Is there a way to put music (mp3) from my PC onto my iPhone (5c) without having to duplicate that music by adding it to the iTunes Library?

Question

Greetings all, I am a brand new iPhone owner (my first smartphone in fact) and am very sad that I don't love my new device as much as I was beginning to.  I've come into the Apple family with open eyes and heart, but I am heartbroken and mortified and what I've been learning this morning.  I just spent five hours (no exaggeration) reading forums, downloading iTunes (which I don't really think I want, I am used to WMP and much more accustomed to it), downloading and installing an update, learning that certain options which were recommended are now gone unless you use secret commands (want to Add Folder to Library?  Well, too bad!  Unless you know the secret Ctrl-B handshake.  Hope you didn't just spend tons of time adding items file by file before you learned that (by scouring the obscure forums for that information, since it's not common knowledge or readily accessible in iTunes now)!).  Apologies for the sarcastic tone, still very frustrated with the whole process.  I've seen support messages directing people to support pages with QuickTime videos;  QuickTime doesn't install easily or quickly or work properly on my PC (perhaps I need to work with it more, buuuut...), it's all just seeming so....proprietary. 
Is it really the way this works that I have to duplicate all of the music that is currently on my hard drive not just once but twice, such that I need to have it 1) on my hard drive in my music folder where it has always been (so that I can play it how I am used to, using WMP), 2) copied to my iTunes Library and then 3) "Synced" (whatever this really means...still learning obviously) / copied onto my iPhone?  Thus taking up twice the space on my hard drive that it needs to?
There's really no way to simply have the phone take it from my hard drive?  Apple seriously needs it to not only be existent on my pc, but duplicated into the iTunes Library (which is really just another folder, right?) in order to allow it to be put onto my iPhone?
Please please please tell me I am misunderstanding how this works.  I really genuinely do want to love my iPhone and get accustomed to how it and the software it needs works, but this has been frankly a nightmare and has had me wishing for brief moments that I had gone with something more PC friendly.  Please just tell me that it gets better, that you can have a PC that you use, and have an iPhone that you use and marry the two happily once you get used to the way to do that. 

Answer 1

HydroThunder wrote:
Greetings all, I am a brand new iPhone owner (my first smartphone in fact) and am very sad that I don't love my new device as much as I was beginning to.  I've come into the Apple family with open eyes and heart, but I am heartbroken and mortified and what I've been learning this morning.  I just spent five hours (no exaggeration) reading forums, downloading iTunes (which I don't really think I want, I am used to WMP and much more accustomed to it), downloading and installing an update, learning that certain options which were recommended are now gone unless you use secret commands (want to Add Folder to Library?  Well, too bad!  Unless you know the secret Ctrl-B handshake.  Hope you didn't just spend tons of time adding items file by file before you learned that (by scouring the obscure forums for that information, since it's not common knowledge or readily accessible in iTunes now)!).  Apologies for the sarcastic tone, still very frustrated with the whole process.  I've seen support messages directing people to support pages with QuickTime videos;  QuickTime doesn't install easily or quickly or work properly on my PC (perhaps I need to work with it more, buuuut...), it's all just seeming so....proprietary. 
Is it really the way this works that I have to duplicate all of the music that is currently on my hard drive not just once but twice, such that I need to have it 1) on my hard drive in my music folder where it has always been (so that I can play it how I am used to, using WMP), 2) copied to my iTunes Library and then 3) "Synced" (whatever this really means...still learning obviously) / copied onto my iPhone?  Thus taking up twice the space on my hard drive that it needs to?
There's really no way to simply have the phone take it from my hard drive?  Apple seriously needs it to not only be existent on my pc, but duplicated into the iTunes Library (which is really just another folder, right?) in order to allow it to be put onto my iPhone?
Please please please tell me I am misunderstanding how this works.
Okay.
You are misunderstanding how this works.
When you add songs to your iTunes Library, all you are in fact doing is telling iTunes where (on your computer) to find the music. iTunes does not create additional versions of your music (see * below). iTunes is a database (or catalogue) - it simply lists your music and knows where it is so that it can copy it to your iPod.
Synced - synchronise... to make as one, to make the same as each other. Well, that's what my dictionary tells me anyway. To make iTunes and the iPhone the same, to have the same music etc. on or in each. (Subject to your preferences.)
HydroThunder wrote:
I really genuinely do want to love my iPhone and get accustomed to how it and the software it needs works, but this has been frankly a nightmare and has had me wishing for brief moments that I had gone with something more PC friendly.  Please just tell me that it gets better, that you can have a PC that you use, and have an iPhone that you use and marry the two happily once you get used to the way to do that.
Okay, I'l tell you that too.
It gets better. You can have a PC that you use, and have an iPhone that you use - and marry the two together blah blah blah.
Now that you have iTunes installed, at least you've got that far, although I can't quite imagine how it managed to take five hours. (You would have all these same issues if you were moving from iPhone to any non-Apple product.)
Secret menus, (CTRL+B etc.) - yes, there have been some very odd moves with all this "hiding menus" nonsense. But with the help of useful contibutors to these discussions, you will find iTunes easy. There are however, so many ways to configure iTunes, that everyone will tell you that everyone else's method is wrong.
So let's start with basics:
Once iTunes is set the way you want to view it, all you will need to do is add music to your iTunes Library, either by;
putting a CD into your computer's CD drive, and telling iTunes to import the CD. iTunes will make a digital copy, put it in a folder (in the iTunes Media folder) and list the album in your iTunes
buying music from the iTunes Store. The store will download the music to your Library.
Buying music from other sources. For example Amazon. Here in the UK, Amazon have a downloader which will download any purchases, place them in an Amazon folder and add them to your iTunes Library
Add other digital files by using the Add Folder to Library. (I can make sure you can easily find that, if you wish.)
Then - you can add songs to Playlists - if you wish. You do not have to add music to Playlists. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise!
Then - connect your iPhone to the computer, and let iTunes perform a Sync.
Your first ever Sync will need a little bit of configuration. A Sync will copy the new songs to your iPhone. It will also transfer back to your iTunes Library:
any songs purchased, on the iPhone, directly from the iTunes Store.
any apps purchased, on the iPhone, from the iTunes Store.
Play Counts. The number of times a song has been played, on the iPhone, since the last Sync.
Last Played date and time. You won't believe how useful this feature can be.
HydroThunder wrote:
There's really no way to simply have the phone take it from my hard drive?
That is precisely what iTunes is for - it's exactly what it does and how is does it. By the way, also don't let anyone tell you that you should use Manual Management to anage your iPhone. No one with any sense would use Manual Management. Why do housework, when iTunes can do it for you?
* There is one tiny issue in all this. If you leave your music where it is now, it may make it slightly harder for you to transfer all your music to another computer anytime in the future because it will be in various different palces on your current computer. There is a setting in iTunes to "copy files to the iTunes Media folder when adding to library", which will duplicate songs, but that's so that you can store all your music in one parent folder for easy transfer to another computer. Your choice. If you take it, once it's done, you could then delete the older copies in the other storage locations.
Of course, if you transfer all your media, files, documents to the new compurer, it shouldn't be any hassle really.
As for WMP. While you are used to it, now that you have an iPhone, why not try playing music in iTunes? It's really not that bad.
So - you tell me what point you have reached and what other information you need to help you with iTunes, what views you want in your iTunes Library. There are lots of ways to vieww your Library! You only need to tell us how you like to look at things, by albums with artwork, by a sonsg list but with the option of looking at albums, or Last played. On and On it goes!
I may be a bit biased in my choice of views, but I can still help you get the best out of iTunes. It really is a fantastic piece of software, despite the little annoying things Apple put into it.