iTunes / Apple Search API — music, podcasts, apps (no key)

Search Apple's public catalog — music, podcasts, movies, TV, apps, audiobooks and ebooks — behind a clean HTTP API (and MCP tool). Get titles, artists, genres, release dates, prices, artwork, audio previews and store links, or look up any item by its iTunes id (or ISBN/UPC). Great for media apps, music/podcast tools, app-store research and agents. No API key. Pay per query.

• 🎵 Music — songs, albums and artists with artwork and 30-second previews.
• 🎙️ Podcasts — shows by name or author, with feed and artwork.
• 📱 Apps — App Store listings: name, developer, rating, screenshots, price.
• 🎬 Movies / TV / books — search across Apple's media catalog.
• 🌍 Any storefront — set country (US, AR, GB…). Lookup by id / ISBN / UPC.
• 💵 Pay per query · no key.

The use case it was built for

Build a music or podcast search box, enrich a track with artwork and a preview, check an app's rating and screenshots, or let an agent resolve "what album is this song on?" — all from Apple's authoritative, keyless catalog.

Sample output (search, music "radiohead")

{
  "ok": true, "term": "radiohead", "media": "music", "country": "US", "count": 2,
  "results": [
    { "kind": "song", "id": 1097861834, "name": "Let Down", "artist": "Radiohead",
      "collection": "OK Computer", "genre": "Alternative", "price": 1.29, "currency": "USD",
      "artwork": "https://…/600x600bb.jpg", "preview": "https://…/preview.m4a",
      "url": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/let-down/1097861387?i=1097861834" }
  ]
}

How to use

• HTTP API (Standby): POST or GET /search, /lookup. GET / returns help. Example: GET /search?term=lex%20fridman&media=podcast.
• Normal run: pass { operation, term | id, media, country }; results land in the dataset + key-value store.
• MCP tool: expose it to your agent via Apify's MCP server.

Input

• operation — search · lookup.
• term — search text. media — music/podcast/movie/tvShow/software/audiobook/ebook/all. entity — refine (song, album, musicArtist…).
• country — storefront (2-letter). id — iTunes id for lookup (or upc/isbn/amgArtistId). limit — cap results.

Pricing

Per query from $0.004 (down to $0.0015 on higher tiers). One call = one query.

Related Actors

• Open Library Books — book metadata and ISBN lookup.

FAQ

Do I need a key? No — the iTunes Search API is public and keyless.

Do I get artwork and previews? Yes — high-res artwork URLs and (for music) 30-second preview URLs.

Storefronts? Set country to any 2-letter store code; prices/availability vary by store.

Notes & limits

Data from the Apple iTunes Search API. Apple applies soft rate limits (~20 calls/min); heavy bursts may be throttled. Up to 50 results per call.