I love iTunes after attempting to use Music Match and a couple of others over the past couple of years. MM suck'd and it is hard as heel to remove once loaded. I've taught a lot of people how to use their iPods and I burned all their music to an external drive. Much easier than any other.
I buy CDs that I don't have, assuming I want more than one song and rip them. Then they're mine and I get to do what I want with them. I've downloaded a couple of tunes from iTunes music store but just b/c I wanted only one song.
Make friends with people that have a lot of CDs and "buy" them, or just buy them an ext. drive, burn to the hard drive for them then "buy" the CD from them. I don't know if that's legal or not but at least your conscience is clear.