Well, using the open function in Python doesn't launch any application associated with the file (such as Media Player). It just makes the contents of the file accessible to your Python code. Also, I think using file("C:\file.txt") is now preferred to open("C:\file.txt").
To answer the specific question of how to play a music file in Python, search Google Groups for: pygame.mixer.music.load("music.mp3") That will bring up a useful thread. Note that you will need to install a module such as pygame or pymedia; they are not in the standard library. In general, I would also recommend some of the many good Python tutorials. Some are listed here: http://wiki.python.org/moin/BeginnersGuide Good luck! -- http://mail.python.org/mailman/listinfo/python-list