What is "freedb"

freedb is a database of compact disc track listings, where all the content is under the GNU General Public License. To look up CD information over the Internet, a client program calculates a hash function from the CD table of contents and uses it as a disc ID to query the database. If the disc is in the database, the client is able to retrieve and display the artist, album title, track list and some additional information.

It was originally based on the now- proprietary CDDB (Compact Disc DataBase). Because it inherited the CDDB 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. As of April 24, 2006, the database holds just under 2,000,000 CDs. As of 2007, MusicBrainz – a project with similar goals – has a freedb gateway that allows access to their own database.