🎵 iTunes & Apple Music Scraper

Scrape music, podcasts, movies, TV shows, audiobooks, and apps from Apple's iTunes Store. Search the entire Apple media catalog — extract artists, albums, songs, podcast episodes, prices, ratings, artwork, and preview URLs.

Free API. No key required. No login needed.

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What does this actor do?

This actor queries Apple's public iTunes Search API to retrieve structured metadata for any media in the Apple ecosystem. It covers Apple Music, Apple Podcasts, iTunes Movies, Apple TV, Apple Books, and the App Store.

Use it to:

• Search Apple Music for songs, albums, and artists
• Find and compare podcasts with episode details
• Research movie and TV show pricing across countries
• Build music or podcast databases with artwork
• Monitor app pricing and ratings on the App Store
• Get an artist's complete discography (albums + songs)
• Fetch full episode lists for any podcast

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Scrape modes

Mode	What it does	Required input
Search	Keyword search across the iTunes catalog	search_term
Lookup	Fetch items by their iTunes/Apple IDs	itunes_ids
Artist Albums & Songs	Get an artist's discography	itunes_ids (artist IDs)
Podcast Episodes	Get all episodes of a podcast	itunes_ids (podcast IDs)

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Media types & entities

Media Type	Available Entities
Music	song, album, musicArtist, musicVideo, mix
Podcast	podcast, podcastEpisode, podcastAuthor
Movie	movie, movieArtist
TV Show	tvSeason, tvEpisode
Audiobook	audiobook, audiobookAuthor
App	software, iPadSoftware, macSoftware
eBook	ebook

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Input examples

Example 1: Search for Taylor Swift songs

{
    "scrape_mode": "search",
    "search_term": "Taylor Swift",
    "media_type": "music",
    "entity": "song",
    "country": "US",
    "max_results": 50
}

Example 2: Search for true crime podcasts

{
    "scrape_mode": "search",
    "search_term": "true crime",
    "media_type": "podcast",
    "max_results": 30
}

Example 3: Get an artist's full discography

{
    "scrape_mode": "artist_albums",
    "itunes_ids": "136975",
    "country": "US",
    "max_results": 100
}

Finding Artist IDs: Search for the artist first, then use the artist_id from results. Example: Taylor Swift = 159260351, Drake = 271256, Beyoncé = 1419227.

Example 4: Fetch all episodes of a podcast

{
    "scrape_mode": "podcast_episodes",
    "itunes_ids": "1200361736",
    "max_results": 200
}

Finding Podcast IDs: Search for the podcast first, then use the collection_id from results. The ID is also in the Apple Podcasts URL.

Example 5: Search movies in the UK store

{
    "scrape_mode": "search",
    "search_term": "Christopher Nolan",
    "media_type": "movie",
    "attribute": "directorTerm",
    "country": "GB",
    "max_results": 20
}

Example 6: Look up specific items by ID

{
    "scrape_mode": "lookup",
    "itunes_ids": "1440935467, 1440783204, 1443749923",
    "country": "US"
}

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Output format

Music track record

{
    "rank": 1,
    "wrapper_type": "track",
    "kind": "song",
    "artist_id": 159260351,
    "artist_name": "Taylor Swift",
    "collection_id": 1440935467,
    "collection_name": "1989 (Deluxe)",
    "track_id": 1440935580,
    "track_name": "Blank Space",
    "name": "Blank Space",

    "artist_url": "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/taylor-swift/159260351",
    "track_url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/blank-space/1440935467?i=1440935580",
    "preview_url": "https://audio-ssl.itunes.apple.com/...",

    "artwork": {
        "small": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/.../100x100bb.jpg",
        "medium": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/.../300x300bb.jpg",
        "large": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/.../600x600bb.jpg"
    },

    "price": 1.29,
    "price_formatted": "$1.29",
    "currency": "USD",
    "genre": "Pop",
    "release_date": "2014-10-27T07:00:00Z",
    "duration_ms": 231833,
    "duration_formatted": "3:51",
    "explicit": "notExplicit",
    "is_streamable": true
}

Podcast record

{
    "rank": 1,
    "kind": "podcast",
    "collection_id": 1200361736,
    "collection_name": "The Daily",
    "artist_name": "The New York Times",
    "genre": "News",
    "feed_url": "https://feeds.simplecast.com/...",
    "episode_count": 2500,
    "artwork": {
        "small": "https://...100x100bb.jpg",
        "medium": "https://...300x300bb.jpg",
        "large": "https://...600x600bb.jpg"
    },
    "price_formatted": "Free"
}

Podcast episode record

{
    "rank": 5,
    "kind": "podcast-episode",
    "track_name": "The Sunday Read: 'The Rise of...'",
    "collection_name": "The Daily",
    "episode_url": "https://dts.podtrac.com/...",
    "episode_description": "A deep dive into...",
    "episode_duration_ms": 2580000,
    "release_date": "2026-04-01T09:00:00Z"
}

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Finding IDs

Every item in the Apple ecosystem has a numeric ID. You can find them in several ways:

From URLs: The number in any Apple Music, Podcasts, or iTunes URL is the ID:

https://music.apple.com/us/artist/taylor-swift/159260351
                                                ^^^^^^^^^
                                              Artist ID = 159260351

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-daily/id1200361736
                                                  ^^^^^^^^^^
                                              Podcast ID = 1200361736

From Search results: Run a Search first, then use artist_id, collection_id, or track_id from the output.

Popular Artist IDs

Artist	ID
Taylor Swift	159260351
Drake	271256
Beyoncé	1419227
The Beatles	136975
Kendrick Lamar	368183298
Billie Eilish	1065981054

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Search attributes

Narrow your search by setting the attribute field:

Media	Attributes
Music	songTerm, albumTerm, artistTerm, genreIndex, composerTerm, mixTerm
Podcast	titleTerm, authorTerm, genreIndex, descriptionTerm
Movie	actorTerm, directorTerm, producerTerm, genreIndex, ratingTerm
TV	showTerm, genreIndex, ratingTerm
App	softwareDeveloper

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Country stores

Set country to get results from different Apple regional stores. Pricing and availability varies by country.

Code	Country		Code	Country
US	United States		JP	Japan
GB	United Kingdom		IN	India
CA	Canada		BR	Brazil
AU	Australia		KR	South Korea
DE	Germany		MX	Mexico
FR	France		PK	Pakistan

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Cost and performance

Mode	Items	Time	Credits
Search (50 results)	50	~5 sec	< $0.01
Lookup (10 IDs)	10	~3 sec	< $0.01
Artist discography	~50	~10 sec	< $0.01
Podcast episodes (200)	200	~8 sec	< $0.01

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Tips

• Start with Search mode to find IDs, then use Lookup or Artist Albums for detailed data.
• Set entity for precise results — song vs album vs musicArtist returns very different data.
• Use attribute to narrow searches — directorTerm for movies, artistTerm for music.
• Preview URLs provide 30-second audio/video clips you can use in apps.
• Artwork URLs can be resized — replace the dimensions in the URL (e.g., 600x600 → 1200x1200).
• Rate limit is ~20 requests/minute. The actor adds 3.5s delays automatically.
• Podcast IDs sometimes differ from what you see on the website — verify with a Search first.

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Limitations

• iTunes API returns max 200 results per search query.
• Rate limit of ~20 requests per minute per IP.
• Some content may be region-locked and unavailable in certain countries.
• Apple Music streaming URLs are not available (only 30-second previews).
• Full song lyrics are not provided by the API.
• Historical pricing data is not available — only current prices.

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Changelog

v1.0.0 (2026-04-05)

• Initial release
• 4 scrape modes: search, lookup, artist albums/songs, podcast episodes
• 8 media types: music, podcasts, movies, TV, audiobooks, apps, ebooks, all
• 16 country stores supported
• Artwork in 3 sizes (100px, 300px, 600px)
• Smart field extraction per content type (music, podcast, movie, app-specific fields)
• Rate limiting with automatic retry on 429