1. A multimedia metadata abstraction interface supporting program access to multimedia file metadata provided in a variety of formats, the abstraction interface comprising: a multimedia program interface corresponding to a set of multimedia file metadata management functions accessible by multimedia applications; and a set of metadata decoders comprising a set of functions invoked by the multimedia application program interface, each metadata decoder including a metadata converter for parsing a metadata portion of a multimedia file to render metadata in a generic format; wherein the multimedia program interface comprises a set of program instruction segments for invoking a specified one of the set of functions supported by the set of metadata decoders in response to receiving a program request to access metadata corresponding to a multimedia file instance.