Is there a way to change the icloud email address associated with your Apple ID?

Question

I had an Apple ID long before iCloud came around.  Naturally, my username was my email address, let's say [email protected]  I signed up for an @me email address when they started just to try it out, but never used it.  Either by default or by my own decision, my @me account became the same as my old email address: [email protected]  Later, Apple issued the @icloud email addresses, so I now have: [email protected] as well.  I want to set up a different icloud address, one that I would actually use, let's say [email protected]  Then, I would like to associate that address with my Apple ID and delete the oldaddress@icloud address altogether.  Can I do this and if so how?
Thanks for the advice.

Answer 1

Since your Apple ID is already associated with the current iCloud account (and the account cannot be delete, it can only be abandoned), you can't use it to create another.  You would need to create a new Apple ID with a new non-Apple email address to create a new iCloud account.  You can still use your current ID for everything else; the iCloud ID does not need to be the same as the ID you use for other services (iTunes, etc.).
You would then have to migrate your iCloud data to the new account and turn on your iCloud data syncing.  When you turn Mail to On, you can create your new @icloud email address (but type carefully since once created it cannot be changed).  You @me iCloud email address would remain associated with the iCloud account you are leaving but it sounds like you don't want to use it anyway.  You can set up email forwarding to forwared email sent to your @me address to your new @icloud address while your contacts transition to your new address.
If that sounds like something you want to do, I can give you the steps to migrate your data to the new account.