Yahoo! Music API

The Yahoo! Music API gives developers access to the Yahoo! Music catalog of artists, albums, tracks, videos, ratings and more. It provides numerous ways to browse the catalog: through charts, search, similarities, genres, artists, and user recommendations and ratings. Adding content to your site becomes simple when using our API and video player.

How Do I Get Started?

1. Get an Application ID
2. Read the online documentation
3. Start developing with the API

Using the API or Web Service

Overview

The Music API is a simple HTTP REST-based API that returns data in any format, including XML, JSON, and RSS. The Yahoo! Music API utilizes Browser Based Authentication (BBAuth) as a mechanism for users to authorize your application to access their personal Music data, such as ratings, recommendations, and profile information. Only services that return user data require full BBAuth; others require only your application ID.

The Music Video Player is a Flash-based player that can be embedded easily into your application. It can be customized and translated for multiple languages, provides some basic scripting methods, and generates several playback events your application can handle.

Examples

Catalog Browsing:

Return metadata for Artists, Albums, Tracks, Videos, and more:
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/artist/v1/item/256352?appid=[yourappidhere]
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/video/v1/item/59153506?format=json&appid=[yourappidhere]

Most Popular Charts / New Releases / Category Charts:
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/video/v1/list/published/popular?response=main&format=rss&appid=[yourappidhere]
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/video/v1/list/category/7318638?response=main&count=10&appid=[yourappidhere]

Search:
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/video/v1/list/search/all/rihanna?response=main,artists&appid=[yourappidhere]

Similarities:
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/video/v1/list/similar/59153506?response=main,artists&appid=[yourappidhere]

Video Stations:
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/station/v1/video/category/7318638?response=main,longdesc,videos,artists&appid=[yourappidhere]

User Services (require BBAuth):

User's Music Properties:
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/user/v1/item/current?appid=[yourappidhere]

User Recommendations for Artists, Albums, Tracks & Videos:
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/video/v1/list/recommendations/123456?response=main,artists&appid=[yourappidhere]

User Ratings added to any service:
http://us.music.yahooapis.com/video/v1/list/published/popular?response=main,artists&ratings=123456&appid=[yourappidhere]

Rate Limits

Currently, this Service is limited to 5000 queries per day per IP address.

Terms of Use

Use of the Yahoo! Music API is governed by the Yahoo! Music API Terms of Use.

Support & Community

The Yahoo! Music API is discussed on the Music API developer forum. Join the conversation there to get help and touch base with other developers interested in the Yahoo! Music API.