Freedb was a database of user-submitted compact disc track listings, the Freedb database held just under 2,000,000 CDs. As of 2007, MusicBrainz – a project with similar goals – had a Freedb gateway that allowed access to their own database. The Freedb gateway was shut down on March 18, 2019.

In 2020, Freedb was shut down by Magix, a German company that had acquired it in 2006.

History

Predecessor

The original software behind CDDB was released under the GNU General Public License, and many people submitted CD information thinking the service would also remain free. The license was later changed, however, and some programmers complained that the new license included certain terms that they couldn't accept: if one wanted to access CDDB, one was not allowed to access any other CDDB-like database (such as Freedb), and any programs using a CDDB lookup had to display a CDDB logo while performing the lookup.

Creation

In March 2001, CDDB, now owned by Gracenote, banned all unlicensed applications from accessing their database. New licenses for CDDB1 (the original version of CDDB) were no longer available, since Gracenote wanted to force programmers to switch to CDDB2 (a new version incompatible with CDDB1 and hence with Freedb).

Because it inherited CDDB's limitations, there is no data field in the Freedb database for composer. This limits its usefulness for classical music CDs. Furthermore, CDs in a series are often introduced in the database by different people, resulting in inconsistent spelling and naming conventions across discs.

Freedb was used primarily by media players, cataloguers, audio taggers and CD ripper software. As of version 6 of the Freedb protocol, Freedb accepted and returned UTF-8 data.

Acquisition by Magix

Magix acquired Freedb in 2006. MusicBrainz – a project with similar goals – released a Freedb gateway in 2007, allowing users to harvest information from the MusicBrainz database rather than Freedb. A 2011 review observed that "unlike the flat file database structure of freedb.org, MusicBrainz is structured as a relational database, which has allowed MusicBrainz to expand its scope."

Closure

In June 2020, Freedb.org went offline (after its impending shutdown had been announced in March 2020). gnudb.org is not affiliated with the GNU project.

Client software

Freedb‐aware applications include:

  • Asunder
  • Audiograbber
  • CDex
  • cdrdao
  • Exact Audio Copy
  • foobar2000
  • fre:ac
  • Grip
  • JetAudio
  • Mp3tag
  • MediaMonkey
  • puddletag
  • Quod Libet

See also

  • List of online music databases
  • MusicBrainz

References

Further reading

  • (archived copy)
  • gnudb.org