im not an expert at wmp, but i think it stores it's information in a .wmdb file. itunes uses an .xml file. the xml file that itunes uses is stored in the my music folder by default. you could back that up and as long as your music files do not change location on the hard drive that would work for backing it up. as for wmp and itunes sharing the same database file, i don't think it would be possible. i don't see any option to make wmp use a different database. same goes for itunes. they want to use their own files. im not too clear as your main question. you want to share your music out across the network, and have somebody connect to it from another computer. then they can copy that music to their mp3 audio device?