Abstract: Embodiments provide a method for applying Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection to media such as compressed audio and video that is compatible with Real-time Transport Protocol (RTP) and conventional media processing pipelines without modification. Media is encrypted according to the Common Encryption Specification (ISO/IEC 23001-7) and frame-specific encryption metadata i.e. auxiliary encryption information is appended to the media frame. The encrypted media is transmitted in real-time over a network. On the receiving side, the encrypted media as well as auxiliary encryption information are extracted and forwarded to a content decryption module (CDM). The CDM uses the frame-specific encryption metadata to generate CencSampleAuxiliaryDataFormat and ISOBMFF boxes necessary for DRM license acquisition, acquires a DRM license with the decryption keys to decrypt and render media frames in a protected way.