Don't get me wrong, I don't think there is another music service that can shake a stick at the ITMS!
I joined the digital music game early on and had 30 Gigs of music in no time at all. I installed an Mp3 compatible CD player in my car, purchased an Mp3 compatible CD player for the house and even an Mp3 compatible Boom Box for camping, beach or garage poker games.
Today we are a 3 iPod household but I still have a need for Mp3's in my life! I can't tell you how many times I have been in a hurry to get my latest playlist onto an MP3 CD to go in the car or boom box only to get the dreaded message that the music i payed my hard earned money for cannot be burned to and Mp3 CD without a 5 step process! That just plain sucks no matter how you slice it.
My usual plan of attack is to burn any newly purchased ITMS files to audio and reimport them as Mp3 as soon as I buy them. I have also been know to toss the purchased file altogether and just download it with acquisition (the latter is usually faster). Why should I have to go through all this frustration? Apple hasn't prevented me from converting the files to Mp3, they've just made the process painfull!
(reminds me of windoze!)