Apple wants you to think that you need to have iTunes installed on your computer in order to seamlessly sync music to your iPhone, iPad, or iPod. But just because you've purchased songs from the iTunes Store doesn't mean you have to use Apple's software to manage them and ultimately transfer them to your iOS device.

There is even a good selection of iOS-friendly software that you can download for free that can replace iTunes, and some offer more features.

MediaMonkey is a free music manager and audio converter that can be used to manage large digital music collections. It is compatible with iOS devices and other non-Apple MP3 players and PMPs.

The free version of MediaMonkey (called Standard) includes several useful tools for organizing your music library. You can use it to automatically tag music files, add album art, rip music CDs, burn discs, and convert between various audio formats.