Ipod works with Itunes (amongst others) and acts as a synchronised copy of what ever you have in your itunes. so you do all the opwrk on your pc and just plug in the ipod which gets the read only version,
very simple, and its useability and sound quality let alone style outstrip every other mp3 player.
don't fret about the battery, its easily replacable by Apple or your self.
lasts for 400 charges which doesnt sound much but is a year or two, I actually bought a higher rated battery that lasted longer between charges, cost �50 from ebay and took 10 mins to install.