MusicAPI & Music MashUp - Music API and Music Application Aggregation | Wobbly Blog 2.0

Whether you're a singer or a music enthusiast, there are now many music application programming interfaces (APIs) available for your use. Last.fm is one of the most popular ones on the web. Its API provides data on members, artists, albums, and tracks from Last.fm. Over 36 Last.fm applications have already been aggregated, and this list continues to grow. With the recent addition of the LyricsFly API and its database of lyrics for 314,000 songs, there are currently 25 Music APIs listed in the ProgrammableWeb directory (and 135 published aggregated applications).

Last.fm is just one example. These APIs help you discover music you like, provide raw data with all the details related to music, and allow you to save and manage your music online. Some other APIs offer online radio and music subscription services. These APIs can be used to customize music players, find live music, and even help you sell your own music. Many have been added to a dedicated section on ProgrammableWeb to track them: Music API and Mashup Dashboard.

**Managing Your Music**

Managing your music collection no longer simply means arranging your CDs in a certain order. Today, we can enjoy music on different devices in various places, making it easy to forget where our favorite tunes are stored. Also, music is everywhere, but how do you find it in the way you prefer?

This is a key issue developers are trying to solve using music APIs.

**Music Discovery**

How can you find new music that you like? How can you add it to your collection and organize it properly so you can find it later? Besides Last.fm, which we've discussed, there are certainly many other good solutions.

Similar to Last.fm, the OpenStrands API offers a Web 2.0 way to discover music: The API provides a programmable way to access community recommendations, tags, and playlists from MyStrands.com. Additionally, music search tools include a digital podcast API - allowing you to search music by keyword, SeeqPod API (multimedia search) - input your favorite song name and the API will return a list of songs, Yahoo Audio Search API - query audio files and related music data through structured and unstructured queries.

Particularly noteworthy is the MusicDNS API: It automatically compares your music with music in its database using algorithms to identify artists whose styles are similar to yours.

**About the Music (Music Metadata)**

If you find some music you like, you might want to learn more about the song, composer, or artist. Some APIs provide raw data about music-related information. Freedb/CDDB provides information about music CDs: performers, CD titles, track lists, and other details. Interestingly, the information you're looking for may already be on the CD in your computer's CD drive or another Freedb-compatible device.

The MusicBrainz API, Tunelog API, and Discogs API all provide Web 2.0 ways to access large databases of music metadata, which rely on or are based on the collective maintenance of the MusicBrainz, Tunelog, and Discogs communities.

**Media Management and Online Broadcasting**

Some APIs help you manage your music. The Faces.com API and Ipernity API allow you to share music, photos, and videos with friends and other site members.

Today, we can share our media libraries in ways entirely different from traditional broadcasting. However, many sites still prefer broadcasting, as it implies more professional content. The Orb API allows you to broadcast your music, videos, and photos, etc. The RadioTime API lets you find and listen to over 60,000 radio stations worldwide.

The Rhapsody API and music subscription services let you manage your Rhapsody playlist, search for music, and access your Rhapsody RSS feed.

**Music Players**

The Yahoo Music Engine API, Winamp API, and MP3Tunes API all offer the ability to customize their music players via code.

**Music Events**

After hearing a new artist's melody, you might want to see their performance. The Eventful API, JamBase API, and Gruvr API allow you to search for concerts and other related events. Eventful goes further by letting you know which artists have appeared in your area, while Gruvr's API allows you to integrate live music maps and concert calendars into your own website.

**APIs For Performers**

If you're a performer, you'll likely be interested in these APIs. You might want your work to be heard and searched by everyone. Submitting your songs to MusicDNS.org makes it easier for people who like your style to discover your new works. You can use the APIs provided by Eventful, JamBase, and Gruvr as promotional performance calendars. Finally, if you plan to sell your recordings, research the SNOCAP API, which can help you build your own music store.

**Music Mashups**

Music APIs offer diverse possibilities for creating music mashups. One of the earlier and more popular ones on our music mashup list is MusicPortl, which collects information about certain artists online and creates pages including biographies, photos, albums, videos, and blogs. MusicPortl provides this information through seven different APIs, including Amazon eCommerce API, Flickr API, Last.fm API, MusicBrainz API, Ontok API, Technorati API, and YouTube API.

Many music mashups aggregate data about artists on the internet into a unified search interface, such as FoxyTunes. You could see this in the list earlier this month.

There are 135 published music mashups on the list, with some of the more popular ones being TuneGlue, ZonTube, KEXPlorer.com, MusicTonic, One Hit Wonders Map, JukeboxTube, Indie Tube, NPR Station Map, and mashup competition winners PodBop and the Hype Machine.

**Summary**

Currently, there are quite a number of diverse music APIs available, and this number continues to grow. Click here to update the current list of available music APIs.

- **Digital Podcast** - Podcast search

- **Discogs** - Music database

- **Eventful** - Event discovery and demand

- **Faces.com** - Photo and multimedia sharing service

- **Freedb / CDDB** - Online CD catalog service

- **Gruvr** - Live music and concert information

- **Ipernity** - Multimedia sharing service

- **JamBase** - Live music and concert information

- **Last.fm** - Music playlist management

- **LyricsFly** - Lyrics database

- **MP3Tunes** - Music service

- **MusicBrainz** - Music metadata community service

- **MusicDNS.org** - Music "fingerprint" identification service

- **MusicMobs** - Social music service

- **OpenStrands** - Music recommendation and discovery

- **Orb** - Remote control and management of digital media

- **RadioTime** - Music and talk radio service

- **Rhapsody** - Online music service

- **SeeqPod** - Music recommendation service

- **SNOCAP** - Digital music marketplace

- **Tunelog** - Music metadata management

- **WebJay** - Music playlist management

- **Winamp** - Personalized music player

- **Yahoo Audio Search** - Music search service

- **Yahoo Music Engine** - Desktop music player