Filed under: iPod Family, Odds and ends, Bad Apple
iPod account limit
This situation will probably not affect most iPod owners but there is a 5 account limit in place for iPod song syncs. Although iTunes seems to be able to handle songs from an unlimited number of accounts, you can sync music from up to 5 accounts to any one iPod and not more. Bad news for large families with multiple accounts, but good news for the RIAA I suppose.
Update: So Mike and I ended up in a discussion about this. My point was that it made sense to create accounts for your kids so that they were licensed to their own music and could take their music with them when they went off to college. Mike answered that people should just buy DRM-free music at Amazon or Amie Street or wherever. My question to any lawyers out there is whether it's legal to gift un-DRMed MP3s to your kids and let them "take' the music with them. Thoughts?
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
ars_workerbee said 12:10PM on 12-10-2007
boo-freakin-hoo.
Why would you have purchases from more than 5 iTunes accounts anyway?
Oh, and would you look at that, the kbase article is from 9/06.
Talk about non-news...
Reply
Rhywun said 12:24PM on 12-10-2007
> Why would you have purchases from more than 5 iTunes accounts anyway?
What business is that of Apple's? None, actually. It's just a way to cover their ass when the RIAA starts making noise. Now that the RIAA is going after individuals, perhaps it's time for them to stop blaming Apple, Microsoft, individual ISP's, and Mother Goose for individual people's behavior.
Paul O said 12:12PM on 12-10-2007
This is nothing new really. The same goes for sharing music over your network via itunes. You can authorize up to 5 computers. Like network sharing, I assume you can unauthorized your current list and add 5 new devices. Note however that this can only be done once a year.
Reply
Jesse David Hollington said 12:37PM on 12-10-2007
Actually, this article refers to the fact that you can only have content from five different accounts on a single iPod. This is the reverse of the five-computer limit (which applies to both network streaming and content directly loaded onto each computer).
Unlike computers, there is still no limit on the number of iPods or iPhones that can be authorized for a single iTunes Store account.
The five-account limit has been around for a long time, actually, and there isn't a "reset" for it per se, since it applies to the number of content from different accounts on a single device (the "reset" would simply involve restoring the iPod and reloading the content from different accounts).
The obvious intention here is to prevent somebody from going around collecting music on their iPod from dozens of their friends, and it's really not an unreasonable restriction, compared to all of the other restrictions on FairPlay tracks. The fact that it's such a little-known restriction just goes to prove how uncommon it is for people to bump up against it.
chris said 12:44PM on 12-10-2007
any good news for the RIAA is bad news for consumers.
Reply
erica sucks said 12:50PM on 12-10-2007
erica -
this is not news. heres an idea for a blog post: erica sadun trolls about somthing we all knew years ago.
Reply
PLDM said 1:03PM on 12-10-2007
I'd never heard that. It's apple news. It's kinda interesting. Nothing major's happening. Let the QI posts keep on rolling.
Reply
Josh* said 1:03PM on 12-10-2007
This is less of a problem than "5 iPods per song"
I only have a few iPods, but everytime I get a new Mac and transfer my information, I lose out when I have to sync.
Reply
James Donevan said 1:27PM on 12-10-2007
Bury your head in shame Erica. This has been standard practice with iTUnes accounts since Day 1. Perhaps spend a little more time learning the basics and a little less time posting on TUAW?
Reply
Jeff Carpenter said 1:46PM on 12-10-2007
They really need to add a feature that lets you merge and split accounts. That doesn't exist, does it? I've never seen it.
My wife and I combined our music when we got married. We switched to simply using her account, but I've got a hundred or so old songs from an account I never log into anymore. It would be nice to move those songs over to our main account. Right now both our iPods are on 2/5 accounts for no reason whatsoever.
Also, I'm buying music on iTunes for my daughter now. Someday she'll move out and want to take her music with her. I guess I should have started a seperate account for her from the start, but I never thought of it. It would be great if I could spin-off her songs into a new account when that day comes.
These features are going to become more important the longer iTunes is around. I wish they'd get to it sooner rather than later.
Reply
artifex said 2:59PM on 12-10-2007
One more reason to keep buying CDs instead...
WakkaWakka said 2:02PM on 12-10-2007
Gee, struggling to reach your post quota or what Erica? I've known about this since I bought my first iPod, which I believe was around four years ago for the love of god X|
Reply
Josh said 2:59PM on 12-10-2007
Just strip that DRM crap out of the file with QTFairUse. Everything I've bought from the iTunes store has been cleansed.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/QTFairUse6
Reply
PSM said 7:33PM on 12-10-2007
I agree. I have no problem with paying for my music, but I don't want to someday lose access to it on a technicality. I have cassette tapes on my shelf right now from when I was three years old. I intend to hang onto the music I buy for my whole life, and what scares me most about DRM is investing in music that someday won't be able to be played because formats have changed, or the iTunes Store goes out of business in 50 years or whatever, and there's no way to transfer it to whatever the current technology is. Which is why I think it's a good idea to get it in an open format as soon as possible so it's a little more future-proof.
Likely said 3:07PM on 12-10-2007
What's iTunes ?
Reply
WiLLGT09 said 3:27PM on 12-10-2007
Since when has TUAW be populated by a bunch of nagging assholes? Seems like on every one of Erica's posts, I read comments bitching about it not being "news". Guess what? This isn't a news site morons, it's a blog. The writers can write about whatever the hell they want, and you people can just not read the articles you don't like, and more importantly not keep checking TUAW every 5 minutes about to shit your pants waiting for a new post.
Reply
stucco_x said 3:27PM on 12-10-2007
Erica, these commenters have been deliberately bad in hopes that you'll put on the Catwoman suit and dispense spankings.
Yeah sure, it'd old news- but get a grip ya bunch of crybabies.
Oh, and Erica, while you're in the Catwoman suit...
Reply
sixhoursago said 4:29PM on 12-10-2007
Legal, probably not. Remember that un-DRMing is considered against the law. According to the RIAA, even ripping your own legally-purchased CDs is against the law.
Ethical and fair? Probably.
Would it stand up in court? Well... before the early October jury decision in the case of Jammie Thomas v. RIAA, I'd say it probably would. But even though it was regarding file sharing, that case set bad precedence for just about anyone who the RIAA decides to point a finger at.
Let's just say that at this point the industry is still concerned with file sharers. Stripping DRM so your child can keep listening to a legally-purchased track is not, at this time, going to get you sued.
Keep in mind that if you strip the DRM from a song, you should delete the original protected track. You should never have two copies when you only paid for one.
Reply
Chris L W said 5:20PM on 12-10-2007
Y'know, it may be old news, but I've never heard of it. Guys, don't go hating on Erica, because some of us may not know this or never know it at all. Certainly news to me, and I've owned five ipods since the 3rd gen model.
@ EricaSucks: That was pretty uncalled for, dude.
Reply
BHendrix said 5:46PM on 12-10-2007
This isn't a news site; it's a blog. Anything the editors think is of interest is fair game. And I didn't know about this account limit either.
Cheers Erica! We still like you! Really! Yeah! Oh yeah! Uh-huh!
*MWAH!* *MWAH!*
Reply