Freesound
Community OpenAPI document · agent-readyMediaAudio ProcessingapiKey2 EndpointsREST
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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.
Use for: Search for thunderstorm sound effects shorter than 30 seconds, I want to find ambient field recordings tagged forest, Get the preview URL for sound 12345, Find all sounds by a specific Freesound user
Not supported: Does not handle music streaming, podcast hosting, or commercial-licensed track playback - use for searching and retrieving Creative Commons audio samples only.
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.
Install Jentic One Beta
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.
Two steps, two machines. Install the instance in a safe environment, then register your agent from wherever it runs.
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Step 1: Jentic One Host machine
# On the machine that will host your Jentic One instance:
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Ffreesound.org%2Ffreesound" | sh2
Step 2: Agent machine
# On the machine where your agent runs (keep this separate from the instance):
curl -fsSL "https://jentic.com/install.sh?src=apis&api=%2Fapis%2Ffreesound.org%2Ffreesound" | sh
jentic register # connects your agent to your Jentic One instanceJentic 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 the high-quality original-file download URL for an authenticated user
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 Jentic?
What agents get from Jentic-routed access to this vendor.
Setup
Wiring Freesound by hand means passing your API token as a query parameter on every call and building the text-search filter syntax yourself against the www.freesound.org host. Through Jentic you install once, import Freesound from the API Directory, store the token once, and your agent calls it.
Permission scoping
Freesound here exposes only read operations, searching text and fetching a sound by id, so you limit the agent to the operations it needs, such as searching for a sample or retrieving one sound. You choose which of these it may call, and nothing outside that set runs.
Credential isolation
Your Freesound token is stored once, encrypted, by your own Jentic One instance and injected at execution time. It never enters the agent's prompt, logs, or context.
Intent-based discovery
Agents search Jentic by intent such as 'find a sound effect on Freesound' or 'get details for a sound', and Jentic returns the matching /search/text or /sounds/{soundId} operation with its input schema so the agent calls the right endpoint without constructing the filter syntax from the reference docs.
Related APIs
Alternatives and complements available in the Jentic catalogue.
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.
Can I limit what my agent is allowed to do with the Freesound API?
Yes. Because you run Jentic One yourself, your own rules decide which Freesound operations and credentials the agent may use. This spec exposes only two read operations, searching the library with /search/text and fetching a single sound with /sounds/{soundId}, and you choose which of those the agent is allowed to call. Anything outside the set you permit does not run, so you can let an agent search for samples without ever granting it the per-sound fetch, or the reverse.
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