MusicBrainz

Overview

MusicBrainz is the open music encyclopedia — a community-maintained database of artists, releases, recordings, works and labels, exposed through a free REST API. It’s the go-to source for reliable music metadata (with stable MBIDs), and feeds many open music projects.

Quick Start

Look up an artist by MBID (verified live — Nirvana):

curl -A "my-app/1.0 ([email protected])" \
  "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist/5b11f4ce-a62d-471e-81fc-a69a8278c7da?fmt=json"

Search artists by name:

curl -A "my-app/1.0 ([email protected])" \
  "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist/?query=artist:radiohead&fmt=json"

Search releases with related recordings (include inc):

curl -A "my-app/1.0 ([email protected])" \
  "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/release/?query=release:in+rainbows&inc=recordings&fmt=json"

Browse recordings by artist:

curl -A "my-app/1.0 ([email protected])" \
  "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/recording?artist=5b11f4ce-a62d-471e-81fc-a69a8278c7da&fmt=json"

Usage rules

• Send a descriptive User-Agent — MusicBrainz requires it and blocks generic agents.
• Max 1 request per second per IP.
• Every entity has a stable MBID (UUID) — use it as the canonical ID in your app.
• Data is CC-BY-NC-SA licensed; check the terms before commercial redistribution.

What’s in the data

Artists (name, country, life-span, tags), releases (title, date, country, tracklist), recordings (title, length, ISRCs), works, labels, areas, and rich relationships (url-rels to Wikipedia, Discogs, etc.).

Authentication

None — keyless (the User-Agent rule is mandatory).

FAQ

Is MusicBrainz free? Yes — the API is free; data is CC-BY-NC-SA (non-commercial license).

What is an MBID? A stable UUID identifying every entity — the canonical way to reference artists/releases in your app.

Why do I get blocked? Missing/weak User-Agent or more than 1 req/s — both are enforced.