Sharing itunes music with family

[BigN8]

What are you other family IT directors doing out there for iTunes and music. Currently I have everyone setup with the same Apple ID (mine) for iTunes, then they have their own Apple ID for all the other stuff like pictures, calendar, etc. I was reading about Family Sharing, but I can't really see how that is any different than they way I have it setup now. Keep in mind my kids are 16 almost 17 and 17 almost 18, so I don't really worry too mush about blocking content. You should hear the stuff they listen to in the weight room at the HS!

Also, I am thinking about setting up ITunes Match. Anyone have experience with this??? Seems like this is the best deal if I have a bunch of CD's I need to add to my library and I also have some Amazon music I need to import into my library. Not to mention some music from the ole Napster days that I have stored on an external hard drive.

 

[Bruce]

Your current system may work better for you than Family Sharing. We use Family Sharing. My parents are on my account and have Rana and my old iPhones. They were connected to Rana's iCloud account but that resulted in issues with shared contacts, calendar, etc. Moving the parents to their own iCloud accounts and using Family Sharing to share purchases works better for us. But it is not obvious to me when Rana purchases music so I miss out on immediately having the music she has purchased.

 

[4x15mph]

Moved off of iTunes awhile ago. My family now uses music services since you can download whatever you want, share playlists, and everyone gets what they want for roughly $9.99/month. I subscribe to Google Play and Tidal currently and I have been through others that eventually get bought; Mog, others

These music services are also available through Sonos which I stream through any room in my house as well.

Consider freeing yourself of iTunes unless you have the need to use an ipod.

 

[Mainah]

Spotify is what all of the teens are using now. I do like the mobile Spotify interface better than the apple music one.

 

[BigN8]

Moved off of iTunes awhile ago. My family now uses music services since you can download whatever you want, share playlists, and everyone gets what they want for roughly $9.99/month. I subscribe to Google Play and Tidal currently and I have been through others that eventually get bought; Mog, others

These music services are also available through Sonos which I stream through any room in my house as well.

Consider freeing yourself of iTunes unless you have the need to use an ipod.

Hmmmmm. I never thought about it from that angle. So essentially you will never buy a song again just continue to rent the streaming service? What about creating playlists? Can you still do that? Can you literally pull up and listen to any song you want or is it like Pandora and it's more of a shuffle of random songs of the same genre?

 

[Mainah]

Spotify allows you to listen to any song and download for offline listening with paid subscription. Apple music allows the same with paid subscription. I am a apple fan for the family enviorment as it just works but must say they need to make ease ofcontent access improvements to the mobile ui.... Hence spotify. Apple music does give you a free trial.

Yes monthly subscription as opposed to content ownership is the new model that may make sense for some. Frankly I got tired of supporting connent ownership and access on my home network and must say that I love on demand cloud content. I however do NOT put anything in cloud that I don't want just anyone to have access to so I do still run a raid NAS and keep protected hard copies of some things.

 

[BigN8]

How much data does it take for 3 users using Spotify or Apple Music? 20 GB/Month enough?

 

[4x15mph]

@BigN8, Yes, any song any time. You can stream the music, download the music that you want, create playlists, and share. My 2 kids listen to music and we have come close to the 15gb limit on our family plan but after I scared them, I suspect they used less snapchat and instagram vs. stream music which is less data intensive.

You really should look at this. It is a game changer in terms of music.

 

[BigN8]

Okay, so after the great advice and wisdom of this forum I'm down to which one to pick!!! Apple Music or Spotify???!!! From the reviews and head to head comparisons it seems Apple Music is the best value for a family but Spotify has a better user interface. I'm leaning towards Appke Music

 

[Bruce]

I am not a fan of Apple Music. I prefer to buy the music in an industry standard format and be able to use it where and how I want.

 

[robert843]

I agree with @Bruce the family sharing is not good. I had many devices on it and at one point text messages I needed for work wound up on iPads and not coming to my phone and many other quirky things.

 

[JetPowered]

Since both services are essentially month to month, you can try and cancel if you don't like. Apple Music is set to get a facelift next month with the release of iOS 10 that should fix most of the usability problem it's currently suffers.

You should also look into a Plex server as a storage/streaming solution of the songs you have existing should you decide not to go the Spotify or Apple Music route or you have a large collection of music that you made or collected over the years. It can easily be setup to stream music and video outside of the house.

 

[Joe Hellaby]

Google play music... We buy the family plan for $15 a month (they also sell individual for $10) I love how it also comes with YouTube Red, and I don't get any ads on youtube anymore
And we also have a Plex server running that everyone in my family is connected to

 

[jcurrier]

I have My wife, both my kids and and ipad I keep in my boat on their own apple id setup with family sharing. now they all get their own messages and own accounts and its not all tied to me but we can share purchases. Then I bought apple music and every person is allowed to have whatever song they want on their own library for 14.95. I have my boat on there as well so if people want to listen to whatever they just pick it up and play it. Works great.

 

[BigN8]

Guys, thank for all the input! I'm so glad I threw it out there for opinions, otherwise I would have never dove into the rabbit hole that is Streaming music! After much research and a couple trial runs of different services, I decided to sign up for Apple Music. As soon as I did my teenagers went bonkers!!! They had no idea I was looking at doing it. The UI is a little better on Spotify but the trade off on price is not worth it. For a 4 person family Spotify ends up being $25/month. Apple music I can get 6 people on the service for $15/month. Also I hear the Apple Music UI is going to be over hauled in a few months. It truly is amazing. I can search any artist or song and BAM, there it is for my listening pleasure. The stations are pretty cool, and I am already discovering new music that I have been missing out on with my normal routine.

Another great benefit of the family sharing of Apple Music is the photos and calendar function. We can now add events or appointments to the Family Calendar and everyone can see them and stays up to date. Sad to say, but this is one of the things I was most excited about!!

 

[4x15mph]

Right! You are all set.