Bandcamp Async API

A modern, asynchronous Python client for the Bandcamp API.

This project was created to implement a Bandcamp music provider for Music Assistant, enabling seamless integration of Bandcamp's music catalog into home audio systems.

• Repository: https://github.com/ALERTua/bandcamp_async_api
• Changelog: https://github.com/ALERTua/bandcamp_async_api/releases
• PyPI: https://pypi.org/project/bandcamp_async_api/
• Music Assistant: https://github.com/music-assistant

Features

• Search: Search for artists, albums, and tracks across Bandcamp
• Albums: Retrieve detailed album information including track listings
• Tracks: Get individual track details and streaming information
• Lyrics: Fetch song lyrics on request, at the cost of one extra request
• Artists: Access artist profiles, discographies, and metadata
• Collections: Browse user collections and wishlists (auth required for private data)
• Following: Access following bands, following fans, and followers
• Feed: Get personalized music feed with new releases from followed artists
• Async: Fully asynchronous API using aiohttp
• Type-safe: Complete type hints for all models and methods
• Well-tested: Comprehensive test suite with real API data

Installation

Install from PyPI:

pip install bandcamp-async-api

Or using uv:

uv add bandcamp-async-api

Quick Start

import asyncio
from bandcamp_async_api import BandcampAPIClient


async def main():
    async with BandcampAPIClient(
        identity_token='7%09optional_identity_token%7D'
    ) as client:
        # Search for music
        results = await client.search("radiohead")
        print(f"Found {len(results)} results")

        # Get album details
        if results:
            album_result = next(r for r in results if r.type == "album")
            album = await client.get_album(album_result.artist_id, album_result.id)
            print(f"Album: {album.title} by {album.artist.name}")

        # Get artist information
        artist_result = next(r for r in results if r.type == "artist")
        artist = await client.get_artist(artist_result.id)
        print(f"Artist: {artist.name} - {artist.bio}")


if __name__ == '__main__':
    asyncio.run(main())

Authentication

For accessing user collections, you need to obtain an identity token from Bandcamp cookies:

from bandcamp_async_api import BandcampAPIClient

client = BandcampAPIClient(identity_token="your_identity_token")

Music Feed

The get_feed() method retrieves a personalized music feed containing new releases from followed artists, fan purchases, and fan picks. This endpoint requires authentication - you must provide an identity token.

import asyncio
from bandcamp_async_api import BandcampAPIClient, BandcampMustBeLoggedInError


async def main():
    async with BandcampAPIClient(identity_token='your_identity_token') as client:
        # Get your music feed
        feed = await client.get_feed()
        print(f"New stories: {len(feed.stories)}")
        print(f"Has more: {feed.has_more}")

        # Iterate through feed stories
        for story in feed.stories:
            print(f"  - {story.story_type}: {story.item_title} by {story.band_name}")

        # Access tracks with streaming URLs
        for track in feed.track_list:
            print(f"  Track: {track.title} - {track.streaming_url}")

        # Paginate through older stories
        if feed.has_more and feed.oldest_story_date:
            older_feed = await client.get_feed(older_than=feed.oldest_story_date)
            print(f"Older stories: {len(older_feed.stories)}")


if __name__ == '__main__':
    asyncio.run(main())

Feed Story Types

The feed contains different story types:

• np - New track/track release
• nr - New album release
• p - Fan purchase
• fp - Fan pick

Error Handling

The feed endpoint requires authentication. If you try to access it without an identity token, you'll receive a BandcampMustBeLoggedInError:

from bandcamp_async_api import BandcampAPIClient, BandcampMustBeLoggedInError


async def safe_get_feed():
    client = BandcampAPIClient()  # No identity token
    try:
        feed = await client.get_feed()
    except BandcampMustBeLoggedInError:
        print("Feed requires authentication - provide an identity token")

Artist vs. performer credit

Bandcamp distinguishes between the page owner (the band whose bandcamp.com page hosts a release) and the performer credit for a specific release. They usually match, but on label-style pages they diverge — e.g. Mortaja's "Combined Minds" is published on audiophob.bandcamp.com, so the page owner is audiophob and the performer is Mortaja.

BCAlbum and BCTrack expose both:

• album.artist (BCArtist) — always the page-owning band. Has a Bandcamp profile, follows/following counts, etc.
• album.tralbum_artist (str | None) — the explicit performer credit from the API. None when the API didn't set one (the album is by the band itself).

album = await client.get_album(artist_id, album_id)

# Display name — prefer the performer credit, fall back to the page owner:
display_artist = album.tralbum_artist or album.artist.name

# Detect a label release:
is_label_release = (
    album.tralbum_artist is not None and album.tralbum_artist != album.artist.name
)

Note (breaking change in <version>): prior versions returned the performer credit on album.artist.name when present. Consumers that relied on that must read album.tralbum_artist instead. The same applies to BCTrack.

Lyrics

Bandcamp does not send the song text together with the track details. It sends a has_lyrics flag only. The text lives behind a second request, so this library never fetches it unless you ask for it.

async with BandcampAPIClient() as client:
    # One request. The flag arrives, the text does not.
    track = await client.get_track(2437326710, 178646676)
    print(track.has_lyrics, track.lyrics)  # True None

    # Two requests. The text is filled in.
    track = await client.get_track(2437326710, 178646676, with_lyrics=True)
    print(track.lyrics)

    # One extra request fills every track of the album.
    album = await client.get_album(2437326710, 1994024535, with_lyrics=True)

    # Or ask for the map yourself: track ID to text.
    album_lyrics = await client.get_album_lyrics(1994024535)
    track_lyrics = await client.get_track_lyrics(178646676)

with_lyrics costs one extra request per call. The client skips that request when no track reports lyrics, so an album without lyrics costs nothing.

get_album_lyrics answers for every track of the album with one request. When the id is really a standalone track, the album request answers an empty map, and the client asks again as a track. That costs one more request and covers the same ids that get_album resolves through its track fallback.

A failed lyrics request never breaks the call. The track comes back with an empty lyrics field, and the client writes a warning to the log.

Bandcamp serves plain text only. There is no timed variant.

API Reference

Core Client

• BandcampAPIClient() - Main API client
• search(query: str) - Search Bandcamp
• get_album(artist_id, album_id, *, with_lyrics=False) - Get album details
• get_track(artist_id, track_id, *, with_lyrics=False) - Get track details
• get_lyrics(tralbum_id, tralbum_type) - Get lyrics as a track ID to text map; the type constants TRALBUM_TYPE_ALBUM and TRALBUM_TYPE_TRACK are exported
• get_album_lyrics(album_id) - Get the lyrics of every album track in one request
• get_track_lyrics(track_id) - Get the lyrics of a standalone track
• get_artist(artist_id) - Get artist details
• get_collection_summary() - Get collection overview
• get_collection_items(collection_type, older_than_token, count, fan_id) - Get collection/wishlist/following items with pagination
• get_artist_discography(artist_id) - Get artist's complete discography
• get_feed(older_than) - Get personalized music feed with pagination support

Data Models

• SearchResultItem - Base search result
• BCAlbum - Album with tracks and metadata
• BCTrack - Individual track information
• BCArtist - Artist/band profile
• CollectionSummary - User's collection data
• CollectionItem - Individual collection item
• FollowingItem - Band/artist from following list
• FanItem - Fan/user from following_fans or followers
• FeedResponse - User's music feed with stories and tracks
• FeedStory - Individual feed story (new release, fan purchase, etc.)
• FeedTrack - Track from feed with streaming URL
• FeedBandInfo - Band information referenced in feed
• FeedFanInfo - Fan information referenced in feed

Exceptions

• BandcampAPIError - Base API error
• BandcampNotFoundError - Resource not found
• BandcampBadQueryError - Invalid search query
• BandcampRateLimitError - Rate limit exceeded (includes retry_after attribute)

Error Handling

The client provides specific exception types for different error conditions:

from bandcamp_async_api import (
    BandcampAPIClient,
    BandcampNotFoundError,
    BandcampAPIError,
)


async def safe_get_album(client, artist_id, album_id):
    try:
        return await client.get_album(artist_id, album_id)
    except BandcampNotFoundError:
        print("Album not found")
        return None
    except BandcampAPIError as e:
        print(f"API error: {e}")
        return None

Rate Limiting

When Bandcamp's API rate limit is exceeded, a BandcampRateLimitError is raised with a retry_after attribute indicating how many seconds to wait before retrying:

import asyncio
from bandcamp_async_api import BandcampAPIClient, BandcampRateLimitError


async def get_album_with_retry(client, artist_id, album_id, max_retries=3):
    for attempt in range(max_retries):
        try:
            return await client.get_album(artist_id, album_id)
        except BandcampRateLimitError as e:
            if attempt < max_retries - 1:
                wait_time = e.retry_after or 30
                print(f"Rate limited. Waiting {wait_time} seconds...")
                await asyncio.sleep(wait_time)
            else:
                raise

For automatic retries with exponential backoff, you can use the tenacity library:

from tenacity import retry, retry_if_exception_type, wait_exponential
from bandcamp_async_api import BandcampAPIClient, BandcampRateLimitError


@retry(
    retry=retry_if_exception_type(BandcampRateLimitError),
    wait=wait_exponential(multiplier=1, min=30, max=300),
)
async def get_album(client, artist_id, album_id):
    return await client.get_album(artist_id, album_id)

Development

Setup

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/ALERTua/bandcamp_async_api.git
cd bandcamp_async_api

# Install dependencies
uv sync --dev

# Run tests
uv run pytest

# Run linting
uv run ruff check

Testing

The project includes comprehensive tests:

# Run all tests
uv run pytest

# Run integration tests (requires real API access)
echo "BANDCAMP_IDENTITY_TOKEN=7%09identity_token%7D" > .env
uv run pytest tests/real_data/

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Add tests for new functionality
4. Ensure all tests pass
5. Submit a pull request

This project is built based on data from:

• https://github.com/michaelherger/Bandcamp-API
• https://github.com/impliedchaos/mopidy-bandcamp