Hi Mike, have the same feelings with Itunes as I am sure many have  ... I use this program to synch my ipod/iphones, its neat,strait-forward and you can synch your Iphone/Ipod back to your computer !!!   ... no scary stuff to simply synch music anymore and I much prefer the player side as well  ... there is a free version.    http://www.mediamonkey.com/download/