Discogs API

⭐ Beginner's Pick Music / OAuth Advanced HTTPS
Varies by plan (check documentation)

Overview

Discogs is the world's largest music database and marketplace API, covering vinyl records, CDs, and tapes with detailed release data, artist biographies, and pricing. You can search the catalog and read artist or release data without authentication; user collection management and marketplace actions require OAuth. It is ideal for building record collection apps, price guides, or music history tools.

💡

Beginner Tip

Anonymous requests are rate-limited to 25 per minute, but authenticating with a personal access token (from your Discogs Settings > Developers page) raises the limit to 60 per minute — always use a token even for read-only use. Include a descriptive User-Agent header (e.g., MyApp/1.0) to avoid 403 errors from their bot filter.

Available Data

track name and artist
album metadata
audio preview URLs
popularity score
genre classification
Use case: Integrate music data into web and mobile applications

Example Response

JSON Response
{
  "name": "Bohemian Rhapsody",
  "artist": "Queen",
  "album": "A Night at the Opera",
  "duration_ms": 354000,
  "popularity": 92,
  "preview_url": "https://p.scdn.co/mp3-preview/..."
}

Field Reference

id Unique Discogs release ID.
title Title of the release (album or single name).
artists List of artists credited on this release.
year Original release year of the record.
genres Music genres associated with the release (e.g., Rock, Electronic).
lowest_price Lowest marketplace listing price for this release in USD.

Implementation Example

const url = "https://www.discogs.com/developers/";
// Replace headers or query params with the values required by this API.
const response = await fetch(url, {
  headers: {
  "Authorization": "Bearer YOUR_API_KEY"
  }
});
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

429 Too Many Requests Exceeded the rate limit (25 req/min unauthenticated, 60 req/min authenticated).
Authenticate with a personal access token to raise the rate limit and add 1-second delays between bulk requests.
403 Forbidden Missing or generic User-Agent header triggered bot protection.
Set a custom User-Agent like MyApp/1.0 [email protected] in every request.
Invalid token Personal access token or OAuth token is incorrect.
Generate a new personal access token from Discogs Settings → Developers and include it as: Authorization: Discogs token=YOUR_TOKEN.

Matrix Score Breakdown

🌐 Reachability 0/30
⚡ Speed 15/20
🔒 Security 15/15
🛠 Developer XP 3/20
✓ Reliability 0/15

Partially tested on Apr 5, 2026

Technical Specifications

Auth OAuth
HTTPS REQUIRED
CORS UNKNOWN
Category Music
Difficulty Advanced
Verified: 2026-04-04

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