I used to recommend a single Apple ID account for a family to share media and apps purchased under an iTunes account. This way family members can share music, TV Shows and apps. With the introduction of iCloud that has all changed. A person’s Apple ID tied to their iCloud account now offers additional features targeted at an individual. Now my recommendation is to still use a single Apple ID for the shared family iTunes account but in addition to that, each individual should have their own Apple ID for the other services. This may seem like a contradiction but it is not.When you first log into a new Mac or iPhone you are asked to provide your Apple ID. This gives you access to your documents, a backup service and the ability to share your configuration across multiple devices. This iCloud Apple ID is designed to be a one account per person. Once you have that set up then log into the App Store and the iTunes store using your shared account. To make things easier the Apple ID set aside for use with iTunes should be the only account associated with a credit card to make sure you are only buying media on one account. A credit card is not required for an Apple ID. The Apple ID set aside for iTunes and App Store use needs to have an email address associated with it different from the email address used by any other services. Each family member will probably need to have the password.So in summary each family member gets their own Apple ID account for use with iCloud, Game Center, FaceTime, iMessage, etc. And an additional shared account is setup just for the purpose of buying stuff.
