Sound spy
Tonspion is an Internet magazine that editorially presents and links music files in MP3 format that are available legally and free of charge . The focus is on current pop music , electronics and independent . Tonspion refers, sorted according to different styles, exclusively to MP3 files that have been released for free download by artists or music labels .
Tonspion was founded in 1999 in Cologne by the music journalist Udo Raaf and was, according to his own account, the first MP3 blog in Germany. Since 2001 the seat is in Berlin . In addition to the founder, five editors and several freelance authors (including Janko Röttgers ) work for Tonspion.
The concept of making pieces by already successful artists available for download free of charge and in full as an advertising measure was initially not widespread in Germany because the music industry (at the time of the Napster controversy) used the non- DRM -protected MP3 standard as " Pirate format ”declined. According to their own statements, Tonspion was able to persuade many well-known labels to release songs. In the meantime, some selected non-commercial netlabels as well as current publications from the audio book and classical music categories are presented. The offer is free and funded through advertising.
In 2001, an English-language branch called Tonespy was founded in London ; the project has now been temporarily suspended. The German website is still popular, however, at the end of 2004 it had 250,000 visitors per month according to its own information.
The German website was nominated for the Grimme Online Award in 2005 and 2006 .
In April 2009 the offer was completely redesigned and expanded to include a video section and a music blog overview. In addition, Tonspion now offers a database for concerts and tours of the artists recommended by Tonspion.
All songs offered for download and the associated albums can be previewed on the site as a stream using a web-based player before the download . Tonspion uses the repertoire of the online music shop 7digital for this purpose .
Numerous websites regularly refer to the free download tips from Tonspion, including Laut.de, Intro.de, Computerbild, Netzwelt or Prinz Online.