# MusicBrainz Scraper (`dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper`) Actor

Search the MusicBrainz music database and export clean, structured records: artists, releases, recordings, release-groups and labels. Get MBIDs, names, types, dates, country, tags and direct links. No key, no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dami\_studio/musicbrainz-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Dami's Studio](https://apify.com/dami_studio) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, AI, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.20 / 1,000 item returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are a software tools running on the Apify platform, for all kinds of web data extraction and automation use cases.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

In JavaScript/TypeScript projects, use official [JavaScript/TypeScript client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js.md):

```bash
npm install apify-client
```

In Python projects, use official [Python client library](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python.md):

```bash
pip install apify-client
```

In shell scripts, use [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md):

````bash
# MacOS / Linux
curl -fsSL https://apify.com/install-cli.sh | bash
# Windows
irm https://apify.com/install-cli.ps1 | iex
```bash

In AI frameworks, you might use the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/platform/integrations/mcp.md).

If your project is in a different language, use the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).


# README

## MusicBrainz Scraper

Search [MusicBrainz](https://musicbrainz.org) — the open, community-maintained music encyclopedia — by keyword and get back clean, structured records. No API key, no login.

Pick what you're looking for (artist, release, recording, release-group, or label), give a search term, and the actor returns flat, ready-to-use rows with the MusicBrainz ID (MBID) and a direct link, so you can join the data straight into your own catalog.

### Entity types

| `entity` | What it is |
|---|---|
| `artist` | A band, performer, or composer. |
| `release` | A specific edition of an album/single (a physical or digital product). |
| `recording` | An individual track/recording. |
| `release-group` | An album as a concept, grouping all its editions. |
| `label` | A record label. |

### What you get per row

Every row includes:

- `mbid` — the MusicBrainz ID (stable, unique).
- `url` — direct link, `https://musicbrainz.org/{entity}/{mbid}`.
- `entity` — which entity type this row is.
- `score` — MusicBrainz's relevance score for the search (0–100), when provided.
- `disambiguation` — a short note distinguishing same-named records, when present.

Plus entity-specific fields:

- **artist**: `name`, `sortName`, `type`, `country`, `lifeSpan` (+ `beginDate`/`endDate`/`ended`), `tags`.
- **release**: `title`, `status`, `artistCredit`, `date`, `country`, `trackCount`, `primaryType`.
- **recording**: `title`, `artistCredit`, `firstReleaseDate`, `length` (ms) + `lengthFormatted` (m:ss).
- **release-group**: `title`, `primaryType`, `secondaryTypes`, `artistCredit`, `firstReleaseDate`.
- **label**: `name`, `type`, `country`, `lifeSpan` (+ `beginDate`/`endDate`), `labelCode`.

`artistCredit` is the credited artist string (e.g. `"Radiohead"`, or `"A feat. B"`), joined the way MusicBrainz credits it. Fields are `null` when MusicBrainz doesn't have that value for a record.

### Input

| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| `entity` | One of artist / release / recording / release-group / label. Default `artist`. |
| `query` | The search text. Plain keywords or MusicBrainz Lucene syntax (e.g. `artist:radiohead`, `country:GB`). Required. |
| `maxItems` | Max records to return. Paginated 100/page. Default 100. |

### Output

One dataset row per record, deduplicated by MBID. Pricing is pay-per-result: you are only charged for genuine result rows (`ok: true`). Rows we couldn't deliver are never charged — this includes:

- empty/invalid input (`ok: false`, `errorCode: "BAD_INPUT"`),
- no results for the query (`NO_RESULTS`),
- rate limits or network errors (`RATE_LIMITED` / `NETWORK` / `SERVER_ERROR`).

#### Rate limit & etiquette

The MusicBrainz API allows roughly **1 request per second**. This actor sends the required descriptive User-Agent on every request, waits ~1.1s between pages, and treats a `503` as a rate-limit signal and backs off. As a result, very large `maxItems` jobs take proportionally longer — that's by design, to stay within MusicBrainz's policy.

#### Proxy

The MusicBrainz API is a public, no-auth, no-anti-bot JSON API, so **no proxy is required** and the default runs without one (saving proxy credits). Only enable Apify Proxy if you hit IP-level rate limits at very high volume.

### Examples

Search for artists named Radiohead:

```json
{ "entity": "artist", "query": "radiohead", "maxItems": 10 }
````

Find the album "OK Computer" as a release group:

```json
{ "entity": "release-group", "query": "ok computer", "maxItems": 10 }
```

### Notes

Data comes from MusicBrainz and is licensed under its [open data licenses](https://musicbrainz.org/doc/About/Data_License) (core data is CC0). Please credit MusicBrainz when you redistribute.

# Actor input Schema

## `entity` (type: `string`):

Which kind of music record to search for. artist = bands/performers, release = a specific album/single edition, recording = an individual track, release-group = an album as a concept across editions, label = a record label.

## `query` (type: `string`):

The text to search for. Plain keywords work (e.g. "radiohead", "ok computer"), and MusicBrainz Lucene syntax is also supported (e.g. artist:radiohead, country:GB). Required.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of records to return. The actor paginates 100 per page and respects MusicBrainz's ~1 request/second rate limit, so very large values take proportionally longer.

## `notionConnector` (type: `string`):

Optional. Write each item as a page into your Notion when the run finishes. Authorize a Notion connector once in Settings → API & Integrations → MCP connectors, then pick it here. Leave empty to skip (default) — results are always saved to the dataset regardless.

## `notionParentId` (type: `string`):

Optional. The Notion data source ID of the database to write into (only used if a Notion connector is set). Leave empty to create the pages privately in your workspace instead.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

OPTIONAL. The MusicBrainz API is a public, no-auth, no-anti-bot JSON API, so no proxy is needed and the default routes traffic directly (saving proxy credits). Only enable Apify Proxy if you hit IP-level rate limits when running very high volumes.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "entity": "artist",
  "query": "radiohead",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Scraped rows are stored in the default dataset (one row per result). Blocked/empty/error runs return a single uncharged diagnostic row instead.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "query": "radiohead"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "query": "radiohead" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "query": "radiohead"
}' |
apify call dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

```json
{
    "openapi": "3.0.1",
    "info": {
        "title": "MusicBrainz Scraper",
        "description": "Search the MusicBrainz music database and export clean, structured records: artists, releases, recordings, release-groups and labels. Get MBIDs, names, types, dates, country, tags and direct links. No key, no login.",
        "version": "0.1",
        "x-build-id": "3siIL8snE8OP1CHtL"
    },
    "servers": [
        {
            "url": "https://api.apify.com/v2"
        }
    ],
    "paths": {
        "/acts/dami_studio~musicbrainz-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-get-dataset-items-dami_studio-musicbrainz-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for its completion, and returns Actor's dataset items in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/dami_studio~musicbrainz-scraper/runs": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "runs-sync-dami_studio-musicbrainz-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor and returns information about the initiated run in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK",
                        "content": {
                            "application/json": {
                                "schema": {
                                    "$ref": "#/components/schemas/runsResponseSchema"
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        },
        "/acts/dami_studio~musicbrainz-scraper/run-sync": {
            "post": {
                "operationId": "run-sync-dami_studio-musicbrainz-scraper",
                "x-openai-isConsequential": false,
                "summary": "Executes an Actor, waits for completion, and returns the OUTPUT from Key-value store in response.",
                "tags": [
                    "Run Actor"
                ],
                "requestBody": {
                    "required": true,
                    "content": {
                        "application/json": {
                            "schema": {
                                "$ref": "#/components/schemas/inputSchema"
                            }
                        }
                    }
                },
                "parameters": [
                    {
                        "name": "token",
                        "in": "query",
                        "required": true,
                        "schema": {
                            "type": "string"
                        },
                        "description": "Enter your Apify token here"
                    }
                ],
                "responses": {
                    "200": {
                        "description": "OK"
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    },
    "components": {
        "schemas": {
            "inputSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "entity": {
                        "title": "Entity type",
                        "enum": [
                            "artist",
                            "release",
                            "recording",
                            "release-group",
                            "label"
                        ],
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Which kind of music record to search for. artist = bands/performers, release = a specific album/single edition, recording = an individual track, release-group = an album as a concept across editions, label = a record label.",
                        "default": "artist"
                    },
                    "query": {
                        "title": "Search query",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "The text to search for. Plain keywords work (e.g. \"radiohead\", \"ok computer\"), and MusicBrainz Lucene syntax is also supported (e.g. artist:radiohead, country:GB). Required."
                    },
                    "maxItems": {
                        "title": "Max results",
                        "minimum": 1,
                        "maximum": 10000,
                        "type": "integer",
                        "description": "Maximum number of records to return. The actor paginates 100 per page and respects MusicBrainz's ~1 request/second rate limit, so very large values take proportionally longer.",
                        "default": 100
                    },
                    "notionConnector": {
                        "title": "Notion connector (optional)",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Optional. Write each item as a page into your Notion when the run finishes. Authorize a Notion connector once in Settings → API & Integrations → MCP connectors, then pick it here. Leave empty to skip (default) — results are always saved to the dataset regardless."
                    },
                    "notionParentId": {
                        "title": "Notion target data source ID",
                        "type": "string",
                        "description": "Optional. The Notion data source ID of the database to write into (only used if a Notion connector is set). Leave empty to create the pages privately in your workspace instead."
                    },
                    "proxyConfiguration": {
                        "title": "Proxy (optional)",
                        "type": "object",
                        "description": "OPTIONAL. The MusicBrainz API is a public, no-auth, no-anti-bot JSON API, so no proxy is needed and the default routes traffic directly (saving proxy credits). Only enable Apify Proxy if you hit IP-level rate limits when running very high volumes.",
                        "default": {
                            "useApifyProxy": false
                        }
                    }
                }
            },
            "runsResponseSchema": {
                "type": "object",
                "properties": {
                    "data": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "id": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "actId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "userId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "startedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "finishedAt": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "format": "date-time",
                                "example": "2025-01-08T00:00:00.000Z"
                            },
                            "status": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "READY"
                            },
                            "meta": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "origin": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "API"
                                    },
                                    "userAgent": {
                                        "type": "string"
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "stats": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "inputBodyLen": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2000
                                    },
                                    "rebootCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "restartCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "resurrectCount": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "computeUnits": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "options": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "build": {
                                        "type": "string",
                                        "example": "latest"
                                    },
                                    "timeoutSecs": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 300
                                    },
                                    "memoryMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1024
                                    },
                                    "diskMbytes": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 2048
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "buildId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultKeyValueStoreId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultDatasetId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "defaultRequestQueueId": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "buildNumber": {
                                "type": "string",
                                "example": "1.0.0"
                            },
                            "containerUrl": {
                                "type": "string"
                            },
                            "usage": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 1
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            },
                            "usageTotalUsd": {
                                "type": "number",
                                "example": 0.00005
                            },
                            "usageUsd": {
                                "type": "object",
                                "properties": {
                                    "ACTOR_COMPUTE_UNITS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATASET_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "number",
                                        "example": 0.00005
                                    },
                                    "KEY_VALUE_STORE_LISTS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_READS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "REQUEST_QUEUE_WRITES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_INTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "DATA_TRANSFER_EXTERNAL_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_RESIDENTIAL_TRANSFER_GBYTES": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    },
                                    "PROXY_SERPS": {
                                        "type": "integer",
                                        "example": 0
                                    }
                                }
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
}
```