DirectMusic是DirectX的一员，是播放音乐API，DirectMusic格式与MIDI格式类似，使用DLS（downloadable sounds）标准，拥有超过16组MIDI信道，可以同时演奏有多于16个的instrument。每一instrument都拥有一个 performance channel（PChannel）。DirectMusic提出 channel groups，最多可同时有 65,536 个channel 组，每一组又可包括16个channel，共可以有超过一百万个channel。

DirectMusic is a deprecated component of the Microsoft DirectX API that allows music and sound effects to be composed and played and provides flexible interactive control over the way they are played. Architecturally, DirectMusic is a high-level set of objects, built on top of DirectSound, that allow you to play sound and music without needing to get quite as low-level as DirectSound. DirectSound allows for the capture and playback of digital sound samples, whereas DirectMusic works with message-based musical data. Music can be synthesized either in hardware, in the Microsoft GS Wavetable SW Synth, or in a custom synthesizer.