It’s iCloudy and time for an umbrella

The Apple ecosystem is growing faster than anyone could have imagined. We buy music, apps for our phones, apps for our Macs, videos, and books all via our iTunes accounts. We can even pay for our Netflix accounts via iTunes now.

This is convenient and nice, but as people come together and form families, things can start to become a mess. Some music is bought on one spouse’s account, while some apps are bought on another. Kids are typically set up with an allowance on a parent’s account. Some families that existed when the Apple ecosystem started have adopted to buy everything under one master account. Some families have, sadly, broken apart and have to deal with figuring out who gets the main account and who starts over.

In all of these cases, it would be easier to let everyone have their own iTunes account, and then combine them under an iCloud umbrella. The umbrella would give permission for everyone under the umbrella to use the assets of the other accounts. The umbrella simply manages the keys needed to access the assets. If someone is removed from the umbrella, those keys would be revoked.

This system would allow my wife to access the apps that I bought, and vice vera. We would not have to play the login game to keep our apps up to date. We could access each other’s music and album art without playing games.

This is Apple after all. It should “just work.”

Apple, shield us from the rainy iCloud days and give us iTunes account umbrellas.