MusicBrainz API

Name: MusicBrainz API
Brand: MusicBrainz API
Availability: InStock

✓ Official Vendor SpecMediaAudio Processingbasic25 EndpointsREST

For Agents

Look up music metadata for artists, releases, recordings, and works in the open MusicBrainz database. Returns MBID-keyed entities suitable for music tagging, discography lookups, and catalog reconciliation.

Install Jentic One Beta

Connect the MusicBrainz API to your agent

Jentic One is a self-hosted execution layer for AI agents. It lets your agent call the MusicBrainz API, 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.

Step 1: 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

Step 2: 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 MusicBrainz API.

Look up an artist, release, recording, or work by MusicBrainz Identifier (MBID)

Search the catalog with full-text queries against artist name, release title, or ISRC

Browse releases linked to an artist, label, or release group

GET STARTED

Start building with MusicBrainz API

Explore with Jentic

View OpenAPI Document

Use Cases

Patterns agents use MusicBrainz API for, with concrete tasks.

★ Music Library Tagging

Enrich a digital music library with canonical MusicBrainz identifiers and metadata. The MusicBrainz API resolves recordings via /isrc/{isrc} or /recording/{mbid}, returning artist, release, and work links that downstream taggers write into ID3 fields. Using MBIDs as the primary key keeps the library consistent across renames and re-releases.

For each ISRC in a track list, call GET /isrc/{isrc} and write the returned artist name and recording MBID back to the library record.

Disc ID Resolution

Identify a physical CD from its Disc ID and pull the matching release with full tracklist. The /discid/{discid} endpoint returns the linked releases, which a ripping or cataloguing tool can use to populate track titles and artists without manual entry. This is the same pattern used by major desktop music players for CD recognition.

Compute a disc ID from the CD's TOC, call GET /discid/{discid}, and return the matching release MBID with its track list.

Artist Discography Browsing

Build an artist page that shows every release group, recording, and label associated with the artist. The browse pattern queries the lookup endpoints with includes so a single call returns linked discography data. This collapses dozens of round trips that would otherwise be needed to assemble a full artist profile.

Resolve an artist name to its MBID via /artist search, then call GET /artist/{mbid} with inc=release-groups+recordings to render the full discography.

Catalog Reconciliation Across Sources

Reconcile track listings from streaming services, store catalogs, or label feeds against MusicBrainz canonical IDs. Search endpoints accept artist and title strings; lookups by MBID then anchor each external record to a stable identifier. Reconciliation reduces duplicate inventory, mismatched royalties, and incorrect recommendations downstream.

Search the recording endpoint with a streaming track's artist+title, then store the top-scoring MBID against the streaming track ID for future lookups.

AI Agent Music Knowledge Lookup

Give a Jentic-driven agent a verified source of music metadata so its answers cite canonical entities rather than approximations. The agent searches Jentic for 'look up music artist metadata', loads the schema for /artist/{mbid}, and queries MusicBrainz directly. Jentic handles digest authentication and the User-Agent requirement that MusicBrainz enforces.

Through Jentic, search for 'look up an artist by MBID', load GET /artist/{mbid}, and return the artist's name, country, and active years for a research agent.

Key Endpoints

25 endpoints — the musicbrainz api exposes the open musicbrainz music metadata database, providing canonical identifiers and rich relationships for artists, releases, recordings, works, labels, and more.

METHOD

PATH

DESCRIPTION

GET

/artist/{mbid}

Look up an artist by MBID

GET

/release/{mbid}

Look up a release by MBID

GET

/recording/{mbid}

Look up a recording by MBID

GET

/release-group/{mbid}

Look up a release group by MBID

GET

/work/{mbid}

Look up a work by MBID

GET

/discid/{discid}

Resolve a CD by Disc ID

GET

/isrc/{isrc}

Resolve recordings by ISRC

GET

/genre/all

List all genres

GET

/artist/{mbid}

Look up an artist by MBID

GET

/release/{mbid}

Look up a release by MBID

GET

/recording/{mbid}

Look up a recording by MBID

GET

/release-group/{mbid}

Look up a release group by MBID

GET

/work/{mbid}

Look up a work by MBID

Why Jentic?

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

Credential isolation

The User-Agent header and any digest credential MusicBrainz requires are stored in the Jentic vault and injected at request time. Agents never need to hard-code identifying strings or secrets in their prompts.

Intent-based discovery

Agents search Jentic with intents like 'look up an artist' or 'resolve an ISRC' and Jentic returns the matching MusicBrainz operation with its parameter schema, so the agent can call it without browsing the docs site.

Time to first call

Direct integration including User-Agent compliance, polite rate handling, and entity-relationship parsing typically takes 1-2 days. Through Jentic an agent can search, load, and execute the relevant lookup in under an hour.

FAQs

Specific to using MusicBrainz API through Jentic.

What authentication does the MusicBrainz API use?

MusicBrainz exposes most read endpoints publicly and applies HTTP Digest authentication only for write or rate-sensitive operations. A descriptive User-Agent header is mandatory on every request. Through Jentic, the User-Agent and any required digest credential are managed in the vault and applied at execution time.

Can I look up a song by its ISRC with the MusicBrainz API?

Yes. GET /isrc/{isrc} returns recordings registered against that ISRC, including the linked artists and releases. This is the most reliable identifier-based lookup when you have ISRC codes from a streaming service or label feed.

What are the rate limits for the MusicBrainz API?

MusicBrainz enforces an average of one request per second per IP for the public endpoints and asks clients to set a unique User-Agent. Heavier or commercial workloads are expected to run a local mirror via the official database dump rather than hammering the public API.

How do I match a CD to a release through Jentic?

Through Jentic, search for 'look up CD by disc id', load the GET /discid/{discid} operation, and submit the disc ID computed from the CD's table of contents. Jentic returns the release MBID and tracklist that you can write back to your library.

Is the MusicBrainz API free to use?

Yes. MusicBrainz data is released under open licenses and the public API is free for non-commercial use. Commercial users are encouraged to support the MetaBrainz Foundation or run a local mirror; check the MusicBrainz licensing page for current terms.

How do I retrieve the full discography for an artist?

Resolve the artist name to an MBID, then call GET /artist/{mbid} with the inc parameter set to release-groups, recordings, or works to pull linked entities. Browsing by release-group MBID via GET /release-group/{mbid} returns each individual release of an album.