Looking for Windows-format FreeDB database

Up until March 2018, there used to be monthly postings of the FreeDB-Database for Window. As best I can tell, the very last one was posted in March 2018 by @DetlevD, according to this thread.

As is now well known (except to me, who only learned about it very recently) the FreeDB server was supposed to be shut down permanently by Magix on March 31, 2020 although it actually remained in service until June 13, 2020 when it finally was deactivated. Since I only learned about this after FreeDB went out of service, I no longer have the ability to download the Windows-format database directly from FreeDB.org in order to provide me with a a "local FreeDB database" for MP3Tag or any of my other programs which depend on FreeDB cloud-based or local database for queries.

I have downloaded that March 2018 complete database for Windows posted by @DetlevD, and have also found on the Wayback Machine web site all monthly updates from June 2019 through June 2020. Unfortunately the Wayback Machine has now removed all earlier monthly updates which would have covered the period from March 2018 through June 2019, so I cannot use the FreeDB Updater Utility to bring the March 2018 database current through end-of-life of FreeDB on June 13, 2020.

So, I am now trying to find a source for either:

(a) complete FreeDB-Database for Windows from any month from June 2019 or newer, since I do have all monthly updates coming forward for that time period, or

(b) all missing updates for UNIX database for the period March 2018 through June 2019, since if I had those along with the newer monthly updates I already have and the complete March 2018 database I also have I could again do all of the monthly updates from March 2018 up through current FreeDB end-of-life on June 13, 2020 using the FreeDB Updater Utility.

Does anybody have either of the above items that could be made available for me to download?

Or does anybody know where I might retrieve either of the above items?

Any help would be much much appreciated.

thanks in advance for your help

This will help? http://gnudb.org/

I understand that GNUDB is a usable perfect substitute server for FreeDB. Reached through the same FreeDB Protocol (i.e. path /~cddb/cddb.cgi, port 80) so it means no programming change. Just as the GNUDB site describes, assuming a program allows configuring the server access URL (and possibly also via a proxy server, PROXY.GNUDB.ORG, port 3128) through its Settings it's a simple thing to change what was originally access to FreeDB.FreeDB.org port 80 to instead now be GNUDB.GNUDB.ORG port 80.

In fact in response to the very recent disappearance of FreeDB both Audiograbber as well as CD-Runner have now just recently released updated versions of their software products that have as a new default data server URL pointing to GNUDB instead of to FreeDB.

And EAC's response has been to publish a new version 1.5 that has its default interface work with MusicBrainz. This required a program change on their part and not just a simple server URL change, because the MusicBrainz interface is proprietary and not accessed the same /~cddb/cddb.cgi way as FreeDB was. And this is now required cecause MusicBrainz deprecated its FreeDB Protocol back in March 2019, requiring software products using its data to utilize their proprietary client interface.

Unfortunately, Musifind Pro has its internet access hard-coded to use one of the assorted previously existing FreeDB servers around the planet, and does not provide any way to substitute or add a new URL. Nor does it allow alternative use of a local database. So for this program (long ago legacied and abandoned by its author) I have no option other than to manually enter CD data going forward, since I absolutely must continue to use it going forward.

So going forward using GNUDB and MusicBrainz instead of FreeDB for cloud-based online data access with the cloud-based software products I use is very much perfectly acceptable to me. And of course these services are "live" and ongoing, and will continue to receive user-submitted database updates for newly released CDs.

I was simply trying to produce the offline "local FreeDB Windows-form database" which is supported by most of these products. And had I known about the imminent recent disappearance of FreeDB I would have for sure obtained a download of the Windows-form database before it became impossible. But I've missed that opportunity, unfortunately.

So while I realize it's not absolutely critical for ongoing use of those software products which can now operate using GNUDB, I really would like to complete my objective of creating the "local FreeDB Windows-form database", if I could.

Hence my search for either:

(a) a "complete" Windows-form database from any of the 13 months between June 2019 and June 2020, or

(b) a set of the 14 monthly Linux-form database updates for all months between March 2018 and May 2019.

Ok. I've done some deeper looking and decided I now truly understand what the conceptual difference is between what I've been calling "LINUX-form database" and "Windows-form database". They're actually content-wise identical as you'd expect, both being the genuine FreeDB database with information on about 3.9 million CDs.

The only difference is a physical one. The LINUX-form database contains one file per each CD (sub-grouped into 11 genre sub-folders). Hence about 3.9 million individual files, one file per CD. The Windows-form database reflects a "consolidation" into larger files, so necessarily fewer of them in total.

The consolidation of the Windows-form is by high-order byte in the 4-byte filename/DISCID. So there are 255 files in each of the 11 genre sub-folders, hence only 2805 files in total for the 3.9 million DISCID values, rather than 3.9 million files for the 3.9 million DISCID values.

So somebody obviously wrote a "consolidation utility" program, which reads the 3.9 million individual filename/DISCID files in the underlying LINUX-form database and combines them into 11*255=2805 larger files with multiple DISCIDs inside each file. And the consolidation is for all filename/DISCID with the same high-order byte.

Hence the resulting 255 filenames of 00to00, 01to01, 02to02, ..., fetofe, within each of the 11 genre folders. And the resulting consolidated individual larger files vary in size from about 1.5MB (with 456 DISCID's inside) up to about 4.5MB (with 5129 DISCID's inside).

Same exact data in both database forms. Just one is one DISCID per file, and the other is mulitple DISCID's per file.

Does somebody have that "consolidation utility" already written that I can have? Otherwise I will just write one myself, now that its design objective is so clear and straightforward.

And since I DO have that final 6/1/2020 LINUX-form database (with its 3.9 million files, one for each DISCID) I can simply run the "consolidation utility" on it (after I write it), to produce my own final Windows-form database also current as of 6/1/2020.

So I guess I don't need the complete set of FreeDB monthly updates after all. Nor do I need some complete Windows-form database from the past year. Once I produce my own "consolidation utility" I can just run it against the LINUX-form 6/1/2020 database, to produce the Windows-form 6/1/2020 database.

I'm suspecting that @DetlevD probably has this exact utility already, and used it himself up through 3/1/2018 to produce exactly this FREEDB-WIN database he posted here regularly on a monthly basis. Maybe somebody else also still has that utility, that they could provide directly to me to save me the trouble of developing it myself?

(1) Here is what the Windows-form database looks like:

(2) Here is what the small BLUES - 00to00 file looks like (456 DISCID's):

(3) Here is what the large ROCK - 8fto8f file looks like (5129 DISCID's):

1 Like

I ended up deciding to "do it yourself". I had the latest 6/1/2020 UNIX-version of the database, so why not just convert it myself to the Windows-version with a program of my own creation? I know how to code.

So that's what I've done. After a long weekend of programming and testing and debugging and dealing with assorted unexpected "corruption" or "surprises" in the UNIX-version data content itself, I have now emerged victorious. I now have my own complete Windows-form of the database as of 6/1/2020.

And I've confirmed that the various Freedb-aware programs I use in my workflow which also support "local FreeDB database" do, in fact, actually work when restricted to accessing just the local database.

So I've now deleted that old 3/1/2018 Windows-version and the incomplete set of monthly updates that I had found on the MP3Tag site, but which then needed all monthly updates through 6/2020 which I'd only been partially successful in finding. That was the essence of this thread, asking if anybody had the missing updates.

Well now I don't need to apply monthly updates to a 3/1/2018 starting version, since I actually do now have my own ending 6/1/2020 Windows-version which was the goal all along.

It's about 3.9GB data on disk in about 3.9GB space allocation, about 1.3GB in ZIP file form. 1 parent folder, 11 sub-folders with 255 files in each, for a total of 2805 files.

This contrasts to the UNIX-version which is about 3.8GB data on disk but in about 11.3GB of space allocation due to the huge number of individual files, about 960MB in TAR.BZ2 form. 1 parent folder, 11 sub-folders with 3.9 million files.

I will be glad to provide my 1.3GB ZIP version of this 6/1/2018 Windows-version of the dataset, if anybody wants it. Or, I could give it to someone to upload for posterity onto the MP3Tag OneDrive site so that others can have it.

This should hopefully help others who had the same goal as I did.

Of course I will be using alive-and-well GNUDB instead of the defunct FreeDB going forward, but at least I've finally achieved my objective of getting the final 6/1/2020 Windows-version of the FreeDB database, for local use.

Note again that I was also able to find a 4/1/2020 version of the complete FreeDB database in SQLite form. Singe file FREEDB.DB, 2.9GB. Works wonderfully with a free utility like DB Browser for SQLite, for direct query to the local database. I can also make that version available if someone wants to upload that version as well to the MP3Tag OneDrive site.

1 Like

Hi,
Where can I download the 1.3GB ZIP version you created from?

@trattnh,

I have sent you a PM with the URL for you to download that 1.3GB ZIP of the 2018-06-01 "Windows Version" of the final monthly 2018-06-01 "Standard Version" which was still available for download directly from FreeDB until they final shut down their site on 2020-06-13.

Again, it is the output of my own conversion utility, running against that official 2018-06-01 "Standard Version".

Just to clarify my own typo...

That was actually the 2020-06-01 "standard version" I meant to show, not 2018-06-01 as I actually mistakenly typed.

So my "Windows version" is obviously converted from that same 2020-06-01 final FreeDB database normal monthly output they provided for download until shutting down on 2020-06-13, not 2018-06-01 as I mistakenly typed.

I'm sure you recognized my typo. The data is truly for 2020-06-01, not 2018-06-01.

Could you please email me the link to your 1.3GB ZIP of the 2018-06-01 "Windows Version.

I have the LINUX-form 6/1/2020 database but I have no coding skills to convert it to a windows versions.

Thank you.

Sorry my typo, I meant 1.3GB ZIP of the 2020-06-01 Windows Version.

@Kerla,

I've sent you a PM with the URL for the download. And yes, it is the converted Windows version of the final 2020-06-01 Linux-form database. Any confusion was due to my own original mistaken reference to the 2018-06-01 version which is obviously my own typo.

Let me know if you have any problems getting it.

1 Like

I have downloaded your database and it is working perfectly, thank you.

@DSperber
Could you please PM me the download link to your windows version of the db?

@dinosaur66

I've sent you a PM with the URL for downloading the Windows version of the DB.

Let me know if you can retrieve it, and if it works for you.

Thanks @DSperber
Works perfectly on my offline Windows PC with both mp3tag and fre:ac.

Hi DSperber is there any chance you could also send me the link for the windows database.

@trog0,

I've sent you a PM with the URL for downloading the Windows version of the DB.

Let me know if you can retrieve it, and if it works for you.

Hi I am new,

We are running a small radiostation in the Netherlands. We did use Freedb for our format for old CD's.

Can you send me the link for the Windows database?

Thanks a lot.

Christiaan

Thanks for that Dsperber. I'm sure everyone appreciates the effort you have gone to converting the database.There used to be a tool for converting the database called mkfreedb but this has now disappeared.

@Christiaan,

I've sent you a PM with the URL for downloading the Windows version of the DB.

Let me know if you can retrieve it, and if it works for you.