Zune software and starting digital music library

[jefferiestubes8]

I currently don't use digital music software to manage my music library. At the moment it would be about 20 albums in .WAV uncompressed format ripped from CDs. and maybe 100 songs in MP3 around 128kbps.
I have about 400 CDs to rip and plan on keeping them all uncompressed on a RAID1 drive for years.
I will not be using FLAC or Apple Lossless. No need to try to change my mind.
From the uncompressed WAV files I'll make MP3s at 192kbps as an compromise tradeoff in audio quality vs storage size for portable playing.

Currently I use Window Mobile 6.5 smartphone.

I was planning on getting a Windows Mobile 7 phone in the next 6 months that has Zune as digital music library software.
I was also considering getting an annual Zune Pass to stream music and purchase MP3s from the Zune Marketplace. I'm really not interested in purchasing or renting video from the Zune store. I'm not a gamer and won't be playing Zune music from an XBOX 360.

I wanted to post this question for people who have tried or converted over to Zune as a digital music library software.
Mass adoption of Apple's iTunes software aside. I do not own a portable media player at all.
Yes I know Zune Marketplace has 5 million songs and iTunes store has 14 million songs. I can always goto the Amazon MP3 store with 16 million songs or Rhapsody with 10 million songs or Napster with 11 million songs.

Is iTunes really that much superior than the Zune software for organizing music?
Can I make playlists for myself just as easily?
To me the Zune software and the WM7 is very similar in software & hardware to what the iPhone did in 2007.
I am a Windows user and not wanting to get a iPhone (especially that I can't change the battery when dead on a busy use day).
If you guys were just starting a digital music library from scratch would you consider the Zune with it's integration with the Windows Phone 7?

 

[Mr. B]

Zune/software is sort of a thorn in my side as far as my music collection goes. I am migrating my whole collection to lossless FLAC and I have to maintain a seperate collection of MP3s to use on my player.

If I was starting from scratch I would use FLAC and hardware that supports it. I don't see a need for "software" to "organize" your music. That's what folders are for.... FLAC tags help too.

Having said that, I like my Zune HD enough to make the effort to make it work. The hassle of maintaining a MP3 mirror loading the player could be a lot better... but the end experience of using the player is quite plesant.

 

[backstept]

I have both Zune and iTunes and I prefer Zune by far . . . for me it's a lot easier to organize, because it pulls the metadata down easier, and the interface is pure sex