# MusicBrainz Scraper - Artists, Releases & Labels (`dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper`) Actor

The cheapest MusicBrainz scraper on Apify at $0.20 per 1,000 records. Search artists, releases, recordings, release-groups and labels and export MBIDs, names, types, dates, country, tags, life spans and direct links. Clean structured rows for music catalogs, ETL and AI datasets. No key, no login.

- **URL**: https://apify.com/dami\_studio/musicbrainz-scraper.md
- **Developed by:** [Dami's Studio](https://apify.com/dami_studio) (community)
- **Categories:** Developer tools, AI, Other
- **Stats:** 2 total users, 1 monthly users, 100.0% runs succeeded, 0 bookmarks
- **User rating**: No ratings yet

## Pricing

from $0.20 / 1,000 item returneds

This Actor is paid per event. You are not charged for the Apify platform usage, but only a fixed price for specific events.

Learn more: https://docs.apify.com/platform/actors/running/actors-in-store#pay-per-event

## What's an Apify Actor?

Actors are web data automations that power AI and operations. They run on the Apify platform to scrape websites, process data, connect APIs, and automate workflows.
In Batch mode, an Actor accepts a well-defined JSON input, performs an action which can take anything from a few seconds to a few hours,
and optionally produces a well-defined JSON output, datasets with results, or files in key-value store.
In Standby mode, an Actor provides a web server which can be used as a website, API, or an MCP server.
Actors are written with capital "A".

## How to integrate an Actor?

If asked about integration, you help developers integrate Actors into their projects.
You adapt to their stack and deliver integrations that are safe, well-documented, and production-ready.
The best way to integrate Actors is as follows.

- **AI agents and MCP clients** — the [Apify MCP server](https://docs.apify.com/integrations/mcp.md) at `https://mcp.apify.com` (remote, streamable HTTP, OAuth on first use).
- **Agentic workflows and local Actor development** — [Agent Skills](https://apify.com/.well-known/agent-skills/index.json) with the [Apify CLI](https://docs.apify.com/cli/docs.md): `npm install -g apify-cli`, then `apify login`.
- **JavaScript/TypeScript projects** — the official [JS/TS client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs.md): `npm install apify-client`.
- **Python projects** — the official [Python client](https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs.md): `pip install apify-client`.
- **Any other language** — the [REST API](https://docs.apify.com/api/v2.md).

For usage examples, see the [API](#api) section below.

For more details, see Apify documentation as [Markdown index](https://docs.apify.com/llms.txt) and [Markdown full-text](https://docs.apify.com/llms-full.txt).

# README

## MusicBrainz Scraper

Search [MusicBrainz](https://musicbrainz.org) — the open, community-maintained music encyclopedia — by keyword and get back clean, structured records. No API key, no login.

Pick what you're looking for (artist, release, recording, release-group, or label), give a search term, and the actor returns flat, ready-to-use rows with the MusicBrainz ID (MBID) and a direct link, so you can join the data straight into your own catalog.

### Entity types

| `entity` | What it is |
|---|---|
| `artist` | A band, performer, or composer. |
| `release` | A specific edition of an album/single (a physical or digital product). |
| `recording` | An individual track/recording. |
| `release-group` | An album as a concept, grouping all its editions. |
| `label` | A record label. |

### What you get per row

Every row includes:

- `mbid` — the MusicBrainz ID (stable, unique).
- `url` — direct link, `https://musicbrainz.org/{entity}/{mbid}`.
- `entity` — which entity type this row is.
- `score` — MusicBrainz's relevance score for the search (0–100), when provided.
- `disambiguation` — a short note distinguishing same-named records, when present.

Plus entity-specific fields:

- **artist**: `name`, `sortName`, `type`, `country`, `lifeSpan` (+ `beginDate`/`endDate`/`ended`), `tags`.
- **release**: `title`, `status`, `artistCredit`, `date`, `country`, `trackCount`, `primaryType`.
- **recording**: `title`, `artistCredit`, `firstReleaseDate`, `length` (ms) + `lengthFormatted` (m:ss).
- **release-group**: `title`, `primaryType`, `secondaryTypes`, `artistCredit`, `firstReleaseDate`.
- **label**: `name`, `type`, `country`, `lifeSpan` (+ `beginDate`/`endDate`), `labelCode`.

`artistCredit` is the credited artist string (e.g. `"Radiohead"`, or `"A feat. B"`), joined the way MusicBrainz credits it. Fields are `null` when MusicBrainz doesn't have that value for a record.

### Input

| Field | Notes |
|---|---|
| `entity` | One of artist / release / recording / release-group / label. Default `artist`. |
| `query` | The search text. Plain keywords or MusicBrainz Lucene syntax (e.g. `artist:radiohead`, `country:GB`). Required. |
| `maxItems` | Max records to return. Paginated 100/page. Default 100. |

### Output

One dataset row per record, deduplicated by MBID. Pricing is pay-per-result: you are only charged for genuine result rows (`ok: true`). Rows we couldn't deliver are never charged — this includes:

- empty/invalid input (`ok: false`, `errorCode: "BAD_INPUT"`),
- no results for the query (`NO_RESULTS`),
- rate limits or network errors (`RATE_LIMITED` / `NETWORK` / `SERVER_ERROR`).

#### Rate limit & etiquette

The MusicBrainz API allows roughly **1 request per second**. This actor sends the required descriptive User-Agent on every request, waits ~1.1s between pages, and treats a `503` as a rate-limit signal and backs off. As a result, very large `maxItems` jobs take proportionally longer — that's by design, to stay within MusicBrainz's policy.

#### Proxy

The MusicBrainz API is a public, no-auth, no-anti-bot JSON API, so **no proxy is required** and the default runs without one (saving proxy credits). Only enable Apify Proxy if you hit IP-level rate limits at very high volume.

### Examples

Search for artists named Radiohead:

```json
{ "entity": "artist", "query": "radiohead", "maxItems": 10 }
```

Find the album "OK Computer" as a release group:

```json
{ "entity": "release-group", "query": "ok computer", "maxItems": 10 }
```

### Notes

Data comes from MusicBrainz and is licensed under its [open data licenses](https://musicbrainz.org/doc/About/Data_License) (core data is CC0). Please credit MusicBrainz when you redistribute.

# Actor input Schema

## `entity` (type: `string`):

Which kind of music record to search for. artist = bands/performers, release = a specific album/single edition, recording = an individual track, release-group = an album as a concept across editions, label = a record label.

## `query` (type: `string`):

The text to search for. Plain keywords work (e.g. "radiohead", "ok computer"), and MusicBrainz Lucene syntax is also supported (e.g. artist:radiohead, country:GB). Required.

## `maxItems` (type: `integer`):

Maximum number of records to return. The actor paginates 100 per page and respects MusicBrainz's ~1 request/second rate limit, so very large values take proportionally longer.

## `notionConnector` (type: `string`):

Optional. Write each item as a page into your Notion when the run finishes. Authorize a Notion connector once in Settings → API & Integrations → MCP connectors, then pick it here. Leave empty to skip (default) — results are always saved to the dataset regardless.

## `notionParentId` (type: `string`):

Optional. The Notion data source ID of the database to write into (only used if a Notion connector is set). Leave empty to create the pages privately in your workspace instead.

## `proxyConfiguration` (type: `object`):

OPTIONAL. The MusicBrainz API is a public, no-auth, no-anti-bot JSON API, so no proxy is needed and the default routes traffic directly (saving proxy credits). Only enable Apify Proxy if you hit IP-level rate limits when running very high volumes.

## Actor input object example

```json
{
  "entity": "artist",
  "query": "radiohead",
  "maxItems": 100,
  "proxyConfiguration": {
    "useApifyProxy": false
  }
}
```

# Actor output Schema

## `results` (type: `string`):

Scraped rows are stored in the default dataset (one row per result). Blocked/empty/error runs return a single uncharged diagnostic row instead.

# API

You can run this Actor programmatically using our API. Below are code examples in JavaScript, Python, and CLI, as well as the OpenAPI specification and MCP server setup.

## JavaScript example

```javascript
import { ApifyClient } from 'apify-client';

// Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
// Replace the '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token
const client = new ApifyClient({
    token: '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>',
});

// Prepare Actor input
const input = {
    "query": "radiohead"
};

// Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
const run = await client.actor("dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper").call(input);

// Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if any)
console.log('Results from dataset');
console.log(`💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/${run.defaultDatasetId}`);
const { items } = await client.dataset(run.defaultDatasetId).listItems();
items.forEach((item) => {
    console.dir(item);
});

// 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/js/docs

```

## Python example

```python
from apify_client import ApifyClient

# Initialize the ApifyClient with your Apify API token
# Replace '<YOUR_API_TOKEN>' with your token.
client = ApifyClient("<YOUR_API_TOKEN>")

# Prepare the Actor input
run_input = { "query": "radiohead" }

# Run the Actor and wait for it to finish
run = client.actor("dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper").call(run_input=run_input)

# Fetch and print Actor results from the run's dataset (if there are any)
print("💾 Check your data here: https://console.apify.com/storage/datasets/" + run["defaultDatasetId"])
for item in client.dataset(run["defaultDatasetId"]).iterate_items():
    print(item)

# 📚 Want to learn more 📖? Go to → https://docs.apify.com/api/client/python/docs/quick-start

```

## CLI example

```bash
echo '{
  "query": "radiohead"
}' |
apify call dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper --silent --output-dataset

```

## MCP server setup

```json
{
    "mcpServers": {
        "apify": {
            "command": "npx",
            "args": [
                "mcp-remote",
                "https://mcp.apify.com/?tools=dami_studio/musicbrainz-scraper",
                "--header",
                "Authorization: Bearer <YOUR_API_TOKEN>"
            ]
        }
    }
}

```

## OpenAPI specification

Download the OpenAPI definition: https://api.apify.com/v2/actors/7tdFriZMdkoYy81ad/builds/3siIL8snE8OP1CHtL/openapi.json