Quote Originally Posted by EBD View Post
So if you want to buy music from itunes, yes, you need an Ipod - and if you have an Ipod, you are limited to itunes. But I tend to fill my mp3 player with music from CD's I already own rather than downloaded. If I want to download something, I use Napster, which has pretty similar prices to itunes - non-Apple users can also buy downloads from Rhapsody, Yahoo Music, and other services.
I have two ipods and I load cds onto them, have purchased music from Napster and can certainly put downloads onto my ipod that are from Rhapsody, Yahoo Music and other services. You just have to know how to do it. I think I have purchased maybe 4 or 5 things from itunes, yet I have hundreds of songs on my ipod. I-tunes is the interface that ipod uses, and I find it very user friendly. Sure they WANT you to buy from them, but it's not a requirement. I've loaded mp3, wav and I don't know what else on the ol' ipod. I like to convert these files to AAC, and they become very small without losing quality. There are entire books written about Itunes. These things do tons more stuff than most people know about!