Note that iTunes is a DRM-enabled media player/manager/encoder. This means that it will preserve the additional frames inserted in the MP3 stream that contains a licence ID for its registered user.

Some people are not aware of this. Still iTunes is safe to use as it will not add DRM data into downloaded files that don't have it. (I think it will not do that immediately). The good thing about iTunes is its very easy ID3v2 tag generator, which allows easy labelling of files. But it's best not to use it to rip your Audio-CDs into MP3 files: the generated MP3 will contain the registration ID, so if this file is shared and uploaded a lot, the DRM data may allow identifying who ripped the unlicenced copy of the copyrighted CD.

Windows Media does it too, and in a near future, most popular MP3 encoders will do so too. As long as the MP3 ripped audio is for personal use (for example to transfer to a mobile MP3 player), this is safe and great.

iTunes is much more lightweight than Windows Media Player or RealOne Player, which are very boring to use with too many features and are heavy resource hogs, and cute but unnecessary and complex skins...

Many users like the fact that this iTunes player is just what they need, with no excessive interface features. Its main interest is certainly the ease with which you can manage your media library, with a good enough OS integration so that transfering and managing media files becomes really easy on Windows and Mac OS.

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