Freesound

Name: Freesound API
Brand: Freesound
Availability: InStock

★ Only Publicly Available OpenAPI DocumentMediaAudio ProcessingapiKey2 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Search the Freesound Creative Commons sample library by text and fetch metadata, previews, and download links for individual sounds. Authentication is an API token in the 'token' query parameter.

Connect the Freesound to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the Freesound, or any other public or private API you need. You set the rules, the agent never sees your credentials, and every call is logged.

Install Jentic One Beta (Self-Hosted)

Jentic One Host machine

# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh

Agent machine

# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/jentic/jentic-one/main/tools/install.sh | sh
jentic register       # connects your agent to your Jentic One instance

Jentic One is in public beta. The setup above keeps your agent separate from the instance, which is what you want before using real credentials: an agent running as the same OS user as Jentic One can read its stored keys directly. Just evaluating? A single local install is fine to start. See the secure deployment guide for the tiers.

Capabilities

What an agent can do with Freesound API.

Search the Freesound library by free-text query via /search/text

Filter and sort results using Freesound's filter and sort syntax

Retrieve metadata for a single sound (name, description, tags, duration, license) via /sounds/{soundId}

Fetch low-quality preview URLs for in-app playback without downloading the full file

GET STARTED

Start building with Freesound API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Jentic publishes the only available OpenAPI document for Freesound, keeping it validated and agent-ready.

Freesound is a collaborative database of Creative Commons audio samples used by musicians, sound designers, game developers, and researchers. The version 2 API exposes text search across the full sample library and a per-sound endpoint that returns metadata, tags, content-analysis features, preview URLs, and download links. The full Freesound API supports comments, ratings, similar-sound search, and uploads, but this spec focuses on the two endpoints that drive almost all read traffic.

Use Cases

Patterns agents use Freesound API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Sample Discovery for a DAW Plugin

A digital-audio-workstation plugin lets producers search Freesound directly from inside the DAW. The plugin calls /search/text with the user's query plus filters for duration and license, then plays back previews fetched from /sounds/{soundId}. Producers can audition hundreds of samples without leaving their session.

GET /search/text?query=thunderstorm&filter=duration:[0 TO 30]&token={token} and play the preview-hq-mp3 URL for the first result

Game Audio Sourcing

An indie game studio sources sound effects by searching Freesound for tagged Creative Commons clips that match the scene (footsteps on gravel, sci-fi door, ambient cave). The studio fetches previews to pre-screen, then downloads the original files for licensing-compliant inclusion in the game build.

GET /search/text?query=footsteps gravel&filter=tag:loop&token={token}, then GET /sounds/{soundId} for each candidate to confirm license

Acoustic Research Dataset Building

Audio researchers assemble datasets by querying Freesound for specific acoustic phenomena (bird calls, urban traffic, machine noise) and pulling the metadata and content-analysis features. The two-endpoint flow is enough to build a labelled corpus when paired with the published license fields.

Loop GET /search/text across each label term and persist the metadata returned from /sounds/{soundId} to the dataset manifest

AI Agent Audio Briefing

A creative AI agent gathers reference sounds for a brief by calling Freesound through Jentic, surfacing the top results with previews so a human can choose. The token is held in Jentic's vault and the agent only deals with structured search and sound objects.

Search Jentic for 'find a sound effect on Freesound', execute /search/text with the user's query, and return the top three results with preview URLs

Key Endpoints

2 endpoints — freesound is a collaborative database of creative commons audio samples used by musicians, sound designers, game developers, and researchers.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/search/text

Search the Freesound library by text query

GET

/sounds/{soundId}

Retrieve metadata, previews, and downloads for a single sound

GET

/search/text

Search the Freesound library by text query

GET

/sounds/{soundId}

Retrieve metadata, previews, and downloads for a single sound

Why though Jentic?

Three things that make agents converge on Jentic-routed access.

Credential isolation

The Freesound API token is stored encrypted in the Jentic vault. Agents receive a scoped execution token, so the original token cannot be leaked through prompt injection or transcript logging.

Intent-based discovery

Agents call Jentic search with intents like 'find a sound effect on Freesound' and Jentic returns the matching /search/text or /sounds/{soundId} operation with its input schema, so the agent does not need to construct Freesound's filter syntax by hand.

Time to first call

Direct Freesound integration: half a day to wire search, parse filter syntax, and stream previews. Through Jentic: under 15 minutes.

Related APIs

Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.

Alternative

SoundCloud

SoundCloud hosts long-form music and podcasts rather than short Creative Commons samples

Choose SoundCloud for music streaming and creator content; choose Freesound for short, license-permissive sound samples.

Alternative

Spotify

Spotify Web API serves commercial music tracks rather than Creative Commons samples

Choose Spotify when the use case is commercial music discovery and playback; choose Freesound when the use case is reusing samples in a project.

Complementary

Pexels

Pexels offers free Creative Commons photos and videos that pair with Freesound's audio

Pair Pexels imagery with Freesound audio when building a no-cost multimedia experience.

FAQs

Specific to using Freesound API through Jentic.

What authentication does the Freesound API use?

Freesound APIv2 takes an API token in the 'token' query parameter on every request. OAuth2 is also supported for write operations, but the search and per-sound read endpoints in this spec accept the token-based scheme. Through Jentic, the token is stored encrypted in the vault and replaced with a scoped execution token before the agent runs.

Can I search the Freesound library by text with this API?

Yes. GET /search/text with a query parameter returns paginated results matching the query, and Freesound's filter syntax lets you constrain by duration, tag, license, sample rate, and more. Each hit includes the sound ID and preview URLs for immediate playback.

What are the rate limits for the Freesound API?

Freesound applies per-token daily request quotas published in its developer documentation, typically 60 requests per minute and a few thousand requests per day for free accounts. Higher quotas are available on request for research and commercial use.

How do I fetch a sound's metadata through Jentic?

Search Jentic for 'get a Freesound sound by ID', load the /sounds/{soundId} schema, and execute it with the soundId integer. The response carries the sound's name, description, tags, license, preview URLs, and content-analysis features.

Is the Freesound API free?

Yes. Freesound is run by the Music Technology Group at Universitat Pompeu Fabra and the API is free to use within the published quotas. The audio content is Creative Commons, with each sample carrying its own specific license terms — check the license field before redistributing.

How do I play back a sound without downloading the full file?

Each sound returned by /sounds/{soundId} (and every search hit) includes preview URLs at high and low quality in MP3 and OGG formats. Stream the preview-hq-mp3 URL for an in-app audition, and only call the high-quality download endpoint when the user commits to using the sample.