fˈɑːnɑːn wʌz ɚɹˈɪdʒɪnəli kɹiːˈeɪɾᵻd tʊ ɐlˈaʊ kˌeɪdˌiːˈiː ænd kjˌuːtˈiː sˈɔftwɛɹ təbi ˌɪndᵻpˈɛndənt ʌv ˌɛni sˈɪŋɡəl mˌʌltɪmˈiːdiːə fɹˈeɪmwɜːk sˈʌtʃ ɐz dʒˈiː stɹˈiːmɚ ɔːɹ zˈaɪn ænd tə pɹəvˈaɪd ɐ stˈeɪbəl ˌeɪpˌiːˈaɪ fɚɹə mˈeɪdʒɚ vˈɜːʒənz lˈaɪftaɪm.
Phonon was originally created to allow KDE and Qt software to be independent of any single multimedia framework such as GStreamer or xine and to provide a stable API for a major version's lifetime.