NEW USER!!! THIS IS POSTED IN ITUNES BOARD!!! NEED HELP!!!

I posted a message similar to this in the itunes board -- but i figured I'd post it here too since this is specificly for Ipod mini's
I just bought an IPod mini 4gb off of ebay, but I have no clue how to use it...and I know this question is going to seem pretty dumb, but I wanted to know if paying for the songs is the only way to get them? I guess I just didn't do my research well enough but I thought there was some way to download songs without paying 99 cents each time???
Please help