I have never really had an issue using iTunes to store the music on my iPhone 5.  I rotate music as some have mentioned so that the entire storage space on the phone is not taken up by music.  One thing nice about iTunes is that it creates a back up of your phone incase one is needed.  It is also a good way to do iOS updates when the phone does not have the memory space to unpack the update. 
 
Several family members have broken or lost phones and have gotten replacements from the insurance plan.  Having all the info backed up has saved us many times.  Especially if you need the contacts on the phone.

I use iTunes for backing up and restoring contents of my iPhone. Whenever I get a new iPhone, I retire the old one to use as an iPod touch. iTunes serves me perfectly for "restoring" my old iPhone apps and contacts to my new iPhone and for restoring any apps to my "new" iPod touch as well as copying playlists over to my iPod touch.
I don't use iTunes on my daw, just my regular desktop/home computer and my mp3 collection is saved to a nas drive.
On my daw, I use MusicBee to access my mp3 collection from my nas drive.

Question for the iTunes users: Any tips about sync settings? I bring music on to my android from several computers. It is my impression that iTunes sync does not work well with multiple and different collections of mp3s.

 
 

mike_mccue
Question for the iTunes users: Any tips about sync settings? I bring music on to my android from several computers. It is my impression that iTunes sync does not work well with multiple and different collections of mp3s.

Totally not the case. I have MP3's from a wide variety of sources and everything syncs just fine. You will want to make sure the music is tagged properly when you add it to your library, but that would be true with any librarian.
 
The only settings I turned on in iTunes is "copy music to library" and "let iTunes manage media". This basically organizes your media into artist/album folders (based on tagged data), and ensures that if you are adding music from a flash stick, iTunes places a copy on your hard drive, as part of your library.
 
Here are some really good resources:
 
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-beginners-guide-to-itunes
 
http://www.ilounge.com/index.php/articles/comments/the-complete-guide-to-album-tagging-art-and-playlists-in-itunes
 
FWIW, my library is around 27,000 songs, all running on a small Core i3 laptop with 500GB of storage. iTunes runs just fine on this.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Thanks Dan,
 I've heard that if your libraries aren't mirrored and you like it that way, that an inadvertent sync will cause everything to be mirrored.
 I have about 60,000 songs on my "entertainment" center and they are all in artist/album folders that I have made over the years.
 I would like to use my iPhone with out introducing iTunes to my PC.
 
 I rip CDs on my lap top and bring my studio source stuff over on the laptop and then copy stuff to the entertainment PC.
 
 I have heard that you can turn off sync in iTunes. Yes? No?

Yes. You can manually sync using iTunes. Just turn off automatic sync and then you can sync by playlist or individual songs. That's what I do using a handful of smart playlists. By using smart playlists, it is automatic, but limited to the songs that rotate on/off the lists.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

If you really don't want to use iTunes, but want some of the benefits of syncing and using a librarian, I've heard good things about Media Monkey. YMMV.
 
Regards,
Dan
 

Thanks again Dan.
 
I'm still looking for a good and simple mp3 player that does not attempt to be a manager or librarian. I know my record collection and I enjoy just looking up a song and hitting play. I don't need much in the way of cross reference management etc.
 
I looked at inplay but saw that it doesn't display the entire album cover. I like to see the whole album cover. I guess it's just a bit of nostalgia for me, but I do enjoy it.
 
Thanks again everyone!

The iTunes program (free, by the way) really is not that invasive, and doesn't require an online account to use with your own collection of MP3's - it can import existing MP3's and WAV's, and can also rip / import directly from CD's.  When using an Apple account (free; credit card information only required if you want to manage purchases), the music service can search, identify, and tag your MP3's, or you can specify that info manually.
 
One really cool feature is if you happen to ever acquire an Apple TV and connect to your home entertainment system, iTunes can stream the songs and video contained in your library directly from your PC.  Streaming to Apple TV can also accomplished directly from your iOS device.
 
To me, some of the biggest reasons to use the iTunes program is it allows you to easily add / remove / organize your apps, sync music & app data files between your iOS device and a PC, sync your contacts, e-mail, and calendars with MS Outlook, and perhaps most importantly, BACKUP your iPhone to your PC so you have a recovery option in case of phone failure, replacement, etc.  This feature alone has saved my wife and I some anxiety over the years we've been dealing with iOS devices!
 
All of these capabilities are OPTIONS that you set one time, including when, where and how you sync, and can be changed whenever YOU decide. NONE of these options require using the "cloud", unless you want to - I do all my syncing only to my PC, never online with the "cloud".
 
BTW -
You don't have to use any kind of playlist, groups, etc. when using iTunes or the iOS MUSIC app - just select "Song" (top-right selection option in iTunes, or a quick tap at the bottom of the app screen), and your entire library shows up in alphabetical order, based on the title of the song, and nothing else.  This sort / display option remains intact until you change it.
 
And, iTunes and the MUSIC app both display the album cover, which is REALLY cool when streaming to Apple TV... 
 
 

I plan on, or rather hope to be able to, use my own directory structure for the music I place on my phone. That way I can actually manage it.
 
It's still not clear to me if I'll be able to do that with any iOS mp3 player.
 
I'm casually aware of where iTunes places your imported music, I'd prefer to use a "explorer" type third party app and drag and drop my music onto the phone so as to bypass the "import" process.