Funkwhale Scraper - Federated Music Catalogue Data

Scrape Funkwhale music tracks from any federated instance in bulk. Extract title, artist, album, tags, download count, upload date, streaming URL and artwork to CSV/JSON. No API key, no login.

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What does the Funkwhale Scraper do?

This Actor turns any Funkwhale search into a structured dataset. You give it a whole library or by search term, it walks the result pages one after another, and it writes one clean row per track into your dataset — ready to export as JSON, CSV or Excel, or to pull straight from the Apify API.

Every Funkwhale server exposes the same documented, keyless REST API, so pointing the Actor at a different host is the only change needed to read a different library. A single public instance already carries tens of thousands of tracks. Pagination is followed automatically until it runs out of results, hits your page limit or hits your Max items cap, whichever comes first. Every row is de-duplicated across the whole run, so you are never billed twice for the same track.

There is no API key, no login and no browser involved. That keeps runs fast and cheap, and it means you can schedule the Actor without worrying about credentials expiring.

Who is it for?

• Music researchers studying independent and federated distribution.
• Developers building discovery tools on open music catalogues.
• Archivists cataloguing independent music collections.
• Playlist and radio curators sourcing outside the major platforms.
• Data teams assembling audio metadata at scale.

Use cases

• Export an instance's whole library with artist and album metadata.
• Track which artists publish most on a given instance.
• Compare catalogue size and composition across instances.
• Build an audio metadata dataset with tags and download counts.
• Find independent music that never appears on the major platforms.

Why use this Funkwhale Scraper?

• 🔑 Keyless — no account, no API token, no cookies to paste.
• 📦 16 fields per track — everything the result page exposes, already typed.
• 📄 Real pagination — it walks page after page instead of returning the first screen.
• 🎯 Precise caps — Max items stops the run exactly where you want it, so the bill is predictable.
• 📊 Export anywhere — JSON, CSV, Excel or HTML, plus the Apify API and integrations.
• 💸 Pay per result — you pay for rows you actually receive, with no platform fees to calculate.

What data can you extract?

Every run produces one row per track, with these fields:

Field	Type	Description
trackId	string	Track ID on the instance
title	string	Track title
artist	string	Artist name
album	string	Album title
tags	string	Tags, separated by a pipe
downloads	number	Download count
position	number	Track position on its album
discNumber	number	Disc number
isLocal	boolean	Whether the track is hosted on this instance
isPlayable	boolean	Whether the instance can stream the track
listenUrl	string	Streaming URL for the track
coverUrl	string	Album or track artwork URL
createdAt	string	ISO timestamp the track was uploaded
instance	string	Instance the row came from
page	number	Result page the track appeared on
scrapedAt	string	ISO timestamp of extraction

Output example

{
  "album": "White Trash Revelry",
  "artist": "Adeem the Artist",
  "coverUrl": "https://nbg1.your-objectstorage.com/tanukitunes/attachments/98/a0/f7/ent_cover-74986d44-c5fb-4e4f-907d-44a717b60198.jpg?X-Amz-Algorithm=AWS4-HMAC-S\u2026",
  "createdAt": "2024-08-20T19:47:02.104581Z",
  "discNumber": 0,
  "downloads": 0,
  "instance": "tanukitunes.com",
  "isLocal": false,
  "isPlayable": false,
  "listenUrl": "https://tanukitunes.com/api/v1/listen/aef0fe54-2275-4975-9fde-2f33eecee448/",
  "page": 1,
  "position": 11,
  "scrapedAt": "2026-09-15T07:53:10.787Z",
  "tags": null,
  "title": "My America",
  "trackId": "162091"
}

How to use

Option A — a whole library

{
  "instance": "tanukitunes.com",
  "maxItems": 1000,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 20,
  "searchTerms": []
}

1. Open the Actor and fill in the a whole library field.
2. Set Max pages per search and Max items to bound the run.
3. Click Start, then export from the Output tab.

Option B — by search term

{
  "instance": "tanukitunes.com",
  "maxItems": 300,
  "maxPagesPerSearch": 10,
  "searchTerms": [
    "ambient"
  ]
}

Paste one or more Funkwhale URLs into Start URLs and the Actor paginates each of them independently.

Input parameters

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
instance	string	tanukitunes.com	Host of the instance to read, without https://.
searchTerms	array	[]	Search the library.
maxPagesPerSearch	integer	4	How many result pages to walk for each search.
maxItems	integer	150	Stop after this many tracks.
maxConcurrency	integer	2	Parallel requests.
proxyConfiguration	object	{"useApifyProxy": true}	Proxy used to fetch pages.

Tips for best results

• tanukitunes.com is a large public instance; any Funkwhale host works.
• The API returns up to 50 tracks per page, so deep exports need few requests.
• downloads is the clearest popularity signal an instance publishes.
• isLocal separates the instance's own uploads from federated copies.
• tags is pipe-separated so it survives a CSV round trip; split it after import.
• The API also defines licence and copyright columns, but the instances checked leave them unset, so they are not included.
• listenUrl is a direct streaming link; check each instance's terms before redistributing audio.
• Schedule a monthly run to track a catalogue as it grows.
• Keep Max concurrency low — most instances are small and volunteer-run.
• Pair with the Mixcloud and Deezer scrapers for a fuller view of a genre.

Integrations

Send results straight into the tools you already use: Google Sheets, Slack, Zapier, Make, Airtable or any Webhook. You can also schedule the Actor to run hourly, daily or weekly and have each run append to the same dataset, which is how you build a price or availability history rather than a one-off snapshot.

API usage

Run the Actor and collect results from any language. Replace <YOUR_TOKEN> with your Apify API token.

cURL

curl -X POST "https://api.apify.com/v2/acts/logiover~funkwhale-music-scraper/run-sync-get-dataset-items?token=<YOUR_TOKEN>" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"instance": "tanukitunes.com", "maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 20, "searchTerms": []}'

Node.js

import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

const client = new ApifyClient({ token: '<YOUR_TOKEN>' });
const run = await client.actor('logiover/funkwhale-music-scraper').call({"instance": "tanukitunes.com", "maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 20, "searchTerms": []});
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
console.log(items);

Python

from apify_client import ApifyClient

client = ApifyClient('<YOUR_TOKEN>')
run = client.actor('logiover/funkwhale-music-scraper').call(run_input={"instance": "tanukitunes.com", "maxItems": 1000, "maxPagesPerSearch": 20, "searchTerms": []})
for item in client.dataset(run['defaultDatasetId']).iterate_items():
    print(item)

Use with AI agents (MCP)

This Actor is available through the Apify MCP server, so an AI agent can call it as a tool. Point your agent at https://mcp.apify.com and it can run the Funkwhale Scraper on demand — for example: "Pull the first 500 tracks from Funkwhale and summarise the price distribution." The agent receives the same structured rows you would get from the UI.

FAQ

Do I need a Funkwhale account or API key?

No. The Actor reads publicly available pages only. There is nothing to authenticate and no credentials to rotate.

How many tracks can I get in one run?

As many as the search exposes. Raise Max pages per search and Max items together; the run stops at whichever limit it reaches first.

Why did I get fewer rows than I asked for?

The search ran out of tracks. That is normal for narrow queries — broaden the search or add more searches to one run.

Are results de-duplicated?

Yes. Each track is emitted once per run, even when it appears on several pages, so you are never billed twice for the same record.

Why are some fields empty?

Funkwhale does not publish every attribute for every track. Empty means the source did not show it, not that extraction failed.

What export formats are supported?

JSON, CSV, Excel, HTML and RSS from the Output tab, plus the Apify API and any integration you connect.

How fast is it?

It is pure HTTP with no browser, so a page of results typically takes a second or two. Raise Max concurrency carefully — the source rate-limits aggressive crawling.

Can I schedule it?

Yes. Use the Apify scheduler to run it on any interval and append each run to the same dataset for time-series analysis.

Does it work behind a proxy?

It uses Apify Proxy automatically. You can switch groups or supply your own proxies in Proxy configuration.

How often does the data change?

Funkwhale updates continuously. Re-run whenever you need current data; the Actor always reads the live pages, never a cache.

Is the output schema stable?

Yes. Field names and types are fixed, so downstream pipelines will not break between runs.

What if the site changes its layout?

Open an issue on the Issues tab and it gets fixed. The Actor is actively maintained.

Is it legal?

This Actor reads only publicly available pages on Funkwhale — the same content any visitor sees without logging in. It does not bypass authentication, does not collect private data and does not attempt to defeat access controls. You are responsible for how you use the output: respect the source's terms of service, applicable copyright, and data-protection law such as GDPR where personal data is involved. Scraping public data is generally lawful in the EU and the US, but the responsibility for the downstream use of that data sits with you.

Related scrapers

• Mixcloud Scraper — Shows and DJ sets
• Deezer Scraper — Tracks and charts
• MusicBrainz Scraper — Open music metadata
• PeerTube Scraper — Federated video