A method and system provides interfaces, data structures and events for representing a "sink" of multimedia data to interact with objects in a multimedia system to control multimedia objects. The interfaces and data structures enable efficient management for media objects that must interface directly with each other. One embodiment is directed to providing a common interface and a single API to a plurality of media objects. In an embodiment, the API is a control layer that isolates the media objects from each other and provides a single point of control, allowing media objects to be added or removed without affecting any other media objects. The control layer allows users to become familiar with only one API instead of many thereby facilitating the tasks of programming and documentation.