If you want to integrate Magnatune's Creative Commons' by-nc-sa v1.0 licensed music into your web site or application, these links will help you.
We only ask that you do not upload our MP3s to peer-to-peer services, as we don't consider them to be ethical businesses and do not want to support them. If you're wondering how we'd feel about a specific use of Magnatune's music, feel free to contact us and tell us your thoughts.
Below are the data feeds which can help you. These are continuously updated with the latest data. Contact us if you need something special; we're happy to oblige.
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Song-by-song XML file. Every 128k mp3 at Magnatune
described, with each mp3 file (ie, each song) fully described. This file is for
uses that are more single-mp3 oriented. A simplified
version of this file is also available.
These files are also available in a number of compressed formats:
Song-by-song XML file: zip, gzip, bzip2
simplified version: zip, gzip, bzip2
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Song-by-song MYSQL table dump. Every 128k mp3 at Magnatune
described, with each mp3 file (ie, each song) fully described, loadable directly into
your MYSQL database. Creates a "magnatune_song_info" table.
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SQLite Export: a fully normalized small database in SQLite format.
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Song-by-song CSV file. Every 128k mp3 at Magnatune
described, with each mp3 file (ie, each song) fully described, the comma-separated-value
(CSV) format which imports directly into most database programs and Microsoft
Excel.
This file is also available in a number of compressed formats: zip, gzip, bzip2
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Albums and songs XML file Every album and song
described, with each song grouped into the album it belongs to. This provides
more information, and is useful for uses that are more album oriented.
This file is also available in a number of compressed formats: zip, gzip, bzip2
Embedded Music Purchasing
Music Purchasing through the API is no longer supported. Apologies for this, but our VISA credit card processor really didn't like this, as it was thoroughly NOT "PCI Compliant" for us to allow this.
Memberships
Magnatune.com offers 2 types of memberships that lets users enjoy aditional benefits. A 'stream' membership, lets users stream the entire Magnatune.com catalog with no speaker interruption at the end at each track and listen to ogg streams in higher quality. The download membership lets users download an unlimited amount of albums at no aditional charge. While memberships has to be created at the Magnatune.com site, it is possible to use the memberships from other applications. The download membership also includes the benefits of the stream membership.
Stream membership
To play a membership stream with no speaker interruption, the standard stream url should be modified to point at the correct membership sub-site. Authentication can either be handleded by imnbedding the membership username and password in the url, or by handeling sessions. Also, all speechless streams has _nospeech appended to the filename.
for instance, to transform the url "http://he3.magnatune.com/all/03--Massassi%20Morning%20Star--Ishwish.mp3" to a valid stream mebership url, could look like this
http://username:password@stream.magnatune.com/all/03--Massassi%20Morning%20Star--Ishwish_noospeech.mp3
The steps neeed for this transformation are:
- "http://he3" should be replaced with either "http://username:password@membership_type" or "http://membership_type"
- ".mp3" or ".ogg" should be replaced with "_nospeech.mp3" or "_nospeech.ogg" respectively.
Download membership
To download albums without having to pay for each one uses an API very similar to the one for making credit card purchases. Both the request and the resulting xml reply are modelled on the purchase API.
To let a download member download an album for free, the following url should be used:
http://_membership_type_.magnatune.com/buy/membership_free_dl_xml
This is a password protected url, so either you will need to handle logging in or pass the username and password in the url.
The following fields are required:
- sku= field, which is the album's sku code
- id= field, which is your partner id. Contact john to obtain one (there is no cost).
As an example, this i how this url is constructed in Amarok 2:
QString purchaseURL = "http://" + username + ":" + password + "@" + membershipType + ".magnatune.com/buy/membership_free_dl_xml?sku=" + m_currentAlbum->albumCode() + "&id=myId";
Detecting new releases
To detect whether we have any new releases, please download this file:
http://he3.magnatune.com/info/changed.txt
The changed.txt file contains a single number, which is a CRC of all our releases. When that number changes, this means that all the other data feeds also have new data. You can check this changed.txt file as often as you like, but we recommend no more frequently than every 24h.
