Just found out about this, seems to recognize my obscure music, at least so far…
It says that the program depends on a non-free network service. Does that mean there is a subscription or other type of payment involved?
TL;DR: F-Droid isn’t referring to that, but yes, the app requires an API key for a paid service to perform unlimited requests.
Long answer:
When using the expression “non-free”, F-Droid refers to something not being free software, where the term “free” doesn’t refer to its price (free as in beer), but to it giving its users freedom to do what they want to with it (free as in speech).
However, this application in particular relies on a service called AudD, which is a paid service based on the number of API requests done. So while the F-Droid “anti-feature” list doesn’t refer to its price, this app still relies on a paid service and requires an API key upon launch (although it seems you can do a limited number of requests without one).
I downloaded it. It required you to create an AudD account and then import your API key. You get a 14-day free trial and then it’s $5/mo for the AudD service.
It does work well, though.
The github page has more context than the F-Droid listing.
API Key
This application uses the AudD® service as a Music Recognition API. You need a special API token provided by AudD® to use the application. If you don’t have one, you can sign up for a free API token. You can add the key on the onboarding or preferences screen, or just set it in local.properties.
There is also the option to use the app without a token, but please note that this will restrict the number of daily recognitions that can be performed.
The AudD web site says:
Music recognition API for both content analysis and in-app music recognition costs from $2 to $5 per 1000 requests. First 300 requests for free.
I don’t see where is says the first 300 requests are free. The cheapest plan is $5/month for 1000 requests and $0.005 per each additional request. I would only use it once or twice a month, so it’s not worth $5/month. I’d be willing to pay per request like with Chat GPT, but it doesn’t have that option.
I was just wondering about this earlier today. Tried to use SoundHound for something and the annoying advertisement made me miss the song
