Can the Lighting Connector manually transfer music or does it all need to be done through iCloud now?

I, personally still buy mostly CDs, and very rarely buy songs from iTunes. So with the iPhone 5's new Lightning connector would I still be able to transfer music to my phone manually from my computer or does it need to be done through iCloud? If so the iPhone 5 is a waste for me and I will not buy it for sure. Please help!