Overview
MusicBrainz is a free, open music encyclopedia that provides detailed metadata about artists, releases, recordings, and labels. Its API requires no authentication for read queries, making it one of the easiest music APIs to start with. You can look up albums, track lengths, ISRCs, and much more using simple HTTP requests.
Beginner Tip
Always include a descriptive User-Agent header (e.g., "MyApp/1.0 ([email protected])") in your requests — MusicBrainz requires this and will block generic user agents.
Available Data
The kind of data this API exposes, based on its documentation. We could not call the endpoint to confirm the exact field names.
Example Response
Illustrative shape only — we were not able to call this endpoint (it requires credentials or exposes no public sample URL), so the fields below show the kind of data this API returns rather than a recorded response.
{
"name": "Bohemian Rhapsody",
"artist": "Queen",
"album": "A Night at the Opera",
"duration_ms": 354000,
"popularity": 92,
"preview_url": "https://p.scdn.co/mp3-preview/..."
} Field Reference
id The unique MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID) for the entity. name The name of the artist, release, or recording. score Relevance score (0–100) indicating how well the result matches your search query. type Entity type, e.g. "Person", "Group", "Album", or "Single". country ISO 3166-1 country code indicating where the artist or release originated. life-span Object containing "begin" and "end" dates for the artist's or release's active period. Implementation Example
Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.
const url = "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist/?query=Beatles&fmt=json";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data); What Can You Build?
Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.
Common Errors & Troubleshooting
Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.
Metadata Score Breakdown
Estimated from metadata — endpoint not independently tested
Metadata estimate · endpoint not independently tested
Technical Specifications
Related Tags
Alternatives to MusicBrainz
Technical alternatives for different use cases.
Community-maintained open music database
User listening statistics and social features
Accurate metadata and music identification
Open-source music database with community-maintained data
Audio streaming and user-facing features
Accurate music metadata and ISRC/ISWC identifiers
Similar APIs
View All →Gaana
Gaana is an unofficial API wrapper for the popular Indian music streaming platform Gaana.
Genrenator
⭐ Beginner's PickGenrenator is a fun, no-auth API that generates random music genre names on demand.
Openwhyd
⭐ Beginner's PickOpenwhyd is an open-source music curation platform that lets users bookmark and share streaming tracks from YouTube, SoundCloud, and other sources.
Radio Browser
⭐ Beginner's PickRadio Browser is a free, community-driven database of internet radio stations from around the world.
AI Mastering
⭐ Beginner's PickAI Mastering is an API that automatically applies professional audio mastering to your music files using AI algorithms.