Can I change my Primary email address to the alternate one.

The iCloud.com email address is already a separate Apple ID. That is why you cannot make an Apple domain email address (@me, @mac, or @iCloud.com) into the primary email for an existing Apple account.

You can either leave your old account intact and set up your password on that account to match your new iCloud account password, or you can get a different email address, use that as the primary, and then set up iCloud on that existing account.

If you leave the old address, the reason you would want to make the password the same as your new iCloud account password is because all of your purchased media is tied to the old Apple ID. You can start purchasing media from this point on with the iCloud ID, but if you want to retain your existing Media, then there will be times when you have to supply the password to the old ID. Making them the same means you don't have to worry about which one is asking for a password.

Best of luck,

GB

OK, so you cannot make it the main one for the reasons I cited. You will have to set up a new email address on one of the other services. I don't believe that you have to use that email - I think you can set up your Mail account as an iCloud mail account and use that email as your mail account, but not positive about that....

I'll see if any of our Mail experts can look in and provide suggestions.

Cheers,

GB

If you have purchases on the present account you do not want to create a new ID as you can't transfer purchases from one ID to another: furthermore you can't keep changing accounts in iTunes, there is a 90-day wait to change to a different account.

Despite your reluctance you are going to have to set up an email address somewhere - it must not be currently associated with an Apple ID. Possibly the ISP which provides your internet connection can supply you with an email service, otherwise a Yahoo or Hotmail address will be the best bet. Please follow this procedure carefully to avoid problems:

1. Firstly, sign out of iCloud on all your devices: go to each of your devices and sign out in System Preferences (or Settings)>iCloud - 'Sign out' on a Mac, 'Delete this account' on an iOS device (this will not delete the account from the server). If you have 'Find My iPhone' etc enabled you will need to disable it first. Your synced data will disappear from your devices but will reappear when you sign back in.
2. Create a new email address, for example at Yahoo or Gmail, or anywhere convenient (or you can use an existing address as long as it is not associated with an Apple ID).
3. Go to http://appleid.apple.com and click 'Manage your Apple ID'. Sign in with the current ID.
4. Where it says 'Apple ID and primary email address' and gives your current ID email address, click 'edit'.
5. Enter your new address and click 'Save changes'
6. Sign back into iCloud on all your devices with the new ID and password. Your synced data will reappear (give it time).

I reiterate - before you start, sign out of iCloud on all your devices. Failure to do this will lead you into difficulties.