Have you tried the MCI library?
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/dd742874(v=vs.85).aspx
Here's how I do it:
mciSendString(L"open ../mp3/announce_start.mp3 alias announce", 0, 0, 0 );
mciSendString(L"play announce wait", 0, 0, 0 );
If you want your sound file to repeat, try
mciSendString(L"play announce repeat wait", 0, 0, 0 );