Family Sharing - sharing content purchased outside iTunes

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CharlieG2010 Author

Level 1

5 points

Family Sharing - sharing content purchased outside iTunes

I have a ton of content (mostly music) in my iTunes library that was not purchased from the iTunes store (i.e. songs ripped from CDs, purchased on other sites, etc.). Is it possible to share this content with my wife/children without having them login to my iTunes account?

For years, my family has used individual accounts for iCloud (calendars, reminders, etc.), but we all shared my account for the iTunes Store. This gave everyone in the family access to our music, which was stored in my iTunes library and in iCloud via iTunes Match. T

With Apple Music now available, I want to take advantage of the family plan (the $14.99/mo plan) and give everyone in my family the ability to stream songs at the same time. This requires iCloud Family Sharing to be enabled, which means having everyone login to their own account for the Store/Music. I know that family members would then have access to the content we have purchased in the iTunes Store, but I don't know if it's possible to share non-iTunes Store content like songs I've ripped from CDs. I understand that my iTunes Match account is not shared with iCloud Family Sharing, and I don't want to purchase an iTunes Match plan for everyone in my family. Even if I did, it seems there would still be the problem of populating iTunes Match, since most of our content is coming from my iTunes library (vs. from iTunes Store purchased content).

If turning on Family Sharing means that everyone in my family (besides me) loses access to our large iTunes library - most of which was acquired outside the iTunes Store - then I'm afraid it's a deal breaker for me. Hoping that's not the case.

Thanks for any help...

Posted on Oct 12, 2015 9:34 AM

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Answer 1

Best reply

Winston Churchill

Level 10

122,493 points

Oct 12, 2015 8:40 PM in response to CharlieG2010

You could always put the content manually into their own iTunes library, but...

Is this really necessary, if you are going to subscribe to Apple Music then each of you has access to ALL of the approximate 40,000,000 tunes in the iTunes Store. There may well be a couple of tunes in your collection that aren't in the store, but realistically there won't be all that many.

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Answer 2

CharlieG2010 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 12, 2015 8:40 PM in response to Winston Churchill

The only gap that I'm aware of in Apple Music compared to my personal collection acquired outside of iTunes is The Beatles catalog. We do like The Beatles, but I probably wouldn't be so focused on their music if my young son wasn't completely hooked on Yellow Submarine and Ob-la-di...😉

I'm thinking you are right about the separate iTunes libraries really being the only alternative...if I can't just live with the Apple Music catalog. Might give that a try during the Apple Music trial and see if they can live without The Beatles, and if they find anything else they miss.

Thanks much for the reply.

Charlie

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Answer 3

Oct 13, 2015 12:27 AM in response to CharlieG2010

Don't forget you get iTunes Music Library with Apple music. I'm fairly fond of the Beatles too, listen to Thirty Days a lot (Check it out if you aren't familiar) It's not easy listening, but very informative)

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Answer 4

CharlieG2010 Author

Level 1

5 points

Oct 13, 2015 2:01 PM in response to Winston Churchill

...but iTunes Music Library is user specific and there's no way to share it, correct? I see that I have access to all of our music via iTunes Music Library, but none of my family members can see our "personal" music (music we own, acquired outside of iTunes Store, and not in Apple Music).

The way I think it ought to work (the way I wished/hoped it worked) was that Apple Music was "per user," including playlists, etc., but that our iTunes Music Libraries would each be populated from our (err...my) physical iTunes library on our Mac.

Maybe to simplify my original question: How can I share Beatles music with my family when I purchased the music outside of the iTunes Store? The way I used to share it was to have everyone login to the same iTunes Store account. Now I can't do that with Family Sharing/Apple Music Family Plan.

The answer seems to be, "You can't...unless you duplicate your physical iTunes library for each user." (Which I assume would populate each of their iTunes Music Library with our non-iTunes Store music.)

Thanks again for the help/info/ideas!

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Answer 5

Oct 14, 2015 12:19 AM in response to CharlieG2010

CharlieG2010 wrote:

...but iTunes Music Library is user specific and there's no way to share it, correct? .....

...The answer seems to be, "You can't...unless you duplicate your physical iTunes library for each user." (Which I assume would populate each of their iTunes Music Library with our non-iTunes Store music.)

Thanks again for the help/info/ideas!

That's correct, but since Apple music should give you access to 95% of what you want, the only bit you need to duplicate between libraries is the tunes that aren't available to iTunes music library.

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