Abstract: Systems and methods for facilitating the playback, viewing, exchange and transfer of media are disclosed. Media, either hard physical media or soft media, are provided to a depository/rights manager that associates the rights to the content of the media with the entity that provided it. Media provided to the depository/rights manager may be digitized, and the rights of the entity to that content may be verified. Once the media is stored by the depository/rights manager, entities, such as individual users, may use it, exchange it, or transfer it using, for example, computers connected to a communication network. In some embodiments, the depository/rights manager may provide an interface, such as an application programming interface (API) that allows the depository/rights manager to handle back-end legal compliance and rights tracking for third-party services and systems.