you can manually manage music, but if you download senuti you can copy up to 1000 songs off of your iPod to your computer for free. There was another program I had right when I got my new mac for college, and it let me copy all my music, so now I have it all and just sync. But I would honestly wait for the 5, which will be around september. the 4 and 4s are already great, I have a 4 and my mom and my little bro have the 4s, and even if you don't want the 5 or whatever it will be called, you will at least be able to pick one up cheaper