System and method for employing slot level cache locking are disclosed. When a rich media file request occurs, a general lock is put on the cache to determine whether the file has already been allocated a location in the cache. If a location has been previously allocated, an attempt is made to lock the specific slot in the cache where the file is stored and the general cache lock is released. If a slot has not been previously allocated, a next available slot is obtained and the cache slot is locked. The general lock on the cache is released. Once the cache slot lock is achieved, processing of the file request continues, such as by requesting the file from a third party server. Upon release of the general cache lock, additional media file requests can be processed concurrently without having to wait for the continued processing of the file request.