MusicBrainz to FreeDB Gateway
The MusicBrainz to FreeDB gateway (mb2freedb) is a service that allows FreeDB clients to access MB-data through the ![[WWW]](/-/musicbrainz/img/moin-www.png){kind=small}
FreeDB protocol.
How to Access It
The mb2freedb gateway is setup at the Oregon State University Open Source Lab and can be accessed using the following settings:
host freedb.musicbrainz.org via http port 80 path /~cddb/cddb.cgi
It should be just a matter of changing the host and possibly the path, as the other settings are standard for most applications.
Application instructions
Exact Audio Copy (EAC): To access the "FreeDB / Database Options" page either press F12 or click the toolbar button EAC and scroll down to "FreeDB / Database Options". On the freedb Tab you will see the entry "Freedb server". Enter "
http://freedb.musicbrainz.org:80/~cddb/cddb.cgi" and click OK. That's it!
Because the gateway is running on a mirror server, any changes made on the main musicbrainz site will take time to propagate, normally this is no more than a hour after the edit has been applied, but occasionally it can take longer.
Limitations
CDs with data tracks such as videos are supported. But, will return one less track than normally expected from FreeDB. This might cause a problem with some clients.
The genre will always be set to Unknown.
The year is always set to the first one on the matching database entry. As re-releases with the same track listing are always combined with the original, the year returned might not match that of the disc in hand.
Data is always returned in UTF-8 to cater with extended character sets. For most albums, this isn't a problem. But, for full compatability a FreeDB client that supports protocol version 6 is required. If the characters look garbled in your FreeDB enabled application, this is probably the reason why.
Obviously only albums on MusicBrainz with DiscIDs attached will return matches!
If the album you want to check doesn't have your disc ID attached, follow the process on HowToAddDiscIDs to add it.
Bug Reporting / Questions
Our BugTracker has a component for mb2freedb, please report all problems there, including as much detail as possible:
Problem seen
Software and version
The release url, eg:
http://musicbrainz.org/release/b84ee12a-09ef-421b-82de-0441a926375b.html The FreeDB id if you have it
Your IP address if you know it
approximate date/time, preferably in GMT/UTC so the logs can be checked.
If you want to play with the source code, it's here: http://bugs.musicbrainz.org/browser/mb2freedb/trunk/
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