Live Music Data APIs

When to Use

• "How do I get concert data for an artist?"
• "Which API should I use for setlists?"
• "How do I resolve artist IDs across platforms?"
• Building applications that need artist metadata, concert events, or setlists
• Resolving artist identities across multiple platforms
• Integrating live music data APIs

Outcomes

• Analysis: API selection based on data requirements
• Reference: Endpoint documentation, auth patterns, rate limits
• Decision: ID resolution strategy (MBID hub vs name search)

API Quick Reference

Tier 1: Core APIs (High Value, Easy Access)

Tier 2: Events and Concerts

Tier 3: Supplementary Data

Tier 4: Avoid / Difficult Access

Web Scraping Fallback

# Scrape a single artist page to markdown
firecrawl scrape "https://www.allmusic.com/artist/mn0000004789" --only-main-content -o .firecrawl/artist.md

# Wait for JS rendering (SPA sites)
firecrawl scrape "<url>" --wait-for 3000 -o .firecrawl/page.md

# Extract structured data with a query
firecrawl scrape "https://example.com/artist" --query "What are the upcoming tour dates?"

• Respect

  robots.txt

  and rate limit aggressively (1-2 req/sec)
• Cache scraped content for 7+ days
• Prefer APIs when available - scraping breaks when sites change
• Use

  --only-main-content

  to skip navigation/ads

ID Mapping Architecture

flowchart LR
    subgraph hub [ID Hub]
        MB[MusicBrainz<br/>MBID]
    end
    
    subgraph direct [Accept MBID]
        Setlist[Setlist.fm]
        Fanart[Fanart.tv]
        Lastfm[Last.fm]
    end
    
    subgraph multi [Multi-ID Lookup]
        JamBase[JamBase<br/>12 ID sources]
    end
    
    subgraph linked [Via url-rels]
        Discogs[Discogs]
        Wikidata[Wikidata]
        Spotify[Spotify]
    end
    
    subgraph name [Name Search Only]
        Bandsintown[Bandsintown]
        TM[Ticketmaster]
        Genius[Genius]
    end
    
    MB -->|MBID| direct
    MB -->|MBID or external ID| multi
    MB -->|url-rels lookup| linked
    MB -.->|artist name| name

Services That Accept MBID Directly

/artist/{mbid}/setlists

/music/{mbid}

?method=artist.getInfo&mbid={mbid}

/artists/id/musicbrainz:{mbid}

/artist-mb.php?i={mbid}

Services Requiring url-rels Lookup

GET /ws/2/artist/{mbid}?inc=url-rels&fmt=json

JamBase Multi-ID Support

/artists/id/{source}:{id}

Sources: jambase, musicbrainz, spotify, ticketmaster, seatgeek, 
         eventbrite, axs, dice, etix, seated, viagogo, eventim-de

Environment Variables

# Tier 1
MUSICBRAINZ_USER_AGENT="AppName/1.0 (contact@example.com)"
SETLISTFM_API_KEY=""
DISCOGS_TOKEN=""

# Tier 2
JAMBASE_API_KEY=""
SONGKICK_API_KEY=""
BANDSINTOWN_APP_ID=""
TICKETMASTER_API_KEY=""

# Tier 3
LASTFM_API_KEY=""
FANARTTV_API_KEY=""
THEAUDIODB_API_KEY=""
GENIUS_ACCESS_TOKEN=""

API Selection Guide

ID Resolution Strategy

Starting with Artist Name

1. Search MusicBrainz for MBID
2. Use MBID to get external IDs via url-rels
3. Use external IDs with other services

Starting with Existing ID (Spotify, etc.)

1. Use JamBase

   /artists/id/{source}:{id}

   for direct lookup
2. Or lookup in Wikidata via property (P1902 for Spotify)
3. Resolve to MBID for other services

Rate Limit Summary

sleep(1000)

X-Discogs-Ratelimit-Remaining

sleep(500)

OAuth 2.0 Patterns

See OAuth 2.0 Patterns for the full Spotify Authorization Code + PKCE flow, the token refresh pattern, and recommended scopes per provider.

Pagination Patterns

See Pagination Patterns for cursor-based vs offset-based async iterators and the per-API pagination parameter table.

Error Handling Matrix

See Error Handling for the full retry strategy table by HTTP code, the

fetchWithRetry

implementation, and API-specific error code interpretations.

Caching Recommendations

Local Data Architecture

See Local Data Architecture for replica decision criteria, the external-ID-mapping schema (entities, entity_source_ids, sync_state), incremental sync patterns with overlap windows, ID resolution flow, the enrichment pipeline, and deletion/merge handling.

Detailed Reference Files

references/

• musicbrainz.md - ID hub, url-rels, search, rate limiting
• setlistfm.md - Setlist search, MBID integration, response schemas
• jambase.md - Multi-ID lookup, geo search, event filters
• discogs.md - Discography, releases, rate headers
• wikidata.md - SPARQL queries, property codes
• nugs.md - Undocumented API, catalog methods
• bandsintown.md - Artist events, date filters
• ticketmaster.md - Events, attractions, venues
• songkick.md - Gigography, calendar (keys suspended)
• lastfm.md - Similar artists, tags, scrobbles
• fanarttv.md - High-res images via MBID
• theaudiodb.md - Metadata, images, free vs premium
• genius.md - Annotations, OAuth, no lyrics via API

Skill Maintenance

Keeping References Current

• Authoritative docs - Official documentation links
• Version detection - How to check for API changes
• Test endpoint - Quick verification command
• Last verified - When this reference was last validated

Monitoring for Changes

Update Triggers

• API returns unexpected errors
• New features announced in changelog
• Response structure differs from documented
• Rate limits or auth requirements change

Contribution

1. Verify changes against official docs
2. Test endpoints with real API calls
3. Update "Last Verified" date
4. Note breaking changes prominently

References

Quilted Skills

• firecrawl/cli/firecrawl-scrape — Web scraping patterns

First-Party API Documentation

• MusicBrainz API — ID hub, url-rels, JSON responses
• MusicBrainz JSON Web Service — JSON format details
• Setlist.fm API — Setlist search and retrieval
• JamBase API — Events, venues, multi-ID lookup
• Ticketmaster Discovery API — Events, attractions
• Spotify Web API — OAuth 2.0, artist data
• Spotify Authorization Guide — PKCE flow
• Discogs API — Discography, releases
• Last.fm API — Similar artists, tags
• Wikidata Query Service — SPARQL cross-references

Community Resources

• MusicBrainz Picard Documentation — Tagging patterns
• Wikidata SPARQL Examples — Cross-reference queries