ListenBrainz API

Base URL

https://api.listenbrainz.org/1

Authentication

No key for public statistics reads. Submitting listens or reading private user data needs a user token from a ListenBrainz account.

Rate limit

Published per response in `X-RateLimit-*` headers. Read them and back off rather than guessing.

Pricing

Free. The dataset is released under open licences by the MetaBrainz Foundation.

CORS

Enabled — callable directly from browser JavaScript

Official docs

Read the docs

Every request below was executed against the live API on 2026-08-21, and the response shown is the real body it returned — not an illustration.

curl 'https://api.listenbrainz.org/1/stats/sitewide/artists?count=3'

const res = await fetch("https://api.listenbrainz.org/1/stats/sitewide/artists?count=3");
if (!res.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${res.status}`);
const data = await res.json();
console.log(data);

import requests

res = requests.get("https://api.listenbrainz.org/1/stats/sitewide/artists?count=3", timeout=20)
res.raise_for_status()
print(res.json())

{
  "payload": {
    "artists": [
      {
        "artist_mbid": "a74b1b7f-71a5-4011-9441-d0b5e4122711",
        "artist_name": "Radiohead",
        "listen_count": 3137412
      },
      {
        "artist_mbid": "056e4f3e-d505-4dad-8ec1-d04f521cbb56",
        "artist_name": "Daft Punk",
        "listen_count": 2613498
      },
      {
        "artist_mbid": "b10bbbfc-cf9e-42e0-be17-e2c3e1d2600d",
        "artist_name": "The Beatles",
        "listen_count": 2608678
      }
    ],
    "count": 3,
    "from_ts": 1009843200,
    "last_updated": 1785148578,
    "offset": 0,
    "range": "all_time",
    "to_ts": 1785111505,
    "total_artist_count": 10644578
  }
}

payload.artistsarray

Ranked artists, most listened first.

payload.artists[].artist_namestring

Artist name as credited.

payload.artists[].artist_mbidstring

MusicBrainz identifier — the join key into MusicBrainz and Cover Art Archive.

payload.artists[].listen_countinteger

Total listens recorded across all ListenBrainz users in the window.

payload.countinteger

Number of entries in this response, not the total available.

payload.total_artist_countinteger

How many distinct artists exist in the aggregate — the denominator for any percentage you compute.

payload.from_ts / to_tsinteger

Unix timestamps bounding the window. For `all_time` this starts at the project's own beginning, not the beginning of recorded music.

payload.last_updatedinteger

When the aggregate was last recomputed. Statistics are batch jobs, not live counters.

payload.rangestring

Echoes the window you asked for.

payload.offsetinteger

Echoes the offset, for paging.

• Build a listening-trends dashboard from openly licensed data
• Join listen counts onto MusicBrainz metadata by MBID
• Compare an artist's popularity across different time windows
• Give users an open, exportable alternative to proprietary scrobble stats