hulbs - What you have found may look good today, but if you think ahead a few years, you may want to reconsider.

Currently Apple's official position is Apple IDs cannot be merged or split. (Some people have contacted Apple and had accounts merge or split - but don't expect Apple to go against their own policy.)

So unless your family is very different, I will recommend each family member have their own Apple ID. Here are some issues that will happen if everybody has the same ID:

#1 Do you want to have your daughter's music and other iTunes purchases tied to your AppleID or visa versa?

#2 When first daughter leaves home, will you want to have her take your Apple ID, music and App purchases with her? Me thinks she will not want to leave that stuff with you!

#3 If the family ID is in your spouse's name and the marriage ends (death or otherwise), there is currently no way to pass the account, purchases, etc on to folks as you would distribute say physical records, books, etc.

I can see reasons for not wanting to turn a young person loose with a credit card in the iTuns store. There are parental limits that can be set on accounts. All Apple IDs must be tied to a credit card - you could use you card for all member's IDs -- or you could let the children have their own card. There are many ways to control spending on a card - one obvious way is use a cash card.

Apple has created a way for family members to Share purchases -- it is called Home Sharing.

Gordon
Atlanta