Magnatune's whole catalog is open: use it in your app, site, player or AI agent.

JSON API

The Magnatune API is the full reference: search albums, artists and songs (by mood, use, energy, tempo, length, genre or instrument), album details with free preview streams, single songs as audio files for video edits, the Featured playlists, credit lines and licence terms. Members' clean files and libraries use OAuth 2.1 sign-in. Free, no key needed, 120 requests a minute. OpenAPI description: /api/openapi.json.

For AI agents

• Start with /llms.txt.
• MCP server: https://magnatune.com/mcp (no sign-in) and https://magnatune.com/mcp/account (members, OAuth). See Magnatune for AI assistants.
• SQL: /api/sql runs your own read-only SELECT on the whole catalog.

The whole catalog as data (updated with every release)

• SQLite, normalized (recommended): sqlite_normalized.db (gzipped), or as an SQL dump: sqlite_normalized.sql.gz. Schema and example queries.
• SQLite, flat: the older single-table export.
• XML: album_info.xml (albums with their songs; gzipped), song_info.xml (one entry per song), song_info2.xml (simplified), song_info_slim.xml (without artist bios).
• CSV: song_info.csv (gzipped), one row per song.
• MySQL: song_info.sql creates a magnatune_song_info table.

Playing songs, covers and album pages

From any of these files you can build the URLs yourself: a song plays (the free version) at https://magnatune.com/all/ followed by its mp3 file name, cover art is under /music/<artist>/<album>/, and every album has its own page. The recipes are on the normalized SQLite and SQLite pages. Members' clean files are covered in the API guide (sign in with OAuth, or HTTP Basic for your own programs).

New releases

/info/changed.txt holds a number that changes whenever new music is released. Check it at most once a day, and download the data again when it changes.

Using the music

All Magnatune music is under Creative Commons BY-NC-SA for non-commercial use. Members may use it in their own projects under the Magnatune Project Licence, and anyone can buy an album for $8, with 100% going to the musician. Please credit the artist and Magnatune.

Questions, or need something special? Contact John.