musicbrainz-api

A MusicBrainz-API-client for reading and submitting metadata.

Features

• Access Metadata: Retrieve detailed metadata from the MusicBrainz database.
• Submit metadata: Easily submit new metadata to MusicBrainz.
• Smart throttling: Implements intelligent throttling, allowing bursts of requests while adhering to MusicBrainz rate limits.
• TypeScript Definitions: Fully typed with built-in TypeScript definitions for a seamless development experience.

Compatibility

Module: version 8 migrated from CommonJS to pure ECMAScript Module (ESM). The distributed JavaScript codebase is compliant with the ECMAScript 2020 (11th Edition) standard.

[!NOTE] See also CommonJS backward compatibility

Requirements

• Node.js: Requires Node.js version 16 or higher.
• Browser: Can be used in browser environments when bundled with a module bundler (not actively tested).

[!NOTE] We are looking into making this package usable in the browser as well.

Support the Project

If you find this project useful and would like to support its development, consider sponsoring or contributing:

• Become a sponsor to Borewit

• Buy me a coffee:

  

Getting Started

Identifying Your Application

MusicBrainz requires all API clients to identify their application. Ensure you set the User-Agent header by providing appName, appVersion, and appContactInfo when configuring the client. This library will automatically handle this for you.

Submitting metadata

If you plan to use this module for submitting metadata, please ensure you comply with the MusicBrainz Code of conduct/Bots.

Example Usage

Importing the Library

import { MusicBrainzApi } from 'musicbrainz-api';

const mbApi = new MusicBrainzApi({
    appName: 'my-app',
    appVersion: '0.1.0',
    appContactInfo: 'user@mail.org',
});

[!NOTE] See also CommonJS backward compatibility

Configuration Options

const config = {
    // Optional: MusicBrainz bot account credentials
    botAccount: {
        username: 'myUserName_bot',
        password: 'myPassword',
    },

    // Optional: API base URL (default: 'https://musicbrainz.org')
    baseUrl: 'https://musicbrainz.org',

    // Required: Application details
    appName: 'my-app',
    appVersion: '0.1.0',
    appMail: 'user@mail.org',

    // Optional: Proxy settings (default: no proxy server)
    proxy: {
        host: 'localhost',
        port: 8888,
    },

    // Optional: Disable rate limiting (default: false)
    disableRateLimiting: false,
};

const mbApi = new MusicBrainzApi(config);

Accessing MusicBrainz Data

The MusicBrainz API allows you to look up various entities. Here’s how to use the lookup function:

Lookup MusicBrainz Entities

You can use the lookup function, to look up an entity, when you have the MBID for that entity. MusicBrainz API documentation: MusicBrainz API - Lookups

Lookup Function

const artist = await mbApi.lookup('artist', 'ab2528d9-719f-4261-8098-21849222a0f2', ['recordings']);

Arguments:

• entity (string): 'area' | 'artist' | 'collection' | 'instrument' | 'label' | 'place' | 'release' | 'release-group' | 'recording' | 'series' | 'work' | 'url' | 'event'
• MBID (string): (MusicBrainz identifier)
• include arguments (string[]), see Include arguments

Lookup URLs

There is special method to lookup URL entity / entities by one, or an array of URLs (MusicBrainz API documentation: url (by text)):

const urls = await mbApi.lookupUrl(['https://open.spotify.com/track/2AMysGXOe0zzZJMtH3Nizb', 'https://open.spotify.com/track/78Teboqh9lPIxWlIW5RMQL']);

or

const url = await mbApi.lookupUrl('https://open.spotify.com/track/2AMysGXOe0zzZJMtH3Nizb');

Arguments:

• url (string | string[]): URL or array of URLs
• include arguments (string[]), see Include arguments

Note that the return type is different, depending on if a single URL or an array of URLs is provided.

Browse requests

Browse requests are a direct lookup of all the entities directly linked to another entity ("directly linked" here meaning it does not include entities linked by a relationship).

For example, browse releases:

const artist_mbid = 'ab2528d9-719f-4261-8098-21849222a0f2';

const releases = await mbApi.browse('release', {
    track_artist:  artist_mbid,
    limit: 0,
    offset: 0,
  }, ['url-rels', 'isrcs', 'recordings']);

For the optional include arguments (string[]), see Include arguments.

Browse artist

const artists = await mbApi.browse('artist', query);
const artists = await mbApi.browse('artist', query, ['area', 'collection']);

Browse collection

const collections = await mbApi.browse('collection', query);
const collections = await mbApi.browse('collection', query, ['area', 'artist']);

Browse events

const events = await mbApi.browse('event', query);
const events = await mbApi.browse('instrument', query, ['area', 'artist']);

Browse instruments

const instruments = await mbApi.browse('instrument', query);
const instruments = await mbApi.browse('instrument', query, ['collection']);

Browse labels

const labels = await mbApi.browse('label', query);
const places = await mbApi.browse('place', query, ['area', 'collection']);

Browse places

const places = await mbApi.browse('place', query);
const places = await mbApi.browse('place', query, ['area', 'collection']);

Browse recordings

const recordings = await mbApi.browse('recording', query, ['artist']);

Browse releases

const releases = await mbApi.browse('release', query);
const releases = await mbApi.browse('release', query, ['artist', 'track']);

Browse release-groups

const releaseGroups = await mbApi.browse('release-group', query);
const releaseGroups = await mbApi.browse('release-group', query, ['artist', 'release']);

Browse series

const series = await mbApi.browse('series');
const series = await mbApi.browse('series', ['collection']);

Browse works

const works = await mbApi.browse('work');
const series = await mbApi.browse('series', ['artist', 'collection']);

Browse urls

const urls = await mbApi.browse('url');
const series = await mbApi.browse('series', ['artist', 'collection', 'artist-rels']);

Search (query)

Implements MusicBrainz API: Search.

There are different search fields depending on the entity.

Search function

Searches can be performed using the generic search function: query(entity: mb.EntityType, query: string | IFormData, offset?: number, limit?: number): Promise<entity>

Arguments:

• Entity type, which can be one of:
  • artist: search fields
  • label: search fields
  • recording: search fields
  • release: search fields
  • release-group: search fields
  • work: search fields
  • area: search fields
  • url: search fields
• query {query: string, offset: number, limit: number}
  • query.query: supports the full Lucene Search syntax; you can find a detailed guide at Lucene Search Syntax. For example, you can set conditions while searching for a name with the AND operator.
  • query.offset: optional, return search results starting at a given offset. Used for paging through more than one page of results.
  • limit.query: optional, an integer value defining how many entries should be returned. Only values between 1 and 100 (both inclusive) are allowed. If not given, this defaults to 25.

For example, to search for release-group: "We Will Rock You" by Queen:

const query = 'query=artist:"Queen" AND release:"We Will Rock You"';
const result = await mbApi.search('release-group', {query});

Example: search Île-de-France

 mbApi.search('area', 'Île-de-France');

Example: search release by barcode

Search a release with the barcode 602537479870:

 mbApi.search('release', {query: {barcode: 602537479870}});

Example: search by object

Same as previous example, but automatically serialize parameters to search query

 mbApi.search('release', 'barcode: 602537479870');

Example: search artist by artist name

Search artist:

const result = await mbApi.search('artist', {query: 'Stromae'});

Example: search release-group by artist name

Search release-group:

const result = await mbApi.search('release-group', {query: 'Racine carrée'});

Example: search release-group by release-group and an artist

Search a combination of a release-group and an artist.

const result = await mbApi.search('release-group', {artist: 'Racine carrée', releasegroup: 'Stromae'});

Include arguments

Subqueries

Include Arguments which allow you to request more information to be included about the entity.

Arguments which affect subqueries

Some additional include parameters are supported to specify how much of the data about the linked entities should be included:

Miscellaneous arguments

Relationships

You can request relationships with the appropriate includes:

• area-rels
• artist-rels
• event-rels
• genre-rels
• instrument-rels
• label-rels
• place-rels
• recording-rels
• release-rels
• release-group-rels
• series-rels
• url-rels
• work-rels

These will load relationships between the requested entity and the specific entity type. For example, if you request "work-rels" when looking up an artist, you'll get all the relationships between this artist and any works, and if you request "artist-rels" you'll get the relationships between this artist and any other artists. As such, keep in mind requesting "artist-rels" for an artist, "release-rels" for a release, etc. will not load all the relationships for the entity, just the ones to other entities of the same type.

In a release request, you might also be interested on relationships for the recordings linked to the release, or the release group linked to the release, or even for the works linked to those recordings that are linked to the release (for example, to find out who played guitar on a specific track, who wrote the lyrics for the song being performed, or whether the release group is part of a series). Similarly, for a recording request, you might want to get the relationships for any linked works. There are three additional includes for this:

• recording-level-rels
• release-group-level-rels (for releases only)
• work-level-rels

Submitting data via XML POST

Submitting data via XML POST may be done using personal MusicBrainz credentials.

Submit ISRC code using XML POST

Using the XML ISRC submission API.

const mbid_Formidable = '16afa384-174e-435e-bfa3-5591accda31c';
const isrc_Formidable = 'BET671300161';

const xmlMetadata = new XmlMetadata();
const xmlRecording = xmlMetadata.pushRecording(mbid_Formidable);
xmlRecording.isrcList.pushIsrc(isrc_Formidable);
await mbApi.post('recording', xmlMetadata);

Submitting data via user form-data

For all of the following function you need to use a dedicated bot account.

Submitting ISRC via post user form-data

Use with caution, and only on a test server, it may clear existing metadata has side effect.

const mbid_Formidable = '16afa384-174e-435e-bfa3-5591accda31c';
const isrc_Formidable = 'BET671300161';


const recording = await mbApi.lookup('recording', mbid_Formidable);

// Authentication the http-session against MusicBrainz (as defined in config.baseUrl)
const succeed = await mbApi.login();
assert.isTrue(succeed, 'Login successful');

// To submit the ISRC, the `recording.id` and `recording.title` are required
await mbApi.addIsrc(recording, isrc_Formidable);

Submit recording URL

const recording = await mbApi.lookup('recording', '16afa384-174e-435e-bfa3-5591accda31c');

const succeed = await mbApi.login();
assert.isTrue(succeed, 'Login successful');

await mbApi.addUrlToRecording(recording, {
  linkTypeId: LinkType.stream_for_free,
  text: 'https://open.spotify.com/track/2AMysGXOe0zzZJMtH3Nizb'
});

Actually a Spotify-track-ID can be submitted easier:

const recording = await mbApi.lookup('recording', '16afa384-174e-435e-bfa3-5591accda31c');

const succeed = await mbApi.login();
assert.isTrue(succeed, 'Login successful');
await mbApi.addSpotifyIdToRecording(recording, '2AMysGXOe0zzZJMtH3Nizb');

Cover Art Archive API

This library also supports the Cover Art Archive API.

Fetch Release Cover Art

Fetch available cover art information

import { CoverArtArchiveApi } from 'musicbrainz-api';

const coverArtArchiveApiClient = new CoverArtArchiveApi();

async function fetchCoverArt(releaseMbid, coverType = '') {
    const coverInfo = await coverArtArchiveApiClient.getReleaseCovers(releaseMbid);
    for(const image of coverInfo.images) {
        console.log(`Cover art front=${image.front} back=${image.back} url=${image.image}`);
    }
}

fetchCoverArt('976e0677-a480-4a5e-a177-6a86c1900bbf').catch(error => {
    console.error(`Failed to fetch cover art: ${error.message}`);
})

Fetch front or back cover for a release

import { CoverArtArchiveApi } from 'musicbrainz-api';

const coverArtArchiveApiClient = new CoverArtArchiveApi();

async function fetchCoverArt(releaseMbid, coverType = '') {
    const coverInfo = await coverArtArchiveApiClient.getReleaseCover(releaseMbid, 'front');
    console.log(`Cover art url=${coverInfo.url}`);
}

fetchCoverArt('976e0677-a480-4a5e-a177-6a86c1900bbf').catch(error => {
    console.error(`Failed to fetch cover art: ${error.message}`);
})

Release Group Cover Art

import { CoverArtArchiveApi } from 'musicbrainz-api';

const coverArtArchiveApiClient = new CoverArtArchiveApi();

async function fetchCoverArt(releaseMbid, coverType = '') {
    const coverInfo = await coverArtArchiveApiClient.getReleaseGroupCovers(releaseMbid);
    for(const image of coverInfo.images) {
        console.log(`Cover art front=${image.front} back=${image.back} url=${image.image}`);
    }
}

fetchCoverArt('976e0677-a480-4a5e-a177-6a86c1900bbf').catch(error => {
    console.error(`Failed to fetch cover art: ${error.message}`);
})

Fetch front or back cover for a release-group

import { CoverArtArchiveApi } from 'musicbrainz-api';

const coverArtArchiveApiClient = new CoverArtArchiveApi();

async function fetchCoverArt(releaseMbid, coverType = '') {
    const coverInfo = await coverArtArchiveApiClient.getReleaseGroupCover(releaseMbid, 'front');
    console.log(`Cover art url=${coverInfo.url}`);
}

fetchCoverArt('976e0677-a480-4a5e-a177-6a86c1900bbf').catch(error => {
    console.error(`Failed to fetch cover art: ${error.message}`);
})

CommonJS backward compatibility

I recommend CommonJS projects to consider upgrading their project to ECMAScript Module (ESM). Please continue reading how to use musicbrainz-api in a CommonJS project.

Using Node.js ≥ 22, which is support loading ESM module via require, you can use:

const { MusicBrainzApi } = require('musicbrainz-api');

Other CommonJS projects have to use dynamic import to load the musicbrainz-api pure ESM module:

async function run() {
  // Dynamically loads the ESM module in a CommonJS project  
  const { MusicBrainzApi } = await import('musicbrainz-api');
};

run();

This is known not to work in TypeScript CommonJS projects, as the TypeScript compiler, in my opinion, incorrectly converts the dynamic import to require(). To perform the dynamic import in TypeScript, you can use load-esm:

import {loadEsm} from 'load-esm';

async function run() {
    // Dynamically loads the ESM module in a TypeScript CommonJS project  
  const { MusicBrainzApi } = await loadEsm<typeof import('musicbrainz-api')>('musicbrainz-api');
};

run();

Licence

This project is licensed under the MIT License. Feel free to use, modify, and distribute as needed.