTunesMatch to one's iCloud library cannot be shared or streamed by other family members.
2. Even for songs that are purchased from iTunes, each family member has to "download" the songs from the "purchased" tab to their individual device before they can play it. In other words, they cannot just "stream" without "downloading". This is a big problem if the device has lower storage capacity.

On the other hand, the biggest pros of "Apple Family Share" are:

1. Each family member can use their own iCloud account AND iTunes account on their individual devices.
2. Sharing photos between the family members is very easy.
3. While sharing the "Apple Music Family subscription" along with "Apple Family Share", each member of the family can have their own play lists, likes etc. In other words, there will not be any cross-contamination between the choices of individual family members.

So, after a lot of trail and error, this is what I found to be the best settings:

1. Do all purchases using a single iTunes Account (Parent Account). Subscribe to Apple Music Family Subscription Plan using the Parent Account (Note: if you do not subscribe to the family subscription plan, you won't be able to stream Apple music from the parent device and the child device at the same time)
2. Set up the parent device using the Parent Account for both iCloud and iTunes. Further, in the "Music" App settings, use the Parent Account for Home Sharing, if enabled. Enable iCloud Music Library.
3. Set up the child device using a Child Account for iCloud and the Parent Account for iTunes. Further, in the "Music" App settings, use the Parent account for Home Sharing, if enabled. Enable iCloud Music Library
4. Setup Apple Family Share with child as a family member. Done!

What you will achieve:

1. Photos can be shared between parent and child just the way Apple Family Share works.
2. Find Friends, Find iPhone etc. works exactly the same way as Apple Family share works.
3. Child will be able to "stream" all songs of the parent's iTunes library (irrespective of if the music was uploaded via iTunes match or purchase from Apple store). No need to "download" the song to the child's device.
4. Child gets access to all purchases of the parent, including the in-app purchases.
5. Using Apple Music Family Subscription Plan, both the parent and the child will be able play Apple Music at the same time (either the same song or different songs).
6. The email, contact, messages etc. of the parent and the child does not get mixed up.

In essence, everything will work the way it should.

The only negative aspect of the above set up is that, the Apple Music preferences of the parent and the child will get mixed up. For example, if the child "likes" a song, more such songs will be shown in the parent's device as well (under "For You"). In other words, the parent and the child cannot keep individual playlist preferences separately.

For me, this is a minor issue that I can easily ignore, considering the fact that my wife can stream my entire music library that I had created via my iTunesMatch subscription.

It took a while for me to figure out all the above. But, so far, everything works fine, or at least the way I want it to work.

Regards,
Dileep

This really bites doesn't it! While I too signed up for the family plan, this explains why Apple Music, be it "For You". "Radio", etc. playing through our home entertainment system via an iPad/Apple TV will stop when I play Apple Music in the car streamed via Bluetooth from my iPhone.

Nice job Apple. You probably lost a Family Plan subscription as it is highly likely I will cease using Apple Music when the free trial period is over.

Or, is perhaps the 3 month free trial is limited to a single device regardless of desired plan signed up for?

Anthony,

Thank you for the update. I suspect Apple Music was having problems initially. I was having problems with the "For You" compilation based on my initial input.

Had a bunch of genre compilations that I had not chosen in my initial selection process. Had to reset (dump) them all and start over. The service seems to be working better now.

Anyway, I had initially selected the Individual Plan as my wife and I use the same Apple ID and your input cleared up the "using two different devices simultaneously with the same Apple ID under the Family Plan". Only problem is. I cannot switch Plans until the free 3 month trial period expires.

I read this in another Forum Thread after spending a couple of hours trying various methods (obviously no joy) for a couple of hours.

Anthony,

So I am having a similar problem. When my wife goes into iTunes/Music she cannot use her Apple ID. If she does it ask her to sign up for apple music. I did as you articulated by your post at 12:22 and not sure I understand "If you have Family Sharing enabled you can also setup these users to access the subscription using their own Apple ID." How do you do this?

Thanks

Dear Anthony C. Kay,

thanks a lot for this post because it helped me to answer to many questions about Apple Music Family Membership.

I have other two doubts that I hope you (or other people) can solve:

- with an apple music family membership, the family members with different accounts share the same mucic and playlists or have the possibility to have their own music library and playlists?

- Can I use Apple Music with iMovie?!

Thanks a lot

None of this makes sense because if you have iTunes match, adding family members via iCloud so they can share your purchases and movies and music is not a paid subscription service. That's all covered under iTunes match

So I see no need for this Apple family music sharing plan because anybody that you deem as family – they don't have to be family how's them to download pretty much any app that you own, music that you own TV shows and music

Only difference I'm seeing here, and it really kind of doesn't make sense is it saying that rather then streaming from Apple to your AppleTV or from Apple to an iOS device now this service allows an iOS device to play host so if I have TV and music and other stuff stored on my iOS device that family members can stream off my iOS device while on Wi-Fi which really makes no sense whatsoever… I see absolutely no reason to stream content from iOS device to iOS device ... Unless for some reason that I cannot fathom a person does not have iTunes, in which case then if the Internet is down they need some form of media library

But the weird thing is I just got charge for this thing $14.99 and I never even signed up for it. I just simply pay for iTunes match four people added to my family and this reoccurring charge just showed up so I immediately canceled it. Apple has absolutely no freaking right to enroll me into a monthly program unless I have explicitly given them permission to do so, and if they have decided to change how the whole iTunes match and family sharing works to where they want to charge for the Fam sharing, then they need to let their customers know and not just simply start charging them out of the blue Because I absolutely refuse to pay 1499 a month to allow my family members access to content that I already purchased… they can have their each individual I Cloud accounts, but since they are signed into iTunes with a common account, then technically family sharing is an even needed whatsoever because Apple would see it as one person owning all of those devices and they would have a license to use the apps, music or whatever all on multiple devices… That's actually what we do in my family, but I have two actual nonfamily members who use their own iTunes login because they make their own purchases with your own money but they still have access to my content via family sharing

Just don't play their game, make sure everybody in your family use the same Apple ID for the iTunes store which covers apps, music, TV, and movies and let them have their own iCloud account, then Fam sharing etc is completely not even needed because Apple limits you to five desktop or laptop computers that you can share information with, but they have an unlimited amount of phones and tablets you can have attached your Apple ID… Between my family members, we have 11 devices attached through my Apple ID – so no family sharing is do you did with any of them because Apple views those devices as my account – the only drawback is they cannot make purchases unless they clear it with me. However I have two nonfamily people – just friends that I share on my family sharing – that way they can access my contacts and I can access their's… But that's a completely free service that's included in the iTunes match service that cost $26 a year… And like I said I really don't see a need to stream between two iOS devices at all unless for some reason you do not have an iTunes library or you were out and about aWay from your iTunes library. Does not everybody can afford the 128 GB storage devices… So I guess I high storage device could be used as a media server, and our family could purchase devices with lower storage and stream between devices

I've uploaded music from CD's I've purchased, onto a computer I purchased, and would like for my family to be able to listen to that music on iPhones I PURCHASED... This is so infuriating! Why does Apple block the music that wasn't purchased from the Apple Store? I purchased all the music in my iTunes. My wife and kids would like to listen to it all....

What can I do to free up the music from my own CD collection? This is just stupid.

<Edited by Host>

Thanks again Anthony. Never thought to try the change using iOS. I was using my MAC via Safari/apple.com/Store/My Account and also iTunes/My Account.