Moving my kids' music to their account

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Level 1

124 points

Moving my kids' music to their account

I'm trying to solve a parent's nightmare - my kids' music is littering my music library.

Our family (me, wife, two kids) have an iCloud Family, with Apple Music through an Apple One membership. We've had Apple Music since launch, but (for historical reasons no longer relevant) share my Apple ID for music and purchases. This was fine when the kids were young and we managed every aspect of their digital lives. They are now teenagers with their own musical...tastes (insert me complaining about "kids these days" as my parents did with me). They add new songs daily, and have created a number of comprehensive playlists. My "Listen now" and other recommendations are heavily biased towards their music. It's time for a musical separation.

I know I can sign them into their own music and purchases accounts, but they'll start from scratch. I'm ok with app purchases - Apple deals with that fine. They have no music purchases (I have plenty from iTunes Store days, not to mention thousands of songs ripped from old CDs - they won't care about any of that).

I've created a playlist of all my Apple Music songs. It appears I can share the playlist with another user. Presumably once I do, my kids can then then add all the songs to their library. I can then do the same with their ~100 custom playlists. I'll then go through my library and delete the songs and playlists. They'll presumably they'll do the same.

Does the above make sense? Or is there another approach to consider?

Posted on Sep 23, 2022 7:42 AM

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Answer 1

Limnos

Level 10

418,033 points

Sep 23, 2022 8:21 AM in response to Mitch Cohen

That's a lot in your question but let's start with a fundamental observation. You cannot transfer music ownership from one Apple ID to another*. You can share music if people are part of your Family Sharing group but the ownership remains permanently tied to the original ID. That means if your children eventually leave your family group the only copies they have will be on hardware to which they downloaded the music. They won't be able to re-download it from Apple once they have left your family group.

I don't have any experience with sharing Apple playlists so I can only direct you to the part about playlist sharing in: How to make a playlist in the Apple Music app - Apple Support

*Legal - iCloud - Apple

IV. Your Use of the Service

"D. No Right of Survivorship

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Answer 2

Mitch Cohen Author

Level 1

124 points

Sep 23, 2022 11:21 AM in response to Limnos

@Limnos - My question is solely about songs and playlists added to a library via Apple Music. Those aren't owned at all, just rented with our Apple Music subscription (via Apple One's family plan). It's basically "I have 10,182 songs in my library - how do I get the same set of songs into another user's library?" The "owned" stuff we have (Apps, some iTunes Store music, and a few TV shows/movies) might only move while they're part of the "family" but that's of no concern for several more years (and probably never, unless their tastes change substantially!).

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