MusicBrainz Scraper

MusicBrainz Scraper

Scrape MusicBrainz artists, releases, and recordings by name, country, or type, up to a million per run. Every result comes with its MBID, score, country, type, and tags. No API key or login. Export to JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML.

MusicBrainz is the open music encyclopedia, but its API rate-limits you and returns nested XML that is painful to flatten. This Actor searches the public MusicBrainz database directly by artist, release, or recording name, with optional country and type filters, and returns each match as one flat row. No registration, no API key, no OAuth.

Who uses it	What they scrape MusicBrainz for
Music app developers	Build a clean metadata database for their app without dealing with MusicBrainz XML
Music researchers	Pull discographies or artist data for analysis in spreadsheets
Data journalists	Investigate music industry trends by collecting structured metadata
Playlist curators	Enrich playlists with accurate artist and release information

What it does

This Actor collects MusicBrainz artists, releases, or recordings matching your query and returns each result as a flat row with its MBID, name, type, country, score, and tags.

• 🎤 Search modes: artists, releases, or recordings, chosen with one dropdown.
• 🌍 Country filter: append a Lucene country filter like 'US' or 'GB' to narrow results.
• 🏷️ Type filter: for artists, filter by 'Group' or 'Person'; for releases, by 'Album', 'Single', or 'EP'.
• 📦 Bulk export: up to 1,000,000 records per run, saved as JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML.

Results export to CSV, JSON, Excel, or XML, or straight from the API.

What you can do with MusicBrainz data

🎵 Build a music metadata database.

A developer runs the Actor with a list of artist names and exports the results to CSV to seed a local database for their app.

📊 Analyze genre and country trends.

A researcher scrapes all releases by a set of artists, filters by country, and aggregates the data to spot regional music patterns.

🔍 Enrich a playlist with accurate tags.

A curator runs the Actor on each track's artist and release to pull official tags and types, then uses them to categorize the playlist.

🗂️ Reconcile artist identities.

A data journalist collects artist records with MBIDs and life-span data to disambiguate artists with similar names in a story.

Why choose this scraper

	What you get
No API key	MusicBrainz requires no authentication for basic search, and this Actor uses that public endpoint directly.
Flat output	Each result is a single row with all fields, ready for spreadsheets or databases.
Bulk collection	Collect up to a million records in one run, far beyond the default API page size.
Flexible filters	Narrow by country code or type to get exactly the subset you need.

How it compares

This Actor focuses on simple, flat search results for artists, releases, and recordings, while other MusicBrainz scrapers may offer more entity types or deeper metadata.

Feature	ParseForge	MusicBrainz Scraper (10 users)	MusicBrainz Scraper (2 users)	MusicBrainz Scraper - Artists, Releases & Recordings (2 users)
Search artists, releases, recordings	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Country filter	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Type filter (Group/Person, Album/Single/EP)	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Not listed
Bulk pagination up to 1,000,000 results	Yes	Not listed	Not listed	Yes
Export JSON/CSV	Yes	Yes	Not listed	Not listed
No API key required	Yes	Not listed	Yes	Yes

Configure the run

Drive the Actor with a search query and optional country or type filters, and set a maximum number of records to collect per run. The Input tab lists every parameter.

A first run with the defaults:

{
 "maxItems": 10,
 "mode": "artists",
 "query": "radiohead"
}

A larger pull:

{
 "maxItems": 200,
 "mode": "artists",
 "query": "radiohead"
}

Pricing

Pay-per-result: $0.00207 per result collected. You pay only for the results written to your dataset.

Results collected	Approximate cost
100 results	$0.21
1,000 results	$2.07
10,000 results	$20.70

New Apify accounts start with $5 in free credit.

Free users

Free-plan runs return up to 10 results as a preview. Upgrade your Apify plan to collect up to 1,000,000 results per run.

Run it

1. Create a free Apify account with $5 in credit.
2. Open the MusicBrainz Scraper.
3. Set your inputs and any filters, then click Start.
4. Export the results as CSV, Excel, JSON, or XML from the Dataset tab.

Run it programmatically through the Apify API (run-sync-get-dataset-items) or the ApifyClient for JavaScript and Python.

Use with AI agents (MCP)

Give an AI agent live access to MusicBrainz through the Model Context Protocol. Add the Actor to Claude, Cursor, or any MCP client:

claude mcp add --transport http apify "https://mcp.apify.com?tools=parseforge/musicbrainz-scraper"

Then prompt it in plain language to run the scraper and read back the results.

Troubleshooting

Why am I getting no results?

Your query may be too specific or misspelled. Try a shorter or more common name, and remove any country or type filters to see if results appear.

Why is the run slow?

MusicBrainz rate-limits unauthenticated requests to about one per second. Large maxItems values will take time. Reduce maxItems or run in the background.

Why are some fields empty?

MusicBrainz does not have complete data for every entity. Fields like country or tags may be missing for some artists or releases.

Can I search for non-English names?

Yes, MusicBrainz supports Unicode. Enter the name in its original script, such as '坂本龍一' for Ryuichi Sakamoto.

Why did I get fewer results than maxItems?

The Actor stops when MusicBrainz has no more matching results. Your filters may be too restrictive, or the query may have limited matches.

FAQ

Question	Answer
Do I need a MusicBrainz API key?	No. This Actor uses the public MusicBrainz search endpoint, which does not require authentication for basic queries. You can run it immediately.
What is the maximum number of results I can get?	You can set maxItems up to 1,000,000. The Actor will paginate through MusicBrainz search results until it reaches that number or no more results exist.
Can I filter by country or type?	Yes. The country and type inputs are appended to the query as Lucene filters. For example, country 'US' and type 'Group' will return only US groups.
What is an MBID?	MBID stands for MusicBrainz Identifier, a unique UUID assigned to every artist, release, recording, and other entity in MusicBrainz. It is included in every result.
Which search modes are supported?	You can search for artists, releases, or recordings. The mode dropdown determines which entity type the query matches.
Can I search by label or work?	This Actor currently supports artists, releases, and recordings only. Labels and works are not included in the search modes.
How is the data exported?	Results are saved in the Apify dataset in JSON, CSV, Excel, or XML format, depending on your chosen export option.
Is there a rate limit?	MusicBrainz imposes a rate limit of about one request per second for unauthenticated users. The Actor respects this limit to avoid being blocked.
Can I run multiple queries in one run?	Each run handles one query. To process multiple queries, run the Actor multiple times or use Apify's scheduler or API to automate it.
What if my query returns no results?	Check the spelling and try a broader query. You can also remove country or type filters to widen the search.

Related actors

Browse the full ParseForge collection for more scrapers.

🆘 Need help? Email parseforge@protonmail.com with your run ID, your input, and what you expected.

⚠️ Disclaimer. This Actor is unofficial and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by MetaBrainz Foundation. It collects only publicly available data. You are responsible for using the collected data in compliance with the source's terms of service and applicable data-protection laws, including GDPR, CCPA, and PIPL. Do not use it to collect personal data unlawfully.