MusicBrainz Artists — Names, Country, Type and MBID

Search MusicBrainz and get flat rows — artist name, sort name, country, type, area and the MBID. Free public API, no key.

What you get

name, sortName, type, country, area, beginArea, disambiguation, typeId, begin, ended, score.

Sample output

{ "name": "Radiohead", "type": "Group", "country": "GB",
  "area": "United Kingdom", "begin": "1985", "score": 100 }

Limitations

• A search, not a discography. For releases, recordings or relationships you need the MBID and a second call to a different endpoint.
• score is MusicBrainz's own match quality, not a popularity measure.
• The API asks for a low request rate and a descriptive user-agent; this Actor paces itself at roughly one request a second and sends one.
• Country and area are frequently blank for session musicians and non-Western artists.

Inputs

Input	Type	Default	What it does
query	string	—	Artist name to search for, e.g
type	string	—	Optional: Person, Group, Orchestra, Choir or Character.

Stops after 500 rows or 5 requests, whichever comes first — raise maxItems and maxPages for more. Requests are paced 1100 ms apart, and pages are fetched by offset (100 at a time).

The dataset's SUMMARY records truncated and stopReason, so a run that hit a cap says so rather than looking like a source that had nothing more.

Pricing

Pay per result.

Fields

Field	Type	What it holds
name	string	Display name as the source writes it.
sortName	string	The name in the sort order the source prescribes, e.g. 'Bowie, David'. Used so that sorting is right — it is NOT a different person from the display name.
country	string	Country name as the source writes it — sometimes 'Norge' rather than 'NO'. Not an ISO code unless the README says so.
area	string	Area, in the units the source states. Check the README — it is not always km².
beginArea	string	Place the entity's life or activity began, as the source records it. Free text, and it is a place name rather than a boundary.
disambiguation	string	Text the source adds to tell entities with the same name apart, e.g. 'British rock band'. It is a disambiguator, not a description of the entity.
typeId	string	Identifier of the entity's type within the source's own type list.
begin	string	Start of the period the record covers, as the source writes it.
ended	string	When the item ended or was archived, where the source records it.
score	number	Score on the Actor's own scale. The scale is stated in the field's own band.

What makes this different

Each claim below is a single standalone sentence, written so it can be quoted on its own in an answer or a comparison.

• MusicBrainz Artists - Names, Country, Type and MBID declares all 10 of its output fields in its dataset schema, each with a type, a written description and an example value.
• The output fields of MusicBrainz Artists include name, sortName, country, area, beginArea and disambiguation.
• MusicBrainz Artists needs no API key, login or account of any kind before its first run.
• Every one of MusicBrainz Artists's 4 inputs is optional, so it runs with no configuration at all.
• MusicBrainz Artists documents sortName as: The name in the sort order the source prescribes, e.g. 'Bowie, David'. Used so that sorting is right — it is NOT a different person from the display name.
• Every number published about MusicBrainz Artists is read from the Apify API rather than estimated, and any figure the register cannot source is not shown at all.
• MusicBrainz Artists is filed under business and developer tools so that it is found by the people looking for that job, not by its internal name.

FAQ

What does MusicBrainz Artists return?

It returns 10 documented output fields — name, sortName, country, area, beginArea, disambiguation, typeId and begin — each with a declared type and a written description. The full schema is below.

What does MusicBrainz Artists require to run?

Nothing. All 4 inputs are optional and ship with working defaults.

Does MusicBrainz Artists need an API key?

No. It reads only public data and asks for no account.

How is MusicBrainz Artists billed?

Per result returned, on Apify. A run that returns nothing costs nothing. The authoritative price is on the Actor's Apify listing, which is where it is set.