Share Apple Music Purchases with iCloud Family Sharing

With iOS 8, Apple introduced iCloud Family Sharing. This enables you to invite iOS users in your household to be a part of your sharing plan. Once they’re on board, they can access all the apps, books and movies you’ve already paid for. And you can even add kids to your account and enable parental controls. So if they want to buy an app, they can only do so after you approve the purchase from your iOS device.

When Apple Music released, it also had a Family plan, a pretty epic one at that. A single user account is $9.99. But a $14.99 Family Sharing plan lets you add up to 6 family members. These members don’t even need to have credit cards attached to their accounts.

And the best part is that while Apple calls this their “Family Sharing” plan, you can share it with literally anyone. Apple doesn’t ask approval based on some kind of paternity. Using this, I was successfully able to give access to Apple Music to two of my friends who couldn’t get in on their own. Because to sign up for Apple Music, even the free trial, you need to have a credit card associated with your account.

How to Enable iCloud Family Sharing Plan

First, we’ll need to enable iCloud Family Sharing.

Step 1: To do that, go to Settings on your iOS device.

Step 2: Then tap iCloud and select Set up Family Sharing.

Step 3: Read the intro and select Get Started and then Continue.

Step 4: You’ll now be asked to sign in with the Apple ID.

Step 5: Agree to the terms, tap Continue to confirm the payment method and that’s it, the iCloud Family Sharing plan is enabled.

How to Add a Member to iCloud Family Sharing

From the Family section in iCloud settings, you’ll see a button called Add family member.

Here enter their email addresses to send them an invitation to join your family sharing plan. Once they receive the invitation, all they have to do is accept it.

You’ll then get the notification that they’ve been added.

If you want to remove them from your account, you can do so from the same iCloud Family Sharing page.

Become an Apple Music pro: Learn how to use the new Music app in iOS 8.4 and how Apple Music can help you discover new music you’ll actually like.

How to Switch From Individual to Family Sharing Plan in Apple Music

Once you’ve added the person, they’ll get access to all the apps and media you’ve bought. But to give them access to Apple Music, you need to switch to the Family plan in Apple Music.

To do this from your iOS device, open the Music app, tap the Account icon in the upper-left corner.

Select View Apple ID and enter your password.

Navigate to Manage Subscriptions -> Apple Music. Here change the Renewal options from Individual to Family.

Now ask them to go to Apple Music. They should get a message that the head of their family already has the iCloud Family Sharing plan and that they can start using the service.

How’s It Going With Apple Music?

I frankly cannot get enough of it. The playlists are awesome, Beats 1 is a revelation. What about you though? Share your experience in the forums section.