Freedb was a database of user-submitted compact disc track listings,[1] where all the content was under the GNU General Public License.
If the disc was in the database, the client was able to retrieve and display the artist, album title, track list and some additional information.
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.
[2] Asked by Heise News about the reasons for the service's demise, Magix stated that the updates required by a changing legal and technical environment had made it uneconomical to maintain.
[2] An expert quoted by Heise ruled out server costs as the reason, observing that a single request to the service amounted to just around five kilobytes of transferred data.