MusicBrainz
The open music encyclopedia's read API, JSON on request
MusicBrainz is a community-maintained database of artists, releases, and recordings, and its web service lets you look entities up by MBID (append ?fmt=json for JSON). Play nice: it asks for roughly one request per second and a descriptive User-Agent. Core data is CC0.
GET https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist/5b11f4ce-a62d-471e-81fc-a69a8278c7da?fmt=json
{
"type": "Group",
"id": "5b11f4ce-a62d-471e-81fc-a69a8278c7da",
"name": "Nirvana",
"sort-name": "Nirvana",
"disambiguation": "1980s–1990s US grunge band",
"country": "US",
"life-span": {
"begin": "1987",
"end": "1994-04-05",
"ended": true
}
}curl "https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist/5b11f4ce-a62d-471e-81fc-a69a8278c7da?fmt=json"const res = await fetch("https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist/5b11f4ce-a62d-471e-81fc-a69a8278c7da?fmt=json");
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);import requests
res = requests.get("https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2/artist/5b11f4ce-a62d-471e-81fc-a69a8278c7da?fmt=json")
print(res.json())/artist/5b11f4ce-a62d-471e-81fc-a69a8278c7da?fmt=jsonPROBEDArtist record by MusicBrainz ID (Nirvana).
/release?query=release:nevermind&fmt=jsonSearch releases by title.
/recording?query=recording:smells+like+teen+spirit&fmt=jsonSearch recordings by title.
We probe a documented GET and expect 2xx JSON — full uptime and health score. Export includes every documented route below.
Stable. No schema drift observed since monitoring began — the response shape has not changed under our checks.
MusicBrainz: common questions
Is MusicBrainz free to use?
Yes — MusicBrainz is a free media API. Free tier: Free — no key required. Commercial use is allowed on the free tier.
Does MusicBrainz need an API key?
No — MusicBrainz needs no API key or signup. You can call it straight away; rate limits still apply (~1 request/second per IP; descriptive User-Agent required).
Can I call MusicBrainz from the browser?
Yes — MusicBrainz returns CORS headers over HTTPS, so front-end code can fetch it directly with no backend proxy. Use the fetch snippet on this page, or hit "Run live" to try it now.
Is MusicBrainz up right now?
As of our last scheduled check, MusicBrainz is unmonitored. We re-probe it every sweep — the status badge and uptime chart above always show the latest.