Seeing as you have said you need to transfer music files from your laptop to iPhone, i assume your laptop is windows based. If that's the case, then it is definitely possible to transfer to iPhone. But i see you have mentioned that you cannot plug your iphone to your laptop, may i know the reason? Is the cable dead or the OS doesn't show your device? Have you tried with new cable? Seeing as how you said that you have stopped using itunes ever since your cable gave out, i assume you have been using it well before, so the best and safest way would be to buy a new cable and just do as how you have done in the past.