Ipod touch help!!! Don't want to use Itunes!! ?

Ok so I want an Ipod touch of Christmas but don't want to pay a dollar a song through Itunes to put on it. and I don't want have to burn a whole bunch of CDs to put the music on it either. So my question is "can I download the Itunes program and use ares which I already have to sync my music that I have on my computer already to the Ipod touch." "or do I have to use Itunes and pay a dollar a song to listen to my music on the Ipod touch." Thanks in advance for the answers!