Before getting into specifics, I just wanted to say that everything you think you should be able to do with iTunes, you can. Quite easily and intuitively I must add. All of your concerns are pretty much overblown. iTunes is a full-featured music management application FIRST. It has been around in some form since like 2000 and the iTMS (where the DRM/copy protection comes from) is a fairly recent addition to the application. You could conceivably use iTunes without ever even knowing that you could buy music through it.
That said, I'll try to address your concerns.
All music downloaded from the iTMS (through iTunes
) will have a "copy protection" layer commonly referred to as DRM (or digital rights management). This DRM consists of a few limitations placed on the music files in order to "protect" it...
1. You can only play the music on authorized computers (or any number of iPods).
2. You can authorize up to 5 computers.
3. You can only burn a particular playlist 7 times but you can burn each individual song an unlimited number of times.
4. You can share your music with up to 5 different computers through a network.
5. You can not convert the protected AAC files into any other format.
6. The iPod is the only portable music device can play the AAC files directly.
This ONLY applies to music DOWNLOADED from the iTMS. Any music you manually import (through ripping CDs or otherwise
) WILL NOT have any form of DRM on it.
That should allay your concerns about DRM. As long as you are OK with the concept of DRM (and many people aren't) the iTMS variant of it is quite mild compared to the other types out there.
As for importing your music from music match, as long as the songs themselves have accurate ID3 tags (which it sounds like they do) iTunes will recognize and read that information flawlessly.
iTunes will rip cds fine and the files will have no restrictions whatsoever.
You can connect as many iPods as you want to your computer and import music onto them. You can also do the reverse with a minimal amount of fuss with a host of 3rd party applications.
Hope this helps.
-Paul