Search

Search for an artist by name, ordered by relevance.

No authentication required.

Parameters¶

Method	Type	Default	Description
`artist`	string	`none`	The artist's name for the context of the request.
`limit`	number	30	The number of results to fetch per page.
`page`	number	1	The page number to fetch.
`api_key`	key	`none`	A Last.fm API key.

Responses¶

Errors:

2 : Invalid service - This service does not exist
3 : Invalid Method - No method with that name in this package
4 : Authentication Failed - You do not have permissions to access the service
5 : Invalid format - This service doesn't exist in that format
6 : Invalid parameters - Your request is missing a required parameter
7 : Invalid resource specified
8 : Operation failed - Something else went wrong
9 : Invalid session key - Please re-authenticate
10 : Invalid API key - You must be granted a valid key by last.fm
11 : Service Offline - This service is temporarily offline. Try again later.
13 : Invalid method signature supplied
16 : There was a temporary error processing your request. Please try again
26 : Suspended API key - Access for your account has been suspended, please contact Last.fm
29 : Rate limit exceeded - Your IP has made too many requests in a short period

Warning

This API call returns 200 OK HTTP status codes even when the response contains an error.

Examples¶

Example response

Parameter	Value
artist	Rammstein
api_key	YOUR_API_KEY
format	json

HTTP status: 200 OK

https://ws.audioscrobbler.com/2.0/?method=artist.search&artist=Rammstein&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&format=json

{
  "results": {
    "opensearch:Query": {
      "#text": "",
      "role": "request",
      "searchTerms": "rammstein",
      "startPage": "1"
    },
    "opensearch:totalResults": "13809",
    "opensearch:startIndex": "0",
    "opensearch:itemsPerPage": "30",
    "artistmatches": {
      "artist": [
        {
          "name": "Rammstein",
          "listeners": "1913191",
          "mbid": "b2d122f9-eadb-4930-a196-8f221eeb0c66",
          "url": "https://www.last.fm/music/Rammstein",
          "streamable": "0",
          "image": [
            {
              "#text": "https://lastfm.freetls.fastly.net/i/u/34s/2a96cbd8b46e442fc41c2b86b821562f.png",
              "size": "small"
            },
            {
              "#text": "https://lastfm.freetls.fastly.net/i/u/64s/2a96cbd8b46e442fc41c2b86b821562f.png",
              "size": "medium"
            },
            {
              "#text": "https://lastfm.freetls.fastly.net/i/u/174s/2a96cbd8b46e442fc41c2b86b821562f.png",
              "size": "large"
            },
            {
              "#text": "https://lastfm.freetls.fastly.net/i/u/300x300/2a96cbd8b46e442fc41c2b86b821562f.png",
              "size": "extralarge"
            },
            {
              "#text": "https://lastfm.freetls.fastly.net/i/u/300x300/2a96cbd8b46e442fc41c2b86b821562f.png",
              "size": "mega"
            }
          ]
        }
      ]
    },
    "@attr": {
      "for": "rammstein"
    }
  }
}

Example response of an artist that doesnt exist

HTTP status: 200 OK

https://ws.audioscrobbler.com/2.0/?method=artist.search&artist=artistthatdoesntexist&api_key=YOUR_API_KEY&format=json

{
  "results": {
    "opensearch:Query": {
      "#text": "",
      "role": "request",
      "searchTerms": "artistthatdoesntexisthsjdkghkjdfgh",
      "startPage": "1"
    },
    "opensearch:totalResults": "0",
    "opensearch:startIndex": "0",
    "opensearch:itemsPerPage": "30",
    "artistmatches": {
      "artist": [

      ]
    },
    "@attr": {
      "for": "artistthatdoesntexisthsjdkghkjdfgh"
    }
  }
}