bandcamp-fetch

Library for scraping Bandcamp content.

Coverage:

• Bandcamp Discover
• Album and track info
• Artists, labels, label artists, discography
• Articles (aka. Bandcamp Daily)
• Shows
• Tags, including releases and highlights by tag
• Search
• Fan collections, wishlists and following artists / genres

Packaged as ESM + CJS hybrid module with typings.

Installation

npm i bandcamp-fetch --save

Usage

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const results = await bcfetch.discovery.discover(...);

User Sessions

When you sign into Bandcamp, a "Cookie" is created to identify the user session. You can pass the value of this cookie to the library and gain access to your private collection as well as high-quality MP3 streams of purchased media:

bcfetch.setCookie('xxxx');

const album = await bcfetch.album.getInfo({
    albumUrl: '...'  // URL of purchased album
});

// Normal quality stream
const streamUrl = album.tracks[0].streamUrl;

// High quality stream - only available when `cookie` is set
const streamUrlHQ = album.tracks[0].streamUrlHQ;

Guide: How to obtain Cookie

BandcampFetch

The library exports a default BandcampFetch instance mainly for backward compatibility with previous versions:

// Imports the default `BandcampFetch` instance
import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

You can also create separate instances. This is useful when you want to support multiple user sessions:

import { BandcampFetch } from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const bcfetch1 = new BandcampFetch({
    cookie: 'xxxx' // Cookie for user session 1
});

const bcfetch2 = new BandcampFetch();
bcfetch2.setCookie('yyyy'); // Cookie for user sesion 2

API

Discovery API

To access the Discovery API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const discovery = bcfetch.discovery;

const options = await discovery.getAvailableOptions();
const results = await discovery.discover(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

Params

• params: (DiscoverParams) (optional and all properties optional)
  • genre: (string)
  • subgenre: (string) only valid when genre is set to something other than 'all'.
  • location: (string)
  • sortBy: (string)
  • category: (number)
  • time: (number)
  • customTags: (Array<string>)
  • size: number
  • albumImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat)
  • artistImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat)
  • merchImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat)

To see what values can be set in params, call getAvailableOptions().

Returns

Promise resolving to DiscoverResult.

Continuation

Check the continuation property of the returned result to see if more results are available. To obtain the next set of results, pass the value of continuation to discover():

const results = await discovery.discover(...);

// More results
if (results.continuation) {
  const moreResults = await discovery.discover(results.continuation);
  ...
}

Example (output)

Returns

Promise resolving to DiscoverOptions.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (DiscoverParams) (optional) the discover params to sanitize.

Returns

Promise resolving to sanitized DiscoverParams.

Image API

To access the Image API:

import bcfetch, { ImageFormatFilter } from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const image = bcfetch.image;

const formats = await image.getFormats(ImageFormatFilter.Album);

Methods:

Example (output)

Params

• filter: (ImageFormatFilter) (optional) if specified, narrows down the result to include only formats applicable to the specified value.

Returns

Promise resolving to Array<ImageFormat>.

Params

• target: (string | number | ImageFormat)
  • If target is string or number, the method finds the image format with matching name or Id (as appropriate).
  • If target satisfies the ImageFormat interface constraint, then it is returned as is.
• fallbackId: (number) (optional) if no match is found for target, try to obtain format with Id matching fallbackId.

Returns

Promise resolving to matching ImageFormat, or null if none matches target nor fallbackId (if specified).

Band API

A band can be an artist or label. To access the Band API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const band = bcfetch.band;

const info = await band.getInfo(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

Params

• params: (BandAPIGetInfoParams)
  • bandUrl: (string)
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • labelId: (number) (optional)

The method tries to assemble the most complete set of data by scraping the following pages (returning immediately at any point the data becomes complete):

1. The page referred to by bandUrl
2. The 'music' page of the artist or label (bandUrl/music)
3. The first album or track in the artist's or label's discography

Sometimes, label information is missing for artists even when they do belong to a label. If you know the labelId of the label that the artist belongs to, you can specify it in params. This will ensure that label will not be null in the artist info. If you pass a label URL to this function, you can find the labelId in the result.

Returns

Promise resolving to Artist or Label.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (BandAPIGetLabelArtistsParams)
  • labelUrl: (string)
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to Array<LabelArtist>.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (BandAPIGetDiscographyParams)
  • bandUrl: (string)
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to Array<Album | Track>.

Album API

To access the Album API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const album = bcfetch.album;

const info = await album.getInfo(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

Params

• params: (AlbumAPIGetInfoParams)
  • albumUrl: (string)
  • albumImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • artistImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • includeRawData: (boolean) (*optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to Album.

If artist URL is not found in the scraped data, then artist.url will be set to the same value as publisher.url

Track API

To access the Track API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const track = bcfetch.track;

const info = await track.getInfo(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

Params

• params: (TrackAPIGetInfoParams)
  • trackUrl: (string)
  • albumImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • artistImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • includeRawData: (boolean) (*optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to Track.

If artist URL is not found in the scraped data, then artist.url will be set to the same value as publisher.url

Tag API

To access the Tag API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const tags = await bcfetch.tag.list();

Methods:

Example (output)

Returns

Promise resolving to TagList, which groups results into tags(for non-location tags) and locations (for location tags).

Example (output)

Params

• params: (TagAPIGetRelatedParams)
  • tags: (Array<string>)
  • size: (number) (optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to RelatedTags, which has the following properties:

• single: list of related tags for each tag queried
• combo: the combined result of all the related tags

Show API

To access the Show API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const show = bcfetch.show;

const list = await show.list(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

Each list entry contains basic info about a show. To obtain full details, pass its url to getShow().

Params

• params: (ShowAPIListParams) (optional)
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to Array<Show>.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (ShowAPIGetShowParams)
  • showUrl: (string)
  • albumImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • artistImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • showImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to Show.

Article API

To access the Article API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const article = bcfetch.article;

const list = await article.list(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

Returns

Promise resolving to Array<ArticleCategorySection>.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (ArticleAPIListParams) (optional and all properties optional)
  • categoryUrl: (string)
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat)
  • page: (number)

Returns

Promise resolving to ArticleList.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (ArticleAPIGetArticleParams)
  • articleUrl: (string)
  • albumImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • artistImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • includeRawData: (boolean) (optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to Article.

Fan API

To access the Fan API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const fan = bcfetch.fan;

const info = await fan.getInfo(...);
const collection = await fan.getCollection(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

Params

• params: (FanAPIGetInfoParams)
  • username: (string) (optional)
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

If username is not specified, result will be obtained for the user of the session tied to the BandcampFetch instance.

Returns

Promise resolving to Fan.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (FanAPIGetItemsParams)
  • target: (string | FanItemsContinuation) (optional) if username (string) is specified, returns the first batch of items in the collection. To obtain further items, call the method again but, instead of username, pass continuation from the result of the first call. If there are no further items available, continuation will be null.
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

If target is not specified, result will be obtained for the user of the session tied to the BandcampFetch instance.

Returns

Promise resolving to (FanPageItemsResult | FanContinuationItemsResult)<Album | Track>.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (FanAPIGetItemsParams)
  • target: (string | FanItemsContinuation) (optional) if username (string) is specified, returns the first batch of items in the wishlist. To obtain further items, call the method again but, instead of username, pass continuation from the result of the first call. If there are no further items available, continuation will be null.
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

If target is not specified, result will be obtained for the user of the session tied to the BandcampFetch instance.

Returns

Promise resolving to (FanPageItemsResult | FanContinuationItemsResult)<Album | Track>.

Example (output)

Params

• params: (FanAPIGetItemsParams)
  • target: (string | FanItemsContinuation) (optional) if username (string) is specified, returns the first batch of artists and labels. To obtain further items, call the method again but, instead of username, pass continuation from the result of the first call. If there are no further items available, continuation will be null.
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

If target is not specified, result will be obtained for the user of the session tied to the BandcampFetch instance.

Returns

Promise resolving to (FanPageItemsResult | FanContinuationItemsResult)<UserKind>.

Example (output)

Each genre is actually a Bandcamp tag, so you can, for example, pass its url to getReleases() of the Tag API.

Params

• params: (FanAPIGetItemsParams)
  • target: (string | FanItemsContinuation) (optional) if username (string) is specified, returns the first batch of genres. To obtain further items, call the method again but, instead of username, pass continuation from the result of the first call. If there are no further items available, continuation will be null.
  • imageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

If target is not specified, result will be obtained for the user of the session tied to the BandcampFetch instance.

Returns

Promise resolving to (FanPageItemsResult | FanContinuationItemsResult)<Tag>.

Search API

To access the Search API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const search = bcfetch.search;

const albums = await search.albums(...);
const all = await search.all(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

• all(params): search all item types
• artistsAndLabels(params): search artists and labels
• albums(params): search albums
• tracks(params): search tracks
• fans(params): search fans

Params

• params: (SearchAPISearchParams)
  • query: (string)
  • page: (number) (optional) 1 if omitted
  • albumImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)
  • artistImageFormat: (string | number | ImageFormat) (optional)

Returns

Promise resolving to SearchResults<T>, where T depends on the item type being searched and can be one of:

• Artist (SearchResultArtist)
• Label (SearchResultLabel)
• Album (SearchResultAlbum)
• Track (SearchResultTrack)
• Fan (SearchResultFan)

You can use the type property to determine the search result item type.

Autocomplete API

To access the Autocomplete API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const autocomplete = bcfetch.autocomplete;

const suggestions = await autocomplete.getSuggestions(...);

Methods:

Example (output)

The value property of returned suggestions can be used to set the location or tags property (as the case may be) of params.filters that is passed into getReleases() of the Tag API.

Params

• params: (AutocompleteAPIGetSuggestionsParams)
  • query: (string)
  • itemType: (AutocompleteItemType) 'Tag' or 'Location'
  • limit: (number) (optional) (only for ItemType.Location) the maximum number of results to return; 5 if omitted.

Returns

• If params.itemType is AutocompleteItemType.Tag, a Promise resolving to Array<AutocompleteTag>.
• If params.itemType is AutocompleteItemType.Location, a Promise resolving to Array<AutocompleteLocation>.

Stream API

Stream URLs returned by Bandcamp can sometimes be invalid (perhaps expired). Before playing a stream, you are recommended to test its URL and refresh it if necessary with the Stream API.

To access the Stream API:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const stream = bcfetch.stream;

// Test a stream URL
const streamURL = '...';
const testResult = await stream.test(streamUrl);

if (!testResult.ok) {
    const refreshedStreamURL = await stream.refresh(streamURL);
}

Methods:

Example (output)

Params

• url: (string) the URL of the stream to test

Returns

Promise resolving to StreamTestResult:

• ok: (boolean) whether the stream is valid
• status: (number) the HTTP response status code returned by the test

Example (output)

Params

• url: (string) the URL of the stream to refresh

Returns

Promise resolving to the refreshed URL of the stream or null if no valid result was obtained.

Rate Limiting

Each BandcampFetch instance comes with a rate limiter, which limits the number of requests made within a specific time period.

Rate limiting is useful when you need to make a large number of queries and don't want to run the risk of getting rejected by the server for making too many requests within a short time interval. If you get a '429 Too Many Requests' error, then you should consider using the rate limiter.

Each API has a limiter-enabled counterpart which you can access in the following manner:

import bcfetch from 'bandcamp-fetch';

// Album API - no limiter enabled
const albumAPI = bcfetch.album;

// Album API - limiter enabled
const limiterAlbumAPI = bcfetch.limiter.album;

Example (output)

The library uses Bottleneck for rate limiting. You can configure the rate limiter like this:

bcfetch.limiter.updateSettings({
    maxConcurrent: 10,  // default: 5
    minTime: 100        // default: 200
});

updateSettings() is just a passthrough function to Bottleneck. Check the Bottleneck doc for the list of options you can set.

Cache

Each BandcampFetch instance has an in-memory cache for two types of data (as defined by CacheDataType):

1. CacheDataType.Page - pages fetched during scraping
2. CacheDataType.Constants - image formats and discover options

To access the cache:

import bcfetch, { CacheDataType } from 'bandcamp-fetch';

const cache = bcfetch.cache;

cache.setTTL(CacheDataType.Page, 500);

Methods:

Params

• type: (CacheDataType)
• TTL: (number) expiry time in seconds (default: 300 for CacheDataType.Page and 3600 for CacheDataType.Constants)

Params

• maxPages: (number)

Params

• type: (CacheDataType) (optional)

Changelog

2.0.0 (breaking changes!)

• Revise API to reflect Bandcamp changes
• Add lyrics property to Track
• Add id property to Album and Track
• Add slug property to categories returned by DiscoveryAPI.getAvailableOptions()
• Parse missing discog items (#8)

1.2.1

• Fix duration not returned in result of TrackAPI::getInfo() (#7)

1.2.0

• Add Stream API for testing and refreshing stream URLs

1.1.1

• Fix exports

1.1.0

• Add support for user sessions through cookies. This means you can access your private collection and high-quality MP3 streams of purchased media.
• Add ability to create multiple BandcampFetch instances

1.0.2

• Improve parsing of album track info

1.0.1

• Fix limiter throwing private access errors

1.0.0 (breaking changes!)

• Move to TypeScript
• Package as ESM + CJS hybrid module
• Restructure API
• Remove safe-eval dependency

0.3.1-b.1

• Add getFanCollection() function

0.3.0-b.1

• Add fan functions

0.2.2-b.1

• Add itemType option to search params

0.2.1-b.20211020b

• Fix URL sometimes null in result of getArtistOrLabelInfo()

0.2.1-b.20211020

• Improve data fetching in getArtistOrLabelInfo()

0.2.0-b.20211020

• Adapt to Bandcamp changes since last version
• Add publisher and label to data fetched by getAlbumInfo() and getTrackInfo()
• Add labelId to data fetched by getArtistOrLabelInfo(labelUrl)
• Add labelId option to getArtistOrLabelInfo() for artist URLs

...(no changelog for earlier versions due to laziness)

License

MIT