I wish! I had a lot of songs that I dl from yahoo music and napster and I think something went wrong with the file association. Now most of the songs won't even play at all even though they are all labeled as mp3s. Want to cry now!
Because you have to use iTunes. That is the main application of the iPods. There are a few others out there that will allow you to use non Apple MP3's. But there arent many.