Welcome to GenAPIre

What

GenAPIre is a response to the need for free access to music genres describing your music, provided in a normalized way, without unnecessary complexity. You can use the REST API and get a response in JSON or XML format. More formats can be added if needed. You can contribute too—just reach out! Available to everyone, free, forever. You can buy me a coffee if you want, but you don’t have to. I’m glad I could help.

Why

Like many people, I privately own a large collection of CDs and vinyl records. I love them. At some point, however, you may want to transfer your physical music library to a digital one and create your own digital music collection. You might encounter a problem related to music genres. There are several services like https://musicbrainz.org or https://www.last.fm, and great tools like https://beets.io which I admire and highly recommend. Unfortunately, I’ve encountered issues with the quality of music genres in these sources. Additionally, as a developer, I wanted to make them available via a simple REST API for everyone. That’s how genAPIre was created, which builds knowledge about music genres for your and my music from various sources. Thanks to those mentioned above and github.com, of course.

How

To use this knowledge base, you need an HTTP client capable of making simple requests. Let’s do it now with curl:

JSON

curl "https://genapire.online/artists/ABBA/albums/Waterloo%20(Deluxe%20Edition).json"

The response is as follows:

{
  "genres": [
    "pop",
    "70s",
    "disco",
    "swedish"
  ]
}

XML

Now the same for XML:

curl "https://genapire.online/artists/ABBA/albums/Waterloo%20(Deluxe%20Edition).xml"

The response is as follows:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<album>
  <genres>
    <genre>pop</genre>
    <genre>70s</genre>
    <genre>disco</genre>
    <genre>swedish</genre>
  </genres>
</album>

API

So, to get genres for a given artist and album, just call this endpoint:

GET genres

curl "https://genapire.online/artists/{artist}/albums/{album}.(xml|json)"

But you can get more information.

GET genres for artist

curl "https://genapire.online/artists/{artist}.(xml|json)"

An example for ABBA:

curl "https://genapire.online/artists/ABBA.json"

Response:

{
  "genres": [
    "pop",
    "disco",
    "70s",
    "swedish",
    "80s",
    "spanish",
    "rock",
    "christmas"
  ]
}

GET albums for artist

curl "https://genapire.online/artists/{artist}/albums.(xml|json)"

Now let’s fetch all available albums with genres for ABBA:

curl "https://genapire.online/artists/ABBA/albums.json"

{
  "artist": "ABBA",
  "albums": [
    "Abba",
    "ABBA Gold",
    "Abba Gold Anniversary Edition",
    "Arrival",
    "Gracias Por La Musica (Deluxe Edition)",
    "Live At Wembley Arena",
    "More ABBA Gold",
    "Oro -Grandes Exitos-",
    "Ring Ring",
    "Ring Ring (Deluxe Edition)",
    "Super Trouper",
    "Thank You For The Music",
    "The Album",
    "The Essential Collection",
    "The Singles (The First Fifty Years)",
    "The Visitors",
    "The Visitors (Deluxe Edition)",
    "Voulez-Vous",
    "Voyage",
    "Waterloo",
    "Waterloo (Deluxe Edition)"
  ]
}

Similarly for XML—just change the extension.

GET available artists

There’s one more way to use genAPIre: fetch all available artists in genAPIre with genres for their albums.

curl "https://genapire.online/artists.(xml|json)"

I won’t show the response because it’s long and changes over time. I’m constantly working on it—for myself and for you :)

FAQ

Q: How can I contact you?

A: Use discord

Q: Why isn’t artist “x” or album “y” for artist “z” available in genAPIre ?

A: This may change over time; you can help me add it if you want.

Q: Why REST API? I need access it using technology “x”.

A: REST API works great for managing this kind of information, i.e., resources. We have artists, artists have albums, described by genres. For me, the biggest advantage was that I can provide different representations (JSON, XML) and host them on github.com, since it’s a collection of directories and files that can be easily hosted statically. If your need can be met while maintaining these assumptions, then it’s a yes.

Q: Will you create a plugin for jellyfin/beets/any ?

A: I have thought about it and have already started some work on a plugin for jellyfin. Work in progress … I would gladly accept help in this area. The list of contributions can’t stay empty! :)

Free, forever

Feel free to use however you like but please do not sell it. It is FREE for everyone! FOREVER. You can buy me a coffee if you like to thank me.

Stats

Artists: 11404

Albums: 149022

License

The genAPIre is licensed under the MIT license.