Kids on iTunes

October 7, 2007 5:26 AM

iTunesFilter: my 12-year old just got an iPod. Now what?

Can he piggyback onto my account on iTunes or will I have to create a second separate account for him?

posted by I_Love_Bananas to media & arts (7 comments total)

You can do it either way. (I think you're asking about the iTunes music store, not the iTunes app, here.) It might be a good idea to create a separate account for him with an allowance if you don't want to give him permission to max out your credit card any time he feels like it.

In terms of syncing his iPod, the iTunes app can gracefully handle being synced to multiple iPods. It'll remember which playlists go with which iPod.
posted by ikkyu2 at 5:47 AM on October 7, 2007

You can make it so you have to enter a password any time you buy a song, yet the iPod will still be authorized to play any songs you already have, so you wouldn't need to worry about him buying stuff and it also means he'd need to ask you beforehand so you can prevent those pesky adult only song purchases :)
posted by wackybrit at 7:57 AM on October 7, 2007

If you'd rather set up their own account that they can use with prepaid cards, you may want to read my blog post about creating an iTunes account without giving apple your credit card number to save yourself some grief.
posted by Wild_Eep at 7:58 AM on October 7, 2007

If you intend to let him buy music, make sure to teach him to buy only the DRM-free tracks; money spent on DRM music should be considered as wasted and gone.

The DRM-free tracks cost a little more ($1.39 instead of $.99), but they're also in 256-bit AAC, so they'll sound better.

AAC is not widely portable, so overall I'd tend to suggest buying CDs and ripping them. You get full quality sound, an automatic backup, and the ability to make any sound format you want, should you go to a different player in the future. You will probably have to transcode AAC to other formats to work on non-Apple players, which will result in significant loss of sound quality. (Going from one lossy format to another means you get all the errors of both formats. ) Buying on CD and then ripping will give you the best possible sound both now AND in the future.
posted by Malor at 9:03 AM on October 7, 2007

You can also create a separate library in Itunes for his music if you want to keep them completely separate.
posted by DMan at 9:48 AM on October 7, 2007

"AAC is not widely portable"

Apple has what, 80% of the portable music player market, which means that about 80% of people with PMPs are probably using iTunes. Since most of them are probably using default settings, any CDs they've ripped are in AAC format.

Anyone who wants to compete in that environment, but doesn't include AAC support in their new devices is clueless. Same goes for anyone who is competing in any other consumer digital media player niche.
posted by Good Brain at 10:41 AM on October 7, 2007

Yeah, most players support AAC nowadays--even the Microsoft Zune can play it.
posted by DMan at 10:54 AM on October 7, 2007