Can you get songs on the ipod without itunes?

Question

like you can on ipods?
use your own music on it to save you buying every song.

Answer 1

like you can on ipods?
I think if you google "ipod without itunes" or "iphone without itunes" you'll get plenty of hits with interesting suggestions.
use your own music on it to save you buying every song.
Just because you use iTunes doesn't mean you have to buy every song from Apple's store. You can import your existing CDs or MP3s into iTunes without buying them again. You can use iTunes to manage your existing collection of music, and not buy any new music. (The vast majority of my music collection was ripped from CDs, not purchased from Apple's store.) Also iTunes has wonderful integration with free sources of audio content including podcasts, iTunes U, etc.
In my opinion, the main reason to get an iPod or iPhone is for the seamless integration with iTunes. If you decide you don't want to use iTunes, you probably are dealing with slightly more cumbersome music integration which is probably no better or no worse than any of the other MP3 players out there.
Reading between the lines of your original post, if you're concerned about getting locked into Apple's proprietary world when managing your music in iTunes, you consider using an industry standard format, like MP3, rather than Apple's proprietary file formats, such as AAC. Specifically, in iTunes, go to preferences, go to the "When you insert CD section", click on "Import Settings", and change from AAC to something like MP3. Not as efficient way of storing the music, but you're also not locked into Apple's file formats (and thus just Apple hardware/software). But if you expect to stay with iPods and similar Apple players, AAC is a fine format. But for those of us who play music on other players too (e.g. my TiVo), MP3 is a more flexible format.