Introducing Windows Media Device Manager

Microsoft® Windows Media™ Device Manager is a distinct feature of the Windows Media™ Format SDK, supporting the Secure Digital Music Initiative (SDMI) for packaging copyrighted music. As digital music has become more and more popular and accessible, copyright protection has become an important legal and financial issue. Leading music providers want to ensure that consumers can get the top artists they demand without sacrificing the importance of copyrights. To this end, the industry has formed the SDMI to create a specification for securing digital music. Consumers will benefit because, in the future, they will have a much broader access to downloadable music from leading music artists.

Applications developed with Windows Media Device Manager will enable users to copy their music compact disc (CD) collection, as well as protected music downloaded from the Web, to SDMI-compliant portable music players and SDMI-compliant portable storage devices (such as flash memory cards). With such applications, users can collect and organize music on their Windows PC and transfer music selectively to the SDMI-compliant portable music players. This SDK allows applications to transfer music to SDMI-compliant portable music players from a variety of manufacturers.