I'm also offput by the 99-cent a song price of Apple, but I'm not into
downloading stolen songs, and the "sharing" services, even the ones you
pay for legitimately, are a pain in the buttski.

I agree. I've never downloaded a song, nor do I ever intend to. The 1500
songs that are currently on my MP3 player were all ripped from CD's I own by
me on my computer. I'm fortunate to have a fairly good sized library of
CD's (about 750 and growing), and I find the process of ripping and
uploading very easy and straightforward. Plus, I don't have to deal with
user rights issues associated with download for fee music.

That said, my MP3 player is mostly used as a portable player with
headphones. I keep a large selection of mix CD's (currently 74 at last
count) permanently on the boat that I have compiled and burned over the
years from my music collection. While on the boat, it's easier for me to
listen to these long playing CD's (nearly 80 minutes each) loaded in the
changer than to futz with the MP3 player. They sound better too, since they
are not compressed. I've been into burning CD's since the very first
burners became available for computers. My first burner was an HP 2X
external. I don't remember exactly how long ago that was, but it was quite
a while ago.