Family sharing music who work on different computers

Question

hi everyone,
here is the question, which will start with a long explaination.
my desktop computer is the "main" computer of the house. i have about 35,000 songs on it in my itunes. everyone in the house (wife & son) uses my music (which is everyone's music) for their entertainment. when we buy music (either online or the physical cd) it's downloaded on my computer and into my itunes. my wife has a few songs on her itunes on her computer and my son is going to get an ipod touch and will start purchasing songs for that on a separate computer. so, we will have 3 computers that will potentially be purchasing different music. in addition to the 3 computers, i am relocating to a different city for work and will be commuting back and forth when i can. my question for the community is, how can we all share our music? since my son hasn't gotten his ipod touch yet and my wife doesn't have anything on her itunes yet (all of her music is on my computer and in my itunes), would it make sense for everyone to share my ID and password and then either email or dropbox purchased music (and imported music) to each other or is there a simpler, easier, better way to do this? i understand that we could share everything if we lived in the same house but since i'll be in a different location, i'm a bit stumped on how to make this work.
any help or thoughts would be greatly appreciated.
brian

Answer 1

There are three ways to address your dilema:
1) Most expensive and difficult to set up: Media server like the HP EX series ($500) and a VPN (virtual private network) capable router (~$150 to $200). All media goes onto the server. All PC iTunes are set to point to the Media server instead of the default folder on C:\   As new files are added to the media server the iTunes set to point to it will also 'see' the new files.   There are additional setting that have to be made but that's the overview.
2) Cheapest and easiest to set up: NAS (Network attached storage) (~100 to 300). Like above all media goes onto the NAS. All iTunes are set to point to the NAS instead of the default folder on C:\  The disadvantage of course is that you will not be able to share your stuff or have access to the stuff on the NAS until you come home and resynch everything.
3) Middle of the road: NAS and a VPN capable router.  The only real disadvantage here is that a NAS is pretty "dumb" and is slower than a media server. Especially if more than one person is using it. They also rely on the router explicitly for security since many do not have an OS to run security software. Some of the more elaborate NAS's do but when you start talking more than $200 I would consider a home media server instead.
Hope this helps.
P.S. your account and password (iTunes store) will be needed for anyone that wants to use media that you've purchased regardless of which method you go with. The DRM license is stored on each individual computer that accesses it.