Phonoline
Phonoline was a paid service from PhonoNet AG, Hamburg, which made music available online.
Phonoline was an ambitious project with which the German music industry wanted to respond to the threat of illegal downloads and provide a legal alternative. Planning for the platform, in which Deutsche Telekom was involved as a partner for the technical side, began in 2001. However, the start was repeatedly delayed. The reasons given were alternating between technical difficulties and conflicts with collecting societies such as GEMA about the amount of the remuneration to be paid. 16 labels took part, including a. Universal Music , Sony Music , Warner , EMI and Bertelsmann / BMG .
Phonoline initially turned to Internet marketers as a wholesale platform who wanted to provide music downloads for end users themselves. After downloading, users could legally burn the tracks on CD or copy them to MP3 players .
The service started in March 2004 as a pop file for end users. In contrast to the iTunes Music Store of the computer company Apple - online since June 2004 in Great Britain, France and Germany - it was not successful; Probably also because Popfile almost exclusively sold music from Universal.
Phonoline was announced in September 2004, and Popfile in December 2004.
Telekom started the Musicload project in October 2003 ; this still exists today (2011).
literature
- Universal Music closes its music portal Popfile. In: Die Welt , December 17, 2004
Web links
- mp3-world.net
- heise.de
- Phonoline: hot autumn for music pirates? " sbznet.de
- Telecom pays millions in damages after Phonoline is canceled Heise online September 27, 2004