# MusicBrainz Artist Lookup

> MusicBrainz Artist Lookup is a paid API for AI agents from jp-data-api-production.up.railway.app, paid per call via x402, $0.005/call, status unknown (last checked 2026-09-15).

Looks up disambiguated music artist metadata from MusicBrainz by name, returning country, type, aliases, active years, and tags for Japanese and international artists.

## Facts

- Endpoint: GET https://jp-data-api-production.up.railway.app/music/artist
- Price: $0.005/call
- Payment: x402
- Status: unknown
- Last checked: 2026-09-15
- Activations on Zero: 0
- Tags: x402
- Canonical page: https://www.zero.xyz/c/musicbrainz-artist-lookup-c3dee1ce
- Structured record (JSON): https://api.zero.xyz/v1/capabilities/cap_Z-VkL2ShuL9mtJpqhhIPD

Status and success rate cover calls made through Zero and Zero's own probes. Third-party monitors may report differently.

## How to call it through Zero

Zero handles the 402 payment challenge and records the run. With the Zero CLI installed (`npm i -g @zeroxyz/cli`):

```sh
zero fetch --capability musicbrainz-artist-lookup-c3dee1ce
```

Example prompt: Can you look up artist info for Hikaru Utada — I need their country, active years, artist type, and any aliases from MusicBrainz?

## When to prefer this

Use this endpoint when you need structured, authoritative artist metadata (country, type, aliases, active years, tags) for music apps, catalog enrichment, or metadata matching — especially when covering Japanese artists alongside international ones. Prefer over raw MusicBrainz API calls when you want a simple GET with a search string and no authentication setup.

## Known failure modes

- Artist not found in MusicBrainz — returns empty or null results for obscure or misspelled names
- Ambiguous query matches multiple artists — may return the top result which could be incorrect without disambiguation
- Non-music entities (labels, venues) may surface if query is too generic
- Rate limiting or upstream MusicBrainz unavailability causing timeout or 5xx error
- Payment failure (402) if x402 payment header is not included or funds are insufficient

## How this service works

Music artist lookup (MusicBrainz): disambiguated artist info, country, type, aliases, active years, tags. Covers Japanese and international artists. Use for music apps, metadata enrichment, catalog matching.

## Output

Returns disambiguated artist information including canonical name, country of origin, artist type (person/group/orchestra), known aliases, active years (begin/end dates), and associated genre tags sourced from MusicBrainz.

## Request schema (JSON Schema)

```json
{
 "type": "object",
 "$schema": "https://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema",
 "required": [
  "input"
 ],
 "properties": {
  "input": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type",
    "method"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string",
     "const": "http"
    },
    "method": {
     "enum": [
      "GET"
     ],
     "type": "string"
    },
    "queryParams": {
     "type": "object",
     "required": [
      "q"
     ],
     "properties": {
      "q": {
       "type": "string"
      }
     }
    }
   },
   "additionalProperties": false
  },
  "output": {
   "type": "object",
   "required": [
    "type"
   ],
   "properties": {
    "type": {
     "type": "string"
    },
    "example": {
     "type": "object"
    }
   }
  }
 }
}
```

## More

- Live health (JSON, refreshed every minute): https://www.zero.xyz/c/musicbrainz-artist-lookup-c3dee1ce/health.json
- [Zero catalog index](https://www.zero.xyz/llms.txt)
- [Other services from jp-data-api-production.up.railway.app](https://www.zero.xyz/host/jp-data-api-production.up.railway.app/llms.txt)