The project “Telling Sounds” (www.mdw.ac.at/imi/tellingsounds) has the goal of preparing online available audio-(visual) sources (clips) as a basis for understanding contemporary musical history. The metadata of these clips will be enriched and grouped according to thematic aspects as a starting point for case studies. As a basis for such a digital research environment, a special tool will be developed which makes it possible to visualize the connections between clips and the entities and meanings, thus open them up for further research. As an example of the consequences and possibilities of such a music-historical representation, the following text relates different musical and media forms of expression in Vienna in the 1970s: the Beethoven anniversary, the history of Austropop, the communication of women-related topics on the radio and the propagandistic significance of this medium during the Cold War in connection with the topos “Music Country Austria” are thus made comprehensible as facets of music-related constructions of meaning in a concrete historical time and place.