You might try searching for "Apple Media Player" these are pretty old links so you may have to wade through some Google pages.
MacEdition has an interesting article from "back in the day".
The Apple Media Player circa 1998:
This is from a project called "Columbus" that was revealed in an C/Net article dated March 13, 1998:
Apple's Columbus - a bold bet
I think the time has come for Apple to provide this missing spoke to their digital hub.
