Bandcamp Music Scraper - Apify Actor

An enhanced Apify actor wrapper for the Bandcamp music scraper module. This actor scrapes comprehensive album, track, artist, and video information from Bandcamp artist/label pages.

Features

• Scrapes album metadata (title, artist, URL, artwork, release date, price, download availability, tags)
• Fetches track listings with durations and track numbers
• Extracts MP3 128kbps audio preview URLs
• Collects artist/label information (bio, location, tags, social links)
• Discovers embedded videos (YouTube, Vimeo, Bandcamp)
• Handles cookie consent and modals automatically
• Extracts data from embedded JSON (TralbumData, EmbedData)
• Smart discovery of album URLs from artist/label music pages

Input

The actor supports two input formats. You can use either nested options or flat format:

Nested format:

{
  "url": "https://saor.bandcamp.com/",
  "options": {
    "fetchAlbums": true,
    "fetchTracks": true,
    "fetchAudioPreviews": true,
    "fetchArtistInfo": true,
    "fetchVideos": true
  }
}

Flat format:

{
  "url": "https://saor.bandcamp.com/",
  "fetchAlbums": true,
  "fetchTracks": true,
  "fetchAudioPreviews": true,
  "fetchArtistInfo": true,
  "fetchVideos": true
}

Input Fields

• url (required): Base URL of the Bandcamp artist or label page (e.g., https://saor.bandcamp.com/)
• fetchAlbums (default: false): Navigate to /music and fetch album metadata
• fetchTracks (default: false): Fetch track listings from each album (requires fetchAlbums)
• fetchAudioPreviews (default: false): Extract MP3 128kbps preview URLs for tracks (requires fetchTracks)
• fetchArtistInfo (default: false): Extract artist/label information (bio, location, tags, social links)
• fetchVideos (default: false): Extract embedded video URLs from album pages (YouTube, Vimeo, Bandcamp)

Output

The actor outputs structured data with the following format:

{
  "artist": {
    "name": "Saor",
    "bio": "Atmospheric Celtic metal from the Highlands of Scotland...",
    "location": "Scotland",
    "imageUrl": "https://f4.bcbits.com/img/...",
    "tags": ["atmospheric black metal", "folk metal", "scotland"],
    "socialLinks": {
      "website": "https://saor-music.com",
      "facebook": "https://facebook.com/saormusic",
      "instagram": "https://instagram.com/saor_official",
      "twitter": null,
      "youtube": null
    }
  },
  "albums": [
    {
      "title": "Forgotten Paths",
      "artist": "Saor",
      "url": "https://saor.bandcamp.com/album/forgotten-paths",
      "imageUrl": "https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a1234567_10.jpg",
      "releaseDate": "2019-02-15",
      "price": {
        "amount": 7.00,
        "currency": "USD"
      },
      "downloadAvailable": false,
      "tags": ["metal", "folk", "atmospheric"],
      "videos": [
        {
          "url": "https://www.youtube.com/embed/abc123",
          "title": "Forgotten Paths - Official Video"
        }
      ],
      "tracks": [
        {
          "title": "Forgotten Paths",
          "duration": 678,
          "trackNumber": 1,
          "url": "https://saor.bandcamp.com/track/forgotten-paths",
          "previewUrl": "https://t4.bcbits.com/stream/.../mp3-128/..."
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}

Output Fields

Artist object (if fetchArtistInfo is enabled):

• name: Artist/label name
• bio: Biography text
• location: Geographic location
• imageUrl: Profile image URL
• tags: Array of genre/style tags
• socialLinks: Object with website and social media URLs

Album objects:

• title: Album title
• artist: Artist name
• url: Album page URL
• imageUrl: Album artwork URL
• releaseDate: Release date (ISO format)
• price: Object with amount and currency
• downloadAvailable: Whether the album is available for free/NYOP download
• tags: Array of genre/style tags (if fetchAlbums is enabled)
• videos: Array of embedded video objects (if fetchVideos is enabled)
• tracks: Array of track objects (if fetchTracks is enabled)

Track objects (if fetchTracks is enabled):

• title: Track title
• duration: Duration in seconds
• trackNumber: Track position number
• url: Track page URL
• previewUrl: MP3 128kbps preview URL (if fetchAudioPreviews is enabled)

How It Works

1. Navigate to artist/label page: The actor starts with the base URL (e.g., https://saor.bandcamp.com/)
2. Extract artist info: If fetchArtistInfo is enabled, extracts artist/label details from the sidebar
3. Discover albums: If fetchAlbums is enabled, navigates to /music and extracts album links from the grid
4. Process each album: For each album discovered:
   • Extracts album metadata from embedded TralbumData JSON
   • Collects tags from the page
   • Fetches embedded videos if fetchVideos is enabled
   • Extracts track listings if fetchTracks is enabled
   • Includes audio preview URLs if fetchAudioPreviews is enabled
5. Output structured data: Returns complete artist and album data with all requested fields

Development

Setup

$npm install

Build

$npm run build

Run Locally

$npm run dev

Testing with Apify CLI

1. Install Apify CLI:

   $npm install -g apify-cli
   

2. Run locally:

   $apify run -p
   

3. Deploy to Apify:

   $apify push
   

Technical Details

This actor uses Playwright browser automation to extract data from Bandcamp pages. The workflow:

1. Validates the input URL (must be an artist/label subdomain)
2. Extracts artist/label info from sidebar if fetchArtistInfo is enabled
3. Navigates to /music page if fetchAlbums is enabled
4. Discovers album URLs from the music grid
5. For each album:
   • Extracts metadata from embedded TralbumData JavaScript object
   • Collects genre/style tags from page elements
   • Finds embedded video iframes (YouTube, Vimeo, Bandcamp)
   • Parses track information including preview URLs
6. Returns structured data through Apify's dataset

Data Extraction Method

The scraper uses multiple extraction strategies:

Embedded JSON Data (most reliable):

• TralbumData - Album and track information with audio preview URLs
• EmbedData - Additional album metadata

DOM Scraping (for supplementary data):

• Artist sidebar (#band-name-location, #bio-text)
• Social links (#band-links)
• Genre/style tags (a.tag)
• Embedded video iframes
• Album grid (#music-grid)

This hybrid approach ensures comprehensive data extraction while maintaining reliability.

Dependencies

• apify (^3.2.4): Apify SDK for actor development
• playwright (^1.56.1): Browser automation library
• TypeScript (^5.9.2): Type-safe development

Notes

• The actor uses Chromium browser via Playwright in headless mode
• Cookie consent and modals are dismissed automatically
• Album URLs are discovered dynamically from the music page grid
• The actor supports both nested (options: {...}) and flat input formats
• Option dependencies:
  • fetchTracks requires fetchAlbums to be enabled
  • fetchAudioPreviews requires fetchTracks to be enabled
• Invalid option combinations will throw an error at startup
• Audio preview URLs are MP3 128kbps format from Bandcamp's CDN
• Social links are auto-detected (website, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter/X, YouTube)