Free APISocialAPI keyOfficial
Last.fm API
Scrobble-powered music data: artist/album/track info, similar artists, tags, top charts, and playcounts.
Last.fm's API surfaces its scrobbling dataset: artist/album/track metadata, listener and playcount statistics, similar-artist recommendations, user-applied tags, and top charts (by tag, country, or global). It needs a free API key, granted instantly on registration. Read methods are free; write methods (scrobbling, loving tracks) need a signed/authenticated session. It is the go-to free source for 'people who like X also like Y' recommendation and for social listening stats that MusicBrainz/Deezer do not provide.
Free tier
Free API key for non-commercial use, granted instantly on registration. Commercial use requires a separate agreement (contact [email protected]). No paid self-serve tier.Rate limits
No more than ~5 requests/second per originating IP, averaged over a 5-minute window. Sustained excessive use can get an account suspended.Auth
API keyBase URL
https://ws.audioscrobbler.com/2.0/What you'd build with it
- Build 'similar artists' / 'fans also like' music recommendations
- Add listener and playcount stats to an artist or track page
- Pull crowd-sourced genre tags for classification automations
- Generate top-artist / top-track charts by tag, country, or global
Key endpoints
- GET
/?method=artist.getInfo&artist={name}&api_key={key}&format=jsonArtist bio, listeners, playcount, tags, and similar artists. - GET
/?method=artist.getSimilar&artist={name}&api_key={key}&format=jsonRanked list of similar artists for recommendations. - GET
/?method=track.getInfo&artist={a}&track={t}&api_key={key}&format=jsonTrack listeners, playcount, duration, album, and top tags. - GET
/?method=chart.getTopArtists&api_key={key}&format=jsonGlobal top artists chart; also tag.getTopArtists and geo.* variants.
Members
Members get the runnable recipe
Sign in free to copy the example request, see a sample response, and read the gotchas.
Tags
musicrecommendationsscrobblingtagscharts