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MusicBrainz API

musicbrainz.org · Media

Media No Auth Free & Open Music Media Artists

Open music encyclopedia — metadata for 2M+ artists, 3M+ releases, recordings, labels, and relationships. Free, no API key required. Set User-Agent header.

Authentication

No authentication requiredFree to use with no key needed.

Sample Requests

GET Search artists

Search for artists by name.

https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist?fmt=json&limit=5&query=The Beatles

Hover any highlighted part to learn what it does

Headers — extra info sent with the request
User-Agent MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])
curl -X GET "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist?fmt=json&limit=5&query=The%20Beatles" \
  -H "User-Agent: MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])"
import requests
params = {
    "fmt": "json",
    "limit": "5",
    "query": "The Beatles"
}
headers = {
    "User-Agent": "MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])"
}
response = requests.get(
    "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist",
    params=params,
    headers=headers,
)
print(response.json())
const url = new URL('https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist');
url.searchParams.set('fmt', 'json');
url.searchParams.set('limit', '5');
url.searchParams.set('query', 'The Beatles');

const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: {
    'User-Agent': 'MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])'
  },
}); 
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);
package main

import (
	"fmt"
	"io"
	"net/http"
	"net/url"
)

func main() {
	baseURL, _ := url.Parse("https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist")
	q := baseURL.Query()
	q.Set("fmt", "json")
	q.Set("limit", "5")
	q.Set("query", "The Beatles")
	baseURL.RawQuery = q.Encode()
	targetURL := baseURL.String()
	req, _ := http.NewRequest("GET", targetURL, nil)
	req.Header.Set("User-Agent", "MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])")

	client := &http.Client{}
	resp, _ := client.Do(req)
	defer resp.Body.Close()
	body, _ := io.ReadAll(resp.Body)
	fmt.Println(string(body))
}
require "net/http"
require "json"

uri = URI("https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist")
uri.query = URI.encode_www_form({
  "fmt" => "json",
  "limit" => "5",
  "query" => "The Beatles"
})

http = Net::HTTP.new(uri.host, uri.port)
http.use_ssl = uri.scheme == "https"

req = Net::HTTP::Get.new(uri)
req["User-Agent"] = "MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])"

res = http.request(req)
puts JSON.parse(res.body)
<?php
$url = "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist?" . http_build_query([
    "fmt" => "json",
    "limit" => "5",
    "query" => "The Beatles"
]);
$opts = ["http" => [
    "method" => "GET",
    "header" => implode("\r\n", [
        "User-Agent: MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])"
    ]),
]];
$ctx = stream_context_create($opts);
$res = file_get_contents($url, false, $ctx);
print_r(json_decode($res, true));

Postman Setup Guide

Get Postman ↗
  1. No API key needed
  2. Always set User-Agent: YourApp/1.0 ([email protected])
  3. Try GET https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist?query=david+bowie&fmt=json&limit=5
  4. Rate limit: 1 req/sec — add &offset=0 for pagination

What can you build with MusicBrainz API?

MusicBrainz API is a Media API. Developers commonly use media APIs for:

  • storing and delivering images, video, and audio
  • building digital asset management and media libraries
  • transcoding and optimising media for the web
  • adding video streaming and playback to your app
  • automating content tagging and metadata extraction

No authentication required. This API is open — no signup or key needed. Ideal for quick prototypes and public-facing features. MusicBrainz API is free to use, making it a low-risk choice to experiment with.

New to APIs? Read our beginner's guide

Open documentation ↗