New: a JSON API for programs and AI agents

Search the catalog, get album details with free preview streams, and download albums after buying them, at magnatune.com/api/. AI agents can start with llms.txt.

Data Feeds in XML, CSV and SQL

If you want to integrate Magnatune's Creative Commons' by-nc-sa v1.0 licensed music into your web site or application, these links will help you.

WE HIGHLY RECOMMEND YOU USE THIS SQLITE DATABASE for your data feed, as the others are all being fazed out and do not have all the metadata that this database file has.

If you're wondering how we'd feel about a specific use of Magnatune's music, feel free to contact us and tell us your thoughts.

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Below are the data feeds which can help you. These are continuously updated with the latest data. Contact us if you need something special; we're happy to oblige.

• Albums and songs XML file Every album and song described, with each song grouped into the album it belongs to. This provides more information, and is useful for uses that are more album oriented.
  This file is also available in a number of compressed formats: zip, gzip, bzip2.
  
  
• SQLite Export: a small database in SQLite format.
  
  
• SQLite Normalized Export: a fully normalized small database in SQLite format.
  
  
• Song-by-song MYSQL table dump. Every 128k mp3 at Magnatune described, with each mp3 file (ie, each song) fully described, loadable directly into your MYSQL database. Creates a "magnatune_song_info" table.
  
  
• Song-by-song XML file. Every 128k mp3 at Magnatune described, with each mp3 file (ie, each song) fully described. This file is for uses that are more single-mp3 oriented. A simplified version of this file is also available.
  These files are also available in a number of compressed formats:
  Song-by-song XML file: zip, gzip, bzip2
  simplified version: zip, gzip, bzip2
  Also slim version (without artistbio): xml, zip, gzip, bzip2.
  
• Song-by-song CSV file. Every 128k mp3 at Magnatune described, with each mp3 file (ie, each song) fully described, the comma-separated-value (CSV) format which imports directly into most database programs and Microsoft Excel.
  This file is also available in a number of compressed formats: zip, gzip, bzip2
  
  

To keep these downloads small, we reccomend using the bzip2 files if possible.

Memberships

Magnatune.com offers memberships that lets users enjoy additional benefits. Members stream the entire catalog without the spoken voice overlay, in higher quality, and can download every album: $10 a month, $99 a year or $299 for life (join). Agents can buy a membership over HTTP with MPP: see the Magnatune API. The download membership lets users download an unlimited amount of albums at no additional charge. While memberships has to be created at the Magnatune.com site, it is possible to use the memberships from other applications.

To play a membership stream with no speaker interruption, the standard stream url should be modified to point at the correct membership sub-site. Authentication can either be handleded by imnbedding the membership username and password in the url, or by handeling sessions. Also, all speechless streams has _nospeech appended to the filename.

for instance, to transform the url
/all/03--Massassi%20Morning%20Star--Ishwish.mp3"

to a valid stream membership url, could look like this

/all/03--Massassi%20Morning%20Star--Ishwish_nospeech.mp3

The steps neeed for this transformation are:

• "this server" should be replaced with "your member login on this server". If your programming language's HTTP API doesn't support inline username/passwords in the URL, consult your HTTP API document for how to do HTTP AUTH queries.
• ".mp3" or ".ogg" should be replaced with "_nospeech.mp3" or "_nospeech.ogg" respectively.

To download albums without having to pay for each one uses an API very similar to the one for making credit card purchases. Both the request and the resulting xml reply are modelled on the purchase API.

To let a download member download an album for free, the following url should be used:
/buy/membership_free_dl_xml

This is a password protected url, so either you will need to handle logging in or pass the username and password in the url.

The following fields are required:

• sku= field, which is the album's sku code
• id= field, which is your partner id. Contact john to obtain one (there is no cost).

This returns an xml reply that contains the download information for the different formats, simmilar to the reply from a purchase request.

As an example, this i how this url is constructed in Amarok 2:

QString purchaseURL = "http://" + username + ":" + password + "@" + membershipType + ".magnatune.com/buy/membership_free_dl_xml?sku=" + m_currentAlbum->albumCode() + "&id=myId";

Detecting new releases

To detect whether we have any new releases, please download this file:

/info/changed.txt

The changed.txt file contains a single number, which is a CRC of all our releases. When that number changes, this means that all the other data feeds also have new data. You can check this changed.txt file as often as you like, but we recommend no more frequently than every 24h.

Embedded Music Purchasing

Music Purchasing through the API is no longer supported. Apologies for this, but our VISA credit card processor really didn't like this, as it was thoroughly NOT "PCI Compliant" for us to allow this.