How To Invite Family Members To Apple Music On A Mac
You can manage your subscription plan via the Apple Menu. Heres how to invite family members to Apple Music on a Mac:
If your laptop is running an older version of macOS , youll have to use your iCloud account. Heres how to do it:
Much like with an iOS device, you can set up your childs Apple ID on a Mac. Heres how to do it:
Question: Q: How Does An Apple Music Family Plan Work Using Itunes On Mac
I’ve been trying to figure this out without much success so far.
I signed up for an Apple Music Family Plan trial. My wife and I already have Family Sharing enabled and it works correctly on our iOS devices. My wife would like to stream Apple Music on the Mac using her iTunes account . However, on our Mac, if my wife logs into iTunes using her Apple ID she isn’t able to access the Apple Music subscription, she is prompted to subscribe as a new member. I can’t find any way of allowing my wife to access my Apple Music Family subscription through iTunes using her Apple ID.
If she signs into iTunes using my Apple ID then she has access to the Apple Music subscription, but of course if I try to stream on another device it interrupts her, which is to be expected since you can only stream from one device at a time per Apple ID.
My understanding was that the Family Plan would allow multiple family members to listen to Apple Music simultaneously on any Apple device assuming these family members were setup with Family Sharing, however it doesn’t appear to work on a Mac running iTunes.
Has anyone been able to get this working? Or does Apple assume that anyone wanting to stream music with a family plan is doing so on an iOS device only?
How To Sign Up And Activate An Apple Music Family Plan
Apple Music‘s family plan is hooked into iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur’s Family Sharing feature. With Family Sharing, it lets multiple different Apple IDs share calendars, photos, movies, TV, and music. Previous to Family Sharing, families had to use one Apple ID for all their purchases this can be a pain on a number of levels. When you sign up for an Apple Music Family plan, which supports simultaneous listening for up to six devices or accounts, all the infrastructure is being taken care of by Family Sharing. In theory, getting your family on board is as simple as signing up for Family Sharing and purchasing a family plan to Apple Music.
So pick up your best iPhone and follow along with the steps below to sign up and activate an Apple Music family plan.
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A Guide To Every Music Streaming Service In Australia
Every Music Streaming Service in Australia Compared
With early players like Pandora having retired from the region, the Australian music streaming market has mostly stabilised into a handful of dominant players that strongly resembles the record label oligopoly that preceded it.
Sure, theres nothing stopping you from trying to launch your own streaming service but, at this stage, it feels like any new player would need to bring a radical innovation or advantage to the space in order to eke out even a fraction of market share. Welcome to late capitalism.
Unless youre still hoarding .MP3 files like its 2005, youre probably gonna have to throw in one of the six big music streaming services below if you want to listen to the latest and greatest tunes. And if youre looking to make sure you choose the right one, heres a quick rundown on the differences between Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, Amazon Music Unlimited, Deezer and YouTube Music.
Apple Family Sharing Explained

Its hard to imagine how much stuff you wouldnt have to pay for if you turn to sharing with others. With Family Sharing Apple lets you choose what you want to share from the following:
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Music, movies, books, TV shows, as well as other content and apps purchased through iTunes and App Store
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Apple Music subscription
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iCloud storage
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Screen Time immediate reports about how much time you and your kids spend on devices
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Apple News+ subscription service that brings together over 300 popular magazines, newspapers, and digital publishers
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Location sharing to track all the devices in your family
Besides, Apple is constantly working on adding new subscription services such as the recently launched Apple News+ and Apple TV+, and much anticipated and Apple Arcade. So its safe to assume that the value of Family Sharing will only continue to grow over time.
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How Does Family Sharing Work
Once youre good to go and everybody has joined in what will happen is that whenever you download an app that has already been purchased by somebody in your Family Sharing group youll be notified that no charge applies. Or you can simply browse your family members purchase history to see whats available and might be of interest to you.
Some other rules that are good to know about Family Sharing:
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A group can consist of up six members and you can only join one family at a time
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You can switch to a different family group only once per calendar year
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When you leave the group all the apps purchased by you stay with you, whereas anything purchased by other members will remain installed but inactive until you pay for it
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If you want to leave Apple Family Sharing group, go to System Preferences from the Apple menu, tap Family Sharing, click on your name and choose Remove. Its that simple! How to turn off family sharing if youre the Organizer of the group is exactly the same the only difference being that it removes all family members from the family group at once.
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After you join a Family Sharing group you can opt in or out of most of the shared categories except for iCloud storage Family Sharing and Apple Music those categories can only be controlled from the Organizers account
Is There An Apple Music Student Subscription
Students get the same Apple Music features and benefits as individual members. Once your student status with your college or university is verified, you get student membership pricing for up to four years, as long as you remain a student. After four years, your membership will continue at the individual member price.
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How To Create An Apple Id For Your Child
Children under 13 can’t create an Apple ID on their own. But if you’re the family organizer, you can create an Apple ID for your child.
Does your child already have a Game Center account, but not an Apple ID? You don’t need to create an Apple ID for them. Just use your child’s Game Center nickname when you add your child to your Family Sharing group.
Spotify Lets You Listen In More Places Apple Music Is Best For Siri
Both Apple Music and Spotify are available on iOS and Android. Both have desktop apps for Windows and Mac, so you aren’t limited to listening on mobile.
Spotify Connect lets you Cast to compatible devices and listen on AirPlay speakers .
You can also listen to music in your browser: Spotify is at open.spotify.com and Apple Music is at music.apple.com.
And you can also stream any audio to a Bluetooth wireless speaker, to an AirPlay speaker from an iOS device, or to a Chromecast speaker from an Android device .
When it comes to smart speakers, Apple Music with Siri voice control on Apple’s HomePod and is now compatible with Amazon’s full line of Echo smart speakers via the Alexa App . It’s also available on other Apple and Amazon devices like the Apple Watch, Apple TV and FireTV.
In addition to Amazon Alexa speakers, Spotify is also available on and Google smart speakers. And if a device is certified as Spotify Connect compatible, it means you can use the Spotify app as a remote to control playback. Spotify is also available across a wide range of other devices like Xbox and PlayStation.
Winner: Spotify
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Set Up Family Sharing
Use these steps to set up Family Sharing. You can start a new family group and invite people to join, or you can join someone else’s family group.
Family Sharing makes it easy for up to six family members to share music, movies, TV shows, apps, books, an iCloud storage plan, subscriptions, and more all without sharing an Apple ID.1 You can set up an Apple ID for kids, set permissions remotely with Screen Time, and approve spending and downloads from a parent’s device with Ask to Buy.2 You can also set up Apple Cash for a child or teen, or set them up with an Apple Watch. Learn more about what you can do with Family Sharing.
Can I Invite Friends To My Apple Music Family Membership
You can invite anyone who meets at least one of the following requirements:
Has a valid Apple ID.
Has an iCloud account.
Has a newer generation iOS device. That means an iPhone or iPad running on iOS 8 and above.
Has a computer with the OS x Yosemite. Later versions are also acceptable.
Has a family subscription to Apple Music?
If your friend is signed up for a different subscription, they can switch to a Family Membership. Heres how to do it on your iOS device:
1. Open the Apple Music app and go to Settings.
2. Select your name to open an options menu. Tap Subscriptions.
3. Choose Family Subscription from the list of available subscription plans.
4. To complete the process, tap Purchase.
Its also possible to change the Apple Music subscription by using a Mac. Heres how to do it:
1. Launch the App Store app on your desktop.
2. Navigate to your profile picture at the bottom-left corner of the screen. If youre not signed in to your account, do it now.
3. Select View Information at the top of the screen.
4. A new window will open. Scroll to the Subscriptions section and click Manage.
5. Find your current subscription plan and click the Edit button next to it.
6. Select the family subscription option.
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Xwhy You Might Not Want One
Of course, having an Apple Music family account might not be right for every family.
Depending on your circumstances, you could get a better price using individual accounts. Particularly if youre both students and qualify for education pricing .
Still, an Apple Music subscription for up to six people at $15 is a great price. So look at your own circumstances and weigh your options.
How Do I Share Apple Music With Family

Now that we are all already aware of the Apple Music family plan and ways to get it, let us find out how to share Apple Music with the family.
In order to be able to start it, a member of the family plan must set up the settings for Family Sharing for the whole clan using his or her registered device.
Once this family member turned on purchase sharing, a prompt will ask whether you are agreeing to pay for the purchases made by the members of the family plan, given that you have indicated a valid payment method such as debit or credit cards. Hereâs how you start it.
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How Does It Work
Apple Music is much easier to use now than it was when it first launched in 2015. If you are using an iOS or Mac device, you already have it installed. And its probably set as your default music app. If youre on Android you can from the Play Store, but on Windows youll have to stick to the old iTunes experience.
Once you have it installed, open it up and youll be greeted by four main sections: Library, For You, Browse, and Radio. Each one has tiles filled with content to listen to right away. On iOS, theres an extra search icon at the bottom right, whereas on Android its located in the upper part of the screen.
Library is fairly self-explanatory, and it contains your personal music library as well as artists and songs youve saved on the platform. This is also where youll find your saved and custom playlists.
The For You section is where youll go to discover new music. Apple Music analyzes what youve been listening to and liked/disliked, then recommends similar music using complex algorithms. Browse is another way to find new music, but it relies on Top 100 lists, new releases, and featured playlists rather than your listening history.
How To Set Parental Controls For Family Sharing
Family Sharing does a great job when it comes to protecting your kids from the content you dont approve of. Simply enable Ask To Buy feature in the Family Sharing settings and all purchases as well as free downloads initiated by your kids will result in alert sent to the groups Organizer. You can then review the download and either approve or decline it.
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How To Add Family Members To Your Apple Music Subscription
Apple Music is one of the go-to streaming services for all things melodic and melody-adjacent. Hosting over 72,000 million subscribers and featuring upwards of 90,000 tracks from the leading artists of today, Spotifys nemesis has plenty to love.
If youre a new subscriber, Apple Music gives you a generous break-in period of three free months of service. After the trial period, memberships are billed on a monthly or yearly cycle . While thats on par with the average cost for other music streamers, saving a buck here or there is never a bad thing. While college students can get Apple Music for $5/month, another way to save on your subscription is with an Apple Music family plan.
In this guide, well teach you how to set up Apples Family Sharing and how to add users to your account. Before you know it, youll have multiple family members streaming tunes under one roof .
All Your Familys Purchases On All Your Familys Devices
When you set up purchase sharing, everyone in the group gets immediate access to the songs, albums, movies, TV shows, books, and apps purchased by family members who choose to share them. New purchases appear in the Purchased tab in Apple Books, the App Store, or iTunes for each family member. Just select the family member whose collection youd like to browse, then download or play the content you choose. Other family members can access your collection in the same way. If you want to keep some purchases private, you can choose to hide individual items.
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How Apple Music And Family Sharing Works
Apple Music’s family plan is hooked into iOS and macOS’s Family Sharing feature, which lets different Apple IDs share calendars, photos, movies, TV, and music. Previous to Family Sharing, families had to use one Apple ID for all their purchasesa pain on a number of levels.
When you sign up for an Apple Music Family plan, which supports simultaneous listening for up to six devices or accounts, all the infrastructure is being taken care of by Family Sharing. In theory, getting your family on board is as simple as signing up for Family Sharing, purchasing a Family subscription, and having your other family members log in.
Unfortunately, a few awkward steps in Apple Music’s and Family Sharing’s infrastructure have kept this process from working as smoothly as it should.
How To Subscribe To Apple Music Family Plan For The First Time
Of course, you can’t take advantage of the free family plan trial if you’re already subscribed to Apple Music as an individual. Instead, you’ll need to switch from an individual plan to a family plan, which can be done by following the steps below. You can switch to a family Plan from both iOS/iPadOS devices, as well as a Mac.
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Procedure For Signing Up For Apple Music Plan:
Now all the 6 family members can access Apple Music Family Plan.