[Thorzdad]

In the past, my daughter would use my wife's iTunes account to purchase music for her iPod. Now that she's grown and has her own credit card, she wants to create her own iTunes account. Of course, she also wants to continue using the songs she purchased through my wife's account. Currently, iTunes on my daughter's MacBook is logged-in under my wife's account. Thus, my daughter's MacBook is authorized under my wife's account.

If my daughter logs out from iTunes, then creates a brand new store account for herself, all the songs on the MacBook that she purchased with my wife's account will still remain authorized and playable by her, correct?

[cgc]

I think the purchased songs are only usable under the iTunes account they were purchased but that account can be used on five computers. Your daughter would need to continue to use the iTunes account to retain "ownership" and use of the songs. There are ways around this such as burning as audio files then reimporting.

[Thorzdad]

I wondered whether I'd have to resort to the old burn-and-import move.

[ghporter]

She will still be able to play the songs on her computer, but only when logged in to your wife's account, and it's unlikely they will transfer to her new account. But depending on how your daughter listens to her music, the "burn then rip" process may not be much of a problem at all.

I'd burn her playlists to CD, then rip those.

[mduell]

I thought Apple did away with DRM for music years ago? Maybe you have to pay the iTunes Plus tax to upgrade everything to DRM-free?

No need for authorized users or lossy reencoding.

[Spheric Harlot]

iTunes accounts have been activatable on up to five machines for about seven years now (used to be three). You don't have to log in under anyone's account to play DRM'ed music purchased under that account, an never have. You merely have to authorize that account on the machine.

This does not apply to iTunes Plus music, which is anything purchased within the past few years (if it's 256 Kbps, it's iTunes Plus). That music isn't DRM'ed at all.

[ghporter]

Nice to know. But does that translate through to iPods synced to the computer with music from multiple accounts?

[TETENAL]

All music purchased in recent years is DRM free and can be played on any device without any restrictions.

All old music purchased with DRM can be replaced with DRM free music for a fee. You can see how much that amounts to in the iTunes Store under "iTunes Plus".

Up to 5 computers can be activated for one iTunes account, but as far as I understand a single computer can be activated for multiple iTunes accounts. So your daughter can use her own account to purchase and play her own music and still have that same computer stay activated for the music of her mother.

[cgc]

Originally Posted by Spheric Harlot 

iTunes accounts have been activatable on up to five machines for about seven years now (used to be three). You don't have to log in under anyone's account to play DRM'ed music purchased under that account, an never have. You merely have to authorize that account on the machine.

This does not apply to iTunes Plus music, which is anything purchased within the past few years (if it's 256 Kbps, it's iTunes Plus). That music isn't DRM'ed at all.

I think we're saying the same thing regarding the iTunes accounts but I forgot about the DRM removal...good info...