bandcamp-explorer

A terminal browser and Python library for Bandcamp.

Search for artists and albums, discover releases by genre and location, browse artist/label profiles and discographies, all from the command line.

Install

Requires Python 3.12+.

Terminal CLI

uv tool install bandcamp-explorer
# or
pip install bandcamp-explorer

Discord bot

uv tool install bandcamp-explorer[discord]
# or
pip install bandcamp-explorer[discord]

Create a bot application at the Discord Developer Portal, enable the bot scope with Send Messages and Use Slash Commands permissions, then invite it to your server with the generated OAuth2 URL.

Set your bot token and run:

export DISCORD_TOKEN=your-bot-token
bandcamp-discord
# or with a .env file in the current directory
bandcamp-discord

Use --guild GUILD_ID to sync slash commands instantly to a specific server (global sync can take up to an hour).

Slash commands (all under /bandcamp):

Development

git clone https://github.com/gabriel-jung/bandcamp-explorer.git
cd bandcamp-explorer
uv sync

CLI

Search

bandcamp "caladan brood"                  # search everything
bandcamp "erang" --artist                 # artists/labels only
bandcamp "echoes of battle" --album       # albums only
bandcamp "a forest whisper" --track       # tracks only

Browse by tag

bandcamp --tag dungeon-synth                        # newest arrivals (default)
bandcamp --tag black-metal --top                    # best-selling
bandcamp --tag dungeon-synth --rand                 # surprise me
bandcamp --tag dungeon-synth --location france
bandcamp --tag dungeon-synth --location paris
bandcamp --tag dungeon-synth black-metal            # multi-tag

Slices: --new (default), --top, --rand.

Locations are resolved to geoname IDs via Bandcamp's autocomplete and cached locally; force a refresh with --refresh-location.

Direct URLs

bandcamp https://erang.bandcamp.com/album/tome-iv
bandcamp https://erang.bandcamp.com

Interactive navigation

After selecting a result, you enter an interactive browser:

• Artists: view bio, browse discography, select an album to see its tracklist, select a track to view its page, navigate to the label.
• Albums: header with tracklist, description, and lyrics; navigate to the artist/host page or select a track.

Press 0 to go back, Ctrl+C to quit.

Output modes

bandcamp "erang" --artist --json            # output as JSON
bandcamp "erang" --limit 10                 # cap results
bandcamp --tag dungeon-synth --json --limit 100   # cap tag dump
bandcamp https://erang.bandcamp.com/album/tome-iv --json
bandcamp https://erang.bandcamp.com/album/tome-iv --full   # all sections at once
bandcamp -v ...                             # enable debug logging

Terminal images

Album covers and artist images render inline on terminals that support the iTerm2 or Kitty image protocol (iTerm2, Kitty, WezTerm, Mintty).

Library

The core module has no terminal dependencies; use it in scripts, pipelines, or other tools. All data is returned as plain dicts with a _type discriminator key.

from bandcamp_explorer.core import (
    BandcampClient, AlbumAPI, ArtistAPI, DiscoverWebAPI, SearchAPI,
    NotFoundError, resolve_geoname,
)

with BandcampClient() as client:
    # Search (one call returns the whole result set)
    results = SearchAPI(client).search("caladan brood", item_type="album")

    # Discover releases by tag (new discover_web endpoint)
    discover = DiscoverWebAPI(client)
    releases, cursor, total = discover.discover(tags=["dungeon-synth"], slice_="new")
    all_releases = discover.discover_all(tags=["dungeon-synth"], max_pages=3)

    # Fetch album details (skip cover-art bytes with fetch_art=False)
    album = AlbumAPI(client).get("https://erang.bandcamp.com/album/tome-iv")
    for track in album["tracks"]:
        print(f"  {track['position']}. {track['title']} ({track['duration']})")

    # Fetch artist/label profile
    artist = ArtistAPI(client).get("https://erang.bandcamp.com")
    for item in artist["discography"]:
        print(f"  {item['title']}")

    # Location filtering (geoname-based)
    geoname_id = resolve_geoname(client, "paris")
    releases, _, _ = discover.discover(tags=["dungeon-synth"], geoname_id=geoname_id)

    # Download images
    client.download_image(album.get("image_url"), output_dir="./images/")

Errors

AlbumAPI.get and ArtistAPI.get raise NotFoundError when a page 404s, so callers can tell a deleted release from a failed fetch. Every other transport failure returns None. If Bandcamp answers with its bot-defence interstitial (HTTP 200 with no content in it), the client raises ChallengeError and then fails fast for two minutes rather than hammering a blocked endpoint. Never treat a ChallengeError as a missing resource; it means "ask again later".

from bandcamp_explorer.core import ChallengeError, NotFoundError

try:
    album = AlbumAPI(client).get(url)
except NotFoundError:
    ...  # gone for good, stop retrying
except ChallengeError:
    ...  # blocked for now, retry later

TLS fingerprints

impersonate picks the curl_cffi fingerprint the session uses, defaulting to the floating "chrome" alias. Worth changing if Bandcamp starts refusing the default one.

client = BandcampClient(impersonate="firefox144")

Bandcamp can also serve one fingerprint a 404 on a page another one fetches fine. fallback_impersonate re-checks a 404 on other fingerprints before raising, and names the ones that agreed in NotFoundError.confirmed_by. It is off by default, since it costs an extra request per fallback on every genuine 404. scripts/probe_fingerprints.py measures which fingerprints work from the machine that will run the fetches, reading response bodies rather than status codes because a blocked fingerprint can answer HTTP 200 with a bot-defence interstitial.

from bandcamp_explorer.core import SUGGESTED_FALLBACK_IMPERSONATE

client = BandcampClient(fallback_impersonate=SUGGESTED_FALLBACK_IMPERSONATE)

Bandcamp removed the dig_deeper hub endpoint, so DiscoverAPI was dropped in 0.6.0; use DiscoverWebAPI. resolve_location went with it: it resolved Bandcamp's internal location tag ids, which only that endpoint accepted. DiscoverWebAPI filters by geoname_id, so resolve_geoname is the one you want.

License

MIT