A reference to auxiliary data is steganographically encoded within a media signal. The auxiliary data is stored in a metadata database that maps the reference encoded in the media signal to its corresponding metadata. Various application programs and devices can access the metadata by extracting the reference from the media signal, and querying the database for metadata corresponding to the reference. The metadata database may be implemented in a network server to make metadata readily available to devices and applications distributed throughout a network. This steganographic link to metadata may be used to retrieve metadata across media management systems. In one configuration, for example, media management systems have metadata servers that maintain metadata for a collection of media signals. The metadata server is responsible for responding to requests for metadata associated with media titles in its collection. In the event that a metadata server does not have metadata associated with a particular media title, it forwards the reference extracted from the media signal to a metadata router, which in turn, re-directs the request to the appropriate metadata server.