Method: Artist Related

Returns related artists (similar to, followers, influences, etc.) for a given artist ID or artist name.

Request URL

The object is artist and the action is related. The base request URL is:

http://api.emusic.com/artist/related?apiKey=myKey&artistId=10559083

Request Parameters

Following is a list of required and optional query string parameters for the Artist Related method. For more information about individual request parameters, see request parameters.

Name Required Default Description
apiKey YES none The developer API key. This is required for all methods.
artistId depends none The artist ID. Either artistId or artistName must be included.
artistName depends none The URL-encoded artist name. Either artistID or artistName must be included.
exact no none Used with artistName. When exact is set to "true", a method will only return related artist info if the artist name exactly matches the artistName value.
include no none When include is set to "artist", additional artist information is returned for the specified artist, along with related artist information. Additional artist information includes birth and death information, active decades, etc.
format no XML The format of the response (XML, JSON, JSONP).
callback depends none The name of the JavaScript callback method for the JSONP format. (Required for JSONP responses only.)
imageSize no medium The size of the album images referred to by image URLs (thumbnail, small, medium, large, huge).
fref no none The eMusic partner tag. If provided, the FREF value is automatically added to all appropriate eMusic links.

Example Requests

// Returns artist ratings for artist ID 10559083.
http://api.emusic.com/artist/related?apiKey=myKey&artistId=10559083

// Returns related artists for Nirvana (exact match).
http://api.emusic.com/artist/related?apiKey=myKey&artistName=Nirvana&exact=true

// Returns related artists AND full artist info.
http://api.emusic.com/artist/related?apiKey=myKey&artistId=10559083&include=artist

Response Format

Following is a list of returned elements for the Artist Related method. For more information about individual response elements, see Response Elements.

Name Type Returned Description
status status always Contains a result code.
messages list on error Contains one or more messages.
options options on ok Contains a list of method options.
artist artist on ok Contains a <related> element with multiple lists of related artists, one list per type of relation. Also contains additional artist information if include=artist is specified. See the example response below for typical artist elements.

Example Response

(Only five elements are displayed in each list...)

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<response xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
    <status code="200">ok</status>
    <options format="xml"/>
    <artist group="false" id="10559083" name="Bob Marley" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Bob-Marley-MP3-Download/10559083.html">
         <related>
             <followers list="true" size="196">
                <artist id="10559867" name="Skatalites" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Skatalites-MP3-Download/10559867.html"/>
                <artist id="10565521" name="The Skatalites" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/The-Skatalites-MP3-Download/10565521.html"/>
                <artist id="10555398" name="Benjamin Zephaniah" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Benjamin-Zephaniah-MP3-Download/10555398.html"/>
                <artist id="11564243" name="Bad Brains" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Bad-Brains-MP3-Download/11564243.html"/>
                <artist id="11695689" name="UB40" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/UB40-MP3-Download/11695689.html"/>
             </followers>
             <connections list="true" size="8">
                <artist id="10565996" name="Alpha Blondy" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Alpha-Blondy-MP3-Download/10565996.html"/>
                <artist id="11598385" name="Wailers" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Wailers-MP3-Download/11598385.html"/>
                <artist id="11711760" name="The Upsetters" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/The-Upsetters-MP3-Download/11711760.html"/>
                <artist id="12298427" name="Lee Perry w. Dubblestandart &amp; Ari Up" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Lee-Perry-w-Dubblestandart-Ari-Up-MP3-Download/12298427.html"/>
                <artist id="12058525" name="Lee &quot;Scratch&quot; Perry" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Lee-Scratch-Perry-MP3-Download/12058525.html"/>
             </connections>
             <influences list="true" size="17">
                <artist id="11643357" name="Laurel Aitken" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Laurel-Aitken-MP3-Download/11643357.html"/>
                <artist id="12516460" name="The Isley Brothers, Jimi Hendrix" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/The-Isley-Brothers-Jimi-Hendrix-MP3-Download/12516460.html"/>
                <artist id="12403940" name="Laurel Aitken, The Cookoomackastick" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Laurel-Aitken-The-Cookoomackastick-MP3-Download/12403940.html"/>
                <artist id="10564608" name="Joe Higgs" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Joe-Higgs-MP3-Download/10564608.html"/>
                <artist id="11634796" name="John Holt" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/John-Holt-MP3-Download/11634796.html"/>
             </influences>
             <members list="true" size="0"/>
             <covered list="true" size="3">
                <artist id="10568202" name="Curtis Mayfield" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Curtis-Mayfield-MP3-Download/10568202.html"/>
                <artist id="10559672" name="Chuck Berry" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Chuck-Berry-MP3-Download/10559672.html"/>
                <artist id="11590112" name="Richie Havens" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Richie-Havens-MP3-Download/11590112.html"/>
             </covered>
             <similar list="true" size="35">
                <artist id="11625903" name="Desmond Dekker" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Desmond-Dekker-MP3-Download/11625903.html"/>
                <artist id="10563325" name="Black Uhuru" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Black-Uhuru-MP3-Download/10563325.html"/>
                <artist id="11579088" name="Jimmy Cliff" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Jimmy-Cliff-MP3-Download/11579088.html"/>
                <artist id="11661493" name="Peter Tosh" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Peter-Tosh-MP3-Download/11661493.html"/>
                <artist id="11844028" name="Sly &amp; Robbie present" published="true" url="http://www.emusic.com/artist/Sly-Robbie-present-MP3-Download/11844028.html"/>
             </similar>
         </related>
         <origin location="St. Ann, Jamaica"/>
         <death location="Miami, FL"/>
         <activeDecades list="true" size="3">
             <decade>1960</decade>
             <decade>1970</decade>
             <decade>1980</decade>
         </activeDecades>
    </artist>
</response>

version 14 as of 1 year ago by Alec Cove

2 Comments

  1. harmonic – 1 year ago

    Using this example returns no result: http://api.emusic.com/artist/related?apiKey=myKey&artistName=Bob+Marley&exact=true

    However using the artist ID I get the list of artists. Is this an issue?

  2. Alec Cove – 1 year ago

    Thanks for pointing this out. This seems to be due to a layout change when a high number of albums are available for an artist, and therefore not fitting in the standard artist page. The number of albums may have gone up and pushed the logic into just showing albums and not the Bob Marley artist page. The usual artist page gives related artist info.

    Since the API shares functionality with the public site, they're behaving the same way. I'll submit a bug for it.

    In the mean time the id is always better to use, once you're retrieved it from a name search.

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