i want to make a basic mp3 player, just command line at first and then once i have it working nicley ill make it gui. i do have a decent amount of programing knowledge in c++ opengl and vc++ enough to make my own simple 3d game which was more of a techdemo. but ive never done anyhing with sound and id like to venture off into that. but one of the things i have with stuff like this is that if i make an mp3 player i want to be able to do it the right way, the way a developer for a commercial company would, even though it obviously wouldnt be to the same scale. i just dont want to use come class that some guy made that makes my whole program into 3 lines. ive google searched and checked msdn and everything and the only thing i can come up with is directsound which would work i guess but im not really looking to make it for a game, just a standalone compact mp3 player that i could eventually expand into a nice player and maybe put in some opengl affects for displaying album art and stuff, but right now my concern is just to find out how id get the music working.