Is there any free unlimited album artwork search API service?

Question

Google's custom search API has a limitation up to 100 queries per day. That is far less than what I expected. I want to add that artwork-search function to my app. Thanks a lot.

score 14 · Accepted Answer · answered Oct 11 '11 at 09:56

14

How about Discogs, or Amazon or seeing what Cover Fetcher does?

answered Oct 11 '11 at 09:56

spraff

29,265
19
105
197

1

discogs seems promising, thanks. – Li Fumin Oct 11 '11 at 13:11
1

Last I read the Amazon Terms of Service, you could only use their album art in the context of selling albums with their affiliate program. – Brad Dec 26 '13 at 06:49
1

As of earlier this year, Discogs is no longer unlimited: http://www.onemusicapi.com/blog/2014/08/13/app-developers-think-twice-adopting-discogs-api/ . Furthermore, @Brad is correct. – Dan Gravell Dec 01 '14 at 12:20
1

Also try [Spotify](https://developer.spotify.com/web-api/) and [Itunes](https://www.apple.com/itunes/affiliates/resources/documentation/itunes-store-web-service-search-api.html). – the_prole Dec 13 '15 at 18:59

score 8 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 16 '12 at 15:12

8

Musicbrainz and the Internet Archive offer the Cover Art Archive but you do need to request using the album's MBID.

answered Oct 16 '12 at 15:12

Deebster

2,789
1
24
25

score 7 · Answer 3 · answered Apr 08 '13 at 23:53

7

Last.FM provides an API for getting art but you can't actually use it in publicly distributed applications. They said that the recording companies own the art and they aren't licensed to distribute it. Huh? Why the API then? I don't get it.

answered Apr 08 '13 at 23:53

user2167861

179
3
11

1

exactly my point ..... I don't get this stupidity.. – Ankit Srivastava Jan 13 '14 at 13:11
is this possible, instead of using our own key we ask the users to provide their key .... – Ankit Srivastava Jan 13 '14 at 13:12

score 2 · Answer 4 · answered Apr 30 '12 at 14:30

2

Last FM's album.getInfo API call offers images in four different sizes and can be searched using names or musicbrainz IDs. Output can be XML/JSON/JSONP.

answered Apr 30 '12 at 14:30

Deebster

2,789
1
24
25

1

Last fm images are not for public use ... – Ankit Srivastava Jan 13 '14 at 13:08

score 2 · Answer 5 · answered Feb 26 '13 at 22:27

2

Last.fm isn't completely free and unlimited "Last.fm reserves the right to share in revenue generated from your use of Last.fm Data in future on terms to be negotiated in good faith between Last.fm and You."

Discovered the FreeCover website API a few minutes ago searching for the same thing: http://www.freecovers.net/api/

For the record, ROVi seems loaded (they source Apple): http://developer.rovicorp.com/

...but same as every good service on the internet: if you want good (meaning reliable) service, you'll have to pay eventually ;)

answered Feb 26 '13 at 22:27

gfd

1,101
1
10
19

If you make good revenue out of their API, isn't that obvious that you might have to share a bit of this revenue with them? #justsaying – Remi Grumeau Sep 27 '13 at 11:13
Sorry, I thought I had write it on the last line of my answer. Did you understand otherwise ? Please correct me if so ! – gfd Oct 09 '13 at 16:23
Last fm images are not for public use or are they ??I contacted them and they said no... @RemiGrumeau – Ankit Srivastava Jan 13 '14 at 13:10
Then this API is just for their own apps use. For internal scalibility sake. – Remi Grumeau Jan 22 '14 at 15:28

score 1 · Answer 6 · answered Dec 01 '14 at 12:23

Other than the Cover Art Archive the only other approachably "free" and unlimited resource is Wikipedia: http://www.onemusicapi.com/blog/2014/09/10/querying-wikipedia-album-artwork/

You can use DBpedia to search for the album, then use the Wikimedia APIs to actually download the image.

Is there any free unlimited album artwork search API service?

6 Answers6

Linked