Original post by ZamestanehIslam acknowledges that men and women are different and therefore Allah, out of His wisdom, has allocated specific roles and responsibilities (and therefore different rights) for each gender which best fits with the inherent nature of most men and women. Where you have an issue with 'inequality' is essentially a matter of you assuming men and women are the same in every single way in their most basic nature, therefore any differences in rights, roles and responsibilities you find to be a deviation from this innate equality, but the reality is that our most basic nature we are different.
I will give a very very simple example:
On the whole, men tend to be naturally more agressive and stronger than females (obviously there are exceptions, but this is the norm). As a result men are predisposed to assuming more responsibility when it comes to warfare and protection; how are men and women truly 'equal' to start with? The answer is that fundamentally there are innate differences between men and women, and sure there are innate similarities or times when men can exceed in a quality that women are predisposed to be better in, and women can exceed in quality that men are predisposed to be better in, but this is not the norm; one might claim Spartan women are equal to the men for example, but the men are still stronger even if the women have made up for the shortfall in their basic strength.
There are no 'contradictions' that cannot be reconciled with understanding. The verse means that one cannot force someone to become Muslim; are you familiar with the comparison between publicised apostasy/rebellion in an Islamic state and treason? In such a case, punishment for treason does not in itself contradict a lack of compulsion in religion. In any case, a person can leave a religious state if they so strongly disagree with the religion - it's what I would do, and I wouldn't care so much that I would have to leave my family behind, not because I don't love them but because truth comes over blood ties and memories.
This is a rather emotional objection (rather than one of reason) by you, and I think the vast majority of Muslims have enjoyed music at some point (and perhaps still continue to); however if you really reflect on the matter, its general prohibition makes a lot of sense. Music is generally a distraction which people spend hours listening to - imagine how many years of their lives will have been wasted with music by the time they die? That time could have been spent more productively in acts of ibadah or in better things in the dunya... But let's ignore those who listen to music at the moment, let's focus on those who make it: they waste so much more of their time practicing and learning how to play instruments and songs, and then they distract others. Imagine a person spent their whole time gambling until they had mastered card-counting for example, therefore maximising their chances of winning and minimising their losses. This gambler seldom loses and only ever makes money on most days. He gives the money directly to his friends who know very well where the money came from, but does this make it halal? Obviously not. Similarly a musician spends all their time practicing (thus making negligent use of their time), then they give their music to others for them to enjoy/distract them - does this suddenly make it the music halal to listen to because the listener doesn't waste as much time as the musicians themselves? Obviously not... I can go into why even religious music (with instruments) is prohibited also if you wish, but this is sufficient as a rational explanation for why music is prohibited.
About the second part, those who believe in Islam and are firm in faith know that there is the hereafter and therefore it does not dishearten them so much that they cannot enjoy the haram of this life; you appear to be wavering in faith at the moment so that is why you are unsure of the rules - I think it is because you are too converned with the dunya at the moment.