Phonolog

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Phonolog or PhonoLog (full, older titles: PhonoLog: The All-in-One Record Catalog and PhonoLog: The All-in-One Record Reporter) was a recorded music directory that listed artists, currently available albums, and songs, focusing on popular music. Each directory contained thousands of loose-leaf pages and listings — 11,000 titles as of 1968^[1]. These large directories with their familiar yellow-gold pages were often located in record stores and libraries; they were used by store customers, library patrons, radio music directors, radio DJs, and anyone else who needed a comprehensive resource of recorded music.

Phonolog was first published in 1948 and was maintained through periodic updates called the Phonolog Reporter. Phonolog Publishing Co. of Los Angeles was its publisher in the 1970s. Trade Services Publications of San Diego produced and distributed updates to the catalog during the 1980s, and sold this product to Muze, Inc. in 2000. Muze now offers a similar music database called MuzeMusic.

Phonolog Reporter has largely been overtaken by CDs and the Internet. There is also a CD distributed by Billboard magazine with hundreds of thousands of entries.

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