As others have noted, you can use iTunes to put ripped music onto an iPhone, and you can also tell iTunes which music you want to transfer and which you don't (I have something like 85 GB of Springsteen on my iPhone and just about no other music, for example, but I have tons of other ripped music).
Streaming doesn't appeal much to me because it gives somebody else control over my access to the music. That is, I don't listen to Taylor Swift, but I recall she and her management got into some kind of dispute with Spotify that led to none of her music being available on said service for some amount of time. If I were a fan of hers and I relied on Spotify, I would have been extremely upset. With that said, I do recognize how streaming can sometimes be a nice way to find new music that might appeal to you if the software uses some sort of predictive algorithm—I've periodically listened to Pandora's free service, for instance, and I have found some decent stuff that way (I then purchased copies of what I wanted).
I don't buy a lot of music from iTunes anyway. I tend to opt for HDTracks.com instead. I prefer the high-rez .FLAC downloads that I can then copy and convert to whatever format I need for a particular device (native .FLAC to burn to disc for the car; Apple Lossless for my iPod or iPhone; .WAV if I want to burn a CD for our 2003 Acura; etc.).
Regarding the original topic, there used to be a wonderful hardware store in Springfield, Virginia, named Fischer's. It was well-known locally as the store where you could find anything. I liked that you didn't have to buy a huge quantity of nails or screws or whatever—they'd sell you individual screws if you only needed three or four for a job, for instance. The store joined the ACE Hardware chain some years ago, almost immediately ran into financial difficulties that were exacerbated when the chain mandated changes in how they managed inventory, and closed. It's now an Aldi. Damn shame that place closed.