specification: API Commons Plans
specificationVersion: '0.1'
schema: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/api-evangelist/interface-research/main/schema/api-commons.yml#/$defs/Plans
provider: MusicBrainz
providerId: musicbrainz
created: '2026-05-29'
modified: '2026-05-29'
tags:
  - Music
  - Metadata
  - Open Source
  - Non Profit
  - Donation
description: >-
  MusicBrainz is operated by the MetaBrainz Foundation, a US 501(c)(3) non-profit. The public Web Service v2
  is free to use under the Social Contract: no API key, no per-call billing, no commercial pricing tiers. The
  project is funded primarily by individual donations and "supporter" agreements with commercial users who
  consume the live data feed or commercial dumps at scale. Heavy commercial users are asked (not strictly
  required) to become MetaBrainz supporters at https://metabrainz.org/supporters and to negotiate replication
  / dump access through that programme rather than scraping the public web service.
plans:
  - id: musicbrainz-public
    name: Public Web Service
    type: free
    description: >-
      The default access tier for the public MusicBrainz Web Service v2 at https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2.
      No registration, no API key. All callers share the same 1 request per second per IP ceiling and must
      send a meaningful User-Agent. Suitable for personal apps, evaluation, research, and low-volume
      integrations.
    entries:
      - label: API Requests
        description: No per-request charge; access is metered only by the global rate limit.
        name: api_requests
        type: quota
        metric: requests
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
      - label: Rate Limit
        description: Hard ceiling of one request per second per source IP (global, not per application).
        name: rate_limit
        type: rate
        metric: requests_per_second
        limit: 1
        timeFrame: second
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: Public Documentation
      - name: Community Forum Support
      - name: All Read Endpoints (lookup, browse, search)
      - name: Authenticated Submission Endpoints
      - name: ISRC / ISWC / DiscID / URL Resolution
      - name: Genre Taxonomy
      - name: User Collections
  - id: musicbrainz-donor
    name: Donor / Individual Supporter
    type: donation
    description: >-
      Individual donor tier - same API access as the public tier, but the caller has chosen to support
      MetaBrainz financially via https://metabrainz.org/donate. Donations directly fund the public
      service. No technical privileges are granted, but the project's sustainability depends on this tier.
    entries:
      - label: API Requests
        description: Same as the public tier (no per-request charge).
        name: api_requests
        type: quota
        metric: requests
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2
        unit: 1
        price: donation
        userMultiplied: false
      - label: Suggested Donation
        description: Suggested recurring monthly donation amount; any positive amount is accepted.
        name: suggested_donation
        type: contribution
        metric: usd_per_month
        limit: 5
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://metabrainz.org/donate
        unit: 1
        price: '5.00'
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: All Public Tier Endpoints
      - name: Public Donor Acknowledgement (optional)
      - name: Direct Project Funding
  - id: musicbrainz-supporter
    name: Commercial Supporter
    type: enterprise
    description: >-
      The supported access path for commercial users with high-volume needs. Rather than scaling the
      public web service, commercial users replicate the MusicBrainz database locally using the
      Live Data Feed or commercial dumps. The "MetaBrainz Supporter" agreement covers replication
      access, commercial use of the CC-BY-NC-SA supplemental data, support, and a public
      acknowledgement. Tier amounts are negotiated based on company size and usage. See
      https://metabrainz.org/supporters and https://musicbrainz.org/doc/Live_Data_Feed.
    entries:
      - label: API Requests (Public WS)
        description: Public web service still rate-limited at 1/sec/IP; commercial supporters are
          expected to run their own replicated database for production traffic.
        name: api_requests_public
        type: rate
        metric: requests_per_second
        limit: 1
        timeFrame: second
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://musicbrainz.org/ws/2
        unit: 1
        price: '0.00'
        userMultiplied: false
      - label: Live Data Feed Access
        description: Hourly replication packets covering every change to the canonical database;
          allows the supporter to keep a private replica in continuous sync.
        name: live_data_feed
        type: feature
        metric: enabled
        limit: 1
        timeFrame: instant
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://metabrainz.org/api/musicbrainz
        unit: 1
        price: custom
        userMultiplied: false
      - label: Supporter Contribution
        description: Negotiated monthly/annual financial contribution; tiers commonly range from
          a few hundred to several thousand USD per month based on usage.
        name: supporter_contribution
        type: contribution
        metric: usd_per_month
        limit: -1
        timeFrame: month
        geo: global
        domains:
          - https://metabrainz.org/supporters
        unit: 1
        price: custom
        userMultiplied: false
    elements:
      - name: All Public Tier Endpoints
      - name: Live Data Feed Replication
      - name: Commercial Use of CC-BY-NC-SA Data
      - name: Direct Support Channel
      - name: Listed on Supporters Page
      - name: Influence on Roadmap
maintainers:
  - FN: Kin Lane
    email: kin@apievangelist.com