do i need i tunes?

No you do not need itune to transfer your music. Use this program called Sharepod. Its really easy

Yes. iTunes is a must to sync music onto your player. Perhaps the easiest and only way. (Other methods may not be legal and blah, who knows). You would need iTunes for any apple music products, iPods, iPhones, and Shuffles. iTunes only support apple products. heh.

A version of iTunes will come with the music player when purchased, or downloaded from apple.com.

If you are planning to get a shuffle, I don't recommend it. Yes, it's tiny and has a clip that most players don't but, there's more cons than pros. You can get a player half the size of that with a screen and all that good stuff the shuffle don't (radio, voice recording, radio recording, etc.) Or pitch in $20 and get one that plays videos with a screen (of course) and a whole lot pf functions along with it. Not to mention, it'll hold more songs.

Yes, you need to use the bloated software called iTunes.

Itunes yep , lime-wire too.