I'll recommend the other route. I long ago stopped buying anything from Apple and buy all my music from Amazon. I tend to get a lot of Amazon gift cards, so it makes sense for me. Plus, I really dislike giving any money to Apple
Here is my (admittedly Byzantine) set up:
* I store all my music on my PC in iTunes (since I started with an iPod many years ago) [but see below...]
* I install both the Amazon music downloader and the Google music manager on my PC.
* I buy music on Amazon, and the Amazon music downloader downloads it an installs it into my iTunes library
* The Google music manager recognizes that something new has arrived and uploads the song to my music library on Google.
* I listen to all my music on my phones and tablets through the Google music app. It works great!
I just introduced a change this week. Having just gotten a new PC, I've decided to not install iTunes, severing my last link to Apple (yay!). Instead, I imported my library from iTunes into Windows Media Player, which was easier and nicer than I thought it would be. I still use the Amazon and Google tools as described above, but connected to WMP instead of iTunes. It all works!
