Shoutcast maintains a radio directory of 50,000+ radio stations from all around the world. The company, owned by AOL, released its first Shoutcast API a few years ago, but has since released version 2.0. The updated API provides developers with more advanced options for integrating music streaming services into web services and mobile applications using RESTful calls formatted in XML, JSON and RSS.
Think the social web is big? When it comes to connecting Twitter, Facebook and others to the rest of the web, APIs are there to do the heavy lifting. The category continues to explode, already surpassing the number of social APIs added last year. Our directory currently lists 558 social APIs, with nearly 200 added this year.
This weekend I attended my first ever hacking event: Music Hackday Boston 2011. It was an incredibly exciting, intense experience with plenty of creative inspirational energy. We had ambitious goals which were largely attained, but when it came to the demo, we failed hard. At least, it felt like we did. As I reflected on the demo while we drove home in the black winter night, Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” came to mind. This is the story my personal ring of fire at Music Hackday and how I fell into it.
Stereomood is a streaming music service that gives recommendations. To start, it uses a list of moods, each of which have an associated playlist. While playing songs, users can like or ban songs, much like Last.fm or Pandora. The Stereomood API allows full access to the site’s functionality to developers, allowing developers to make fully usable clients on any platform.
Rumblefish, champion of what is good and just and legally musical, will help you change your tune for the better. This company has produced a music licensing API so that you can add copyrighted songs to your YouTube videos. Of course the concept can be applied more widely and liberally. Rumblefish has even devised custom license ‘portals’ that present licensing options based on the intended use of the music. This implies that the agreement and cost of licensing a track could be more expensive depending on where and how it is used.
Here at ProgrammableWeb, we love using mashups and APIs to help make our lives better in many ways. Just as mashups can take multiple APIs and piece something new together, you can do that with multiple mashups. For example, let’s say we’re going to host a party. Well, we’d need music, food, other entertainment and a way to connect people together. The mashups listed below can help you with all of this.
It used to be that if you wanted distribute and promote your music, you needed a label or manage to get your music in the hands of those that would be interested. Now, that’s completely old hat and these days, bands are able to handle production, distribution and promotion in a way that is both genuinely engaging and highly effective. OneRPM is a powerful tool in the way of digital distribution. Create an account, upload your content, manage it, and distribute it to ever major and minor digital outlet around–now including Facebook.
Spotify, the music subscription service that has been so popular in Europe, is now available in the United States. Spotify offers users the ability to stream limited hours of music for free or stream unlimited songs for a small fee, from a library of over 15 million songs. And while it has a Spotify API out of the gate, it comes with a catch.
There’s been some great new music mashups coming down the pipe lately. We’ll highlight some of the better ones below, including a music search engine, local music events, lyrics lookup, a Spotify video playlist app (yes, there’s a Spotify API) and a fun “name that tune” game. The most popular music API, the Last.fm API, is featured multiple times, as is the YouTube API, which has become a favorite of music mashups.
Maestro.Fm wants to take your music experience to cloud nine, maybe even ten. Actually that could be a little overstated, but at least they are going to use cloud computing to do it. With a functionality similar to Google Music, a little application runs on your PC and uploads all your music to Maestro. Once it’s there, it’s augumented with album art, lyrics, and other lovely decorations. It’s kind of like a music library makeover. Google already has a thick collection of API services. Will they be interested in opening Google Music up for developer access? Don’t wait around and wonder, the Maestfo.fm API is already here.
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