[Thorzdad]

So, we're giving our son our old family G5. Until now, whenever he purchased songs from his iTunes, he used his mother's iTunes Store account. Now that he's taking the G5 away, he'll create his own iTunes Store account. One question...All the songs he purchased using his mother's account will remain authorized in his iTunes, even though he'll now have a different account active in iTunes, right?

I know I'm probably overthinking it, but I just want to make sure he isn't going to end up with a raft of songs that no longer play/transfer to his iPod/etc.

Thanks!

[turtle777]

Good question, I don't know if that's the case.

I'd try and see what happens.

Worst case: you'd need to burn those songs to a CD and rip it again. Oh the joys of DRM.

-t

[Spheric Harlot]

Yes, you can have several iTunes accounts authorized in a single library.

[turtle777]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

Yes, you can have several iTunes accounts authorized in a single library.

So how do you keep track of it ?
Only one account can be active at the same time, right ?

-t

[Thorzdad]

Thanks, SH.
Bonus question: Can one create a new iTunes account without a credit card directly in iTunes, or do you still have to do the end-run by "buying" a free app in the App Store?

[Spheric Harlot]

I only know of the idiotic work-around of buying a free ap directly on the iOS device.

[steve626]

Originally Posted by turtle777 

So how do you keep track of it ?
Only one account can be active at the same time, right ?

-t

My daughter has most of her thousands of songs authorized under our (my) Apple iTunes account. However a friend gave her a few songs and when she clicked to play those songs, a window popped up asking for her friend's iTunes account password which was required to play them. Which she entered, since she knew that password. Then all those songs were playable also, in addition to the ones from my/our account. It also indicated that her computer was one of the five authorized for her friend's account.

So songs in multiple accounts can be authorized on one computer simply by entering the password(s) as required. Entering the password once is all that's needed, then all songs under that account can be played on a computer.

The downside is that the computer "counts" against the five authorized for each of those multiple accounts.

By the way, this issue is mostly gone away since the "protected" tracks are no longer sold by the iTunes Store. However songs originally purchased as "protected" that were not converted to unprotected will still need to be authorized.