[vladimir]

Hi everyone,

My wife and i have separate logins and separate iTunes accounts with separate music, audiobooks etc. The way i see it, if we wanted to listen to same music, we'd have to buy it twice through iTunes, even though we are using the same iMac. Family sharing only works with 1 account across multiple computers, but not different people accessing same information.

So... if we created a new AppleID, new iMac (joint) login and set up a dedicated "family" iPod, this would allow us to download/buy music to a joint account. Am i thinking this correctly or just over complicating ?

Thanks,

Vlad

[JZ]

The way I got my wife's content into one unified iTunes library was import her songs from her iPod into my iTunes account. Another way I do it with a US account is use home sharing. Have the us account open on say a MacBook but open home sharing with your australia account. Then open iTunes on your iMac and import all content not on this Mac. My wife's songs even uploaded to iTunes match.

[Dylstra]

vladimir, on 14 March 2012 - 07:28 PM, said:

Hi everyone,

My wife and i have separate logins and separate iTunes accounts with separate music, audiobooks etc. The way i see it, if we wanted to listen to same music, we'd have to buy it twice through iTunes, even though we are using the same iMac. Family sharing only works with 1 account across multiple computers, but not different people accessing same information.

So... if we created a new AppleID, new iMac (joint) login and set up a dedicated "family" iPod, this would allow us to download/buy music to a joint account. Am i thinking this correctly or just over complicating ?

Thanks,

Vlad

You're over thinking it a bit.

You can have up to five computers linked to an iTunes account.

Seeing as how you only have the one iMac it should already be authorised to play both Apple IDs' content. The problem might be consolidating the library so all the content is in one place, or at least accessible across different logins.

I have just the one login, but I'm running at least four Apple IDs through my iTunes library.

[Islandhead]

Dylstra, on 14 March 2012 - 11:06 PM, said:

You're over thinking it a bit.

You can have up to five computers linked to an iTunes account.

Yeah, that's the way I do it.

I know a lot of people do it, but wouldn't having a US iTunes account to access content not available in Australia (or at a different price) be some sort of copyright infringement?

[Dylstra]

Islandhead, on 14 March 2012 - 09:52 PM, said:

Yeah, that's the way I do it.

I know a lot of people do it, but wouldn't having a US iTunes account to access content not available in Australia (or at a different price) be some sort of copyright infringement?

Shhhh!

[Some Random Bloke]

Vlad, you can just copy content from one account to the other. Music isn't DRM and this falls under Apple's fair use policy. As Dylstra said, for licensed content you can authorise multiple computers.

As for US content, my view is that it's a licensing rather than a copyright issue. I'm not breaching copyright per se as I'm still paying for the content. I don't even know how that works financially - does anyone local miss out if I buy US iTunes content? Same show, same owners. No different to buying a Bluray from overseas.

[Islandhead]

I know what you you mean X, but Australian TV companies pay for the rights to shows and get a cut from AU iTunes because they have bought the license. Ergo they are losing out on their royalties because people are circumventing by pretending they live in America. At least that's the way I thought it works.

[Dylstra]

Television networks shouldn't suck so much.

Television networks are dead, they just don't realise it yet.

A television network cancelled Arrested Development (for shame!) but Netflix is independently producing 10 new episodes. And that's the future Of television. Netflix, Amazon, and so on. It's only a matter of time until Apple get into that business.

[Islandhead]

I completely agree Dylan.

But morally/legally is it still right to circumvent the laws that are current just because they are stupid? (and I believe they are stupid)

[JZ]

Keep the thread on track guys!. This not about copyright it's about consolidating iTunes libraries.

[Islandhead]

I agree, it wasn't about copyright.

But one solution to consolidating the OP's iTunes library was to potentially break licensing laws which I felt I should point out.

[Dylstra]

Islandhead, on 15 March 2012 - 08:06 AM, said:

I completely agree Dylan.

But morally/legally is it still right to circumvent the laws that are current just because they are stupid? (and I believe they are stupid)

Yes.

If a law is stupid, then it's not right. And if it's not right, then it can't be wrong to ignore it.

[vladimir]

Dylstra, on 14 March 2012 - 11:06 PM, said:

Seeing as how you only have the one iMac it should already be authorised to play both Apple IDs' content. The problem might be consolidating the library so all the content is in one place, or at least accessible across different logins.

This is exactly the issue - accessible content across different logins. Ultimately, we'd like to read audiobooks or listen to songs that we have purchased individually. I don't know hot to do this without the overthinking method i described in my original post.

Could anyone point me into right direction ?

Thanks,

Vlad

[Dylstra]

It might be as simple as authorising each iTunes account on the other person's login.

[Some Random Bloke]

You shouldn't need to do it with music in any case because there's no DRM. At worst just copy the music to the other person's library.

But better - would a shared library on an external disk work?

[Dylstra]

Or consolidating the library if the files are in more than one location. This is a good thing to do.

But to try and combine the content, on your login, Vladimir, locate your wife's iTunes library. Then add to yours from within iTunes by choosing File>Add to library and then navigating to the location.

Repeat on your wife's login with your library.

[vladimir]

Dylstra, on 16 March 2012 - 12:59 PM, said:

Or consolidating the library if the files are in more than one location. This is a good thing to do.

But to try and combine the content, on your login, Vladimir, locate your wife's iTunes library. Then add to yours from within iTunes by choosing File>Add to library and then navigating to the location.

Repeat on your wife's login with your library.

Thanks Dylstra, this has worked in the end. I had to ensure that Music folders under our separate logins were set to "share". Some files had to be moved to a Shared folder under users, but its all good now.

Vlad