bandcamp scraping info

note: as of writing, this is very much unfinished. it’s meant to be a personal note more than anything.

bandcamp provides a lot of data on the basic html pages, outside of its official api, and it can usually get you a long way without needing the api. this data is used in free-bandcamp-downloader, a python script that I helped work on.

artist/label pages

release data

ol#music-grid contains the individual releases on the page. depending on the amount of releases, the release will actually be split up between direct li descendents as html and html-escaped json in the data-client-items attribute on the <ol>.

for <li> descendents, it’s structured as follows:

// release_type = "album" | "track"

<li data-item-id="{release_type}-{release_id}" data-band-id="{artist_id}">
  <a href="{release_link}">
    <div class="art">
      <img src="{cover_url}" alt=""/>
    </div>
    <p class="title">
      {release_title}
      <br/>
      <span class="artist-override">
        {artist_name}
      </span>
    </p>
  </a>
</li>

for the data-client-items attribute, you first need to unescape the xml. then the JSON follows:

[
 {
  "art_id": (int, cover art id)
  "artist": (str, as-printed)
  "band_id": (int)
  "id": (int)
  "page_url": (str)
  "title": (str)
  "type": ("album" | "track")
  "filtered": (bool)
 }
]

filtered only exists when a filter is applied (e.g. this). page_url will be a partial URL linking as /album/album-link if it’s on the same band page, or a full URI if not.

release page

release pages have two separate places where metadata lies: the inner text of head > script[type="application/ld+json"] and the data-tralbum attribute of head > script[data-tralbum] (i.e. the only script where data-tralbum exists. I’ll refer to the former as “head data” and the latter as “tralbum data”

head data

head data follows the MusicAlbum schema for /album/ links and the MusicRecording schema for /track/ links.

there are a few additionalProperty types as well:

Name	Type	Description
`track_id`	int	ID of the track
`art_id`	int	ID of the cover art
`license_name`	string	bandcamp-specific license type (todo: what are all the options?)

some miscellaneous notes on this:

bandcamp seems to prefer the artist’s custom domain if they have one as opposed to using the “canonical” bandcamp url.
inAlbum gets filled out even for standalone /track/ releases, and it’s where the offers for the track lie

tralbum data

tralbum data doesn’t have any pre-defined schema, so I’ll format it like one:

Root

Property	Type	Description
`for the curious`	string	Links to I heard you can steal music on Bandcamp. What are you doing about this? and Bandcamp Terms of Use
`current`	Current	Other information (todo: what determines this?
`preorder_count`	?	? (Seems to always be null, even for preorder releases)
`hasAudio`	bool	Whether the release page has any tracks at all
`art_id`	int	ID of the cover art
`packages`	?Package	Miscellaneous packages on the page that aren’t the main offer (physicals, etc.)
`defaultPrice`	float	Default price of the release as shown on the page. Seems to be 9.0 if it’s NYP for some reason
`freeDownloadPage`	?URL	Link to the free download page of the release. `null` if release is paid or requires e-mail to download
`FREE`	int	? (Seems to always be `1`?)
`PAID`	int	? (Seems to always be `2`?)
`artist`	string	Artist as written
`item_type`	ItemType	Type of release
`id`	int	ID of release
`last_subscription_item`	?	?
`has_discounts`	bool	Whether you can apply a discount code to the release.
`is_bonus`	?bool	?
`play_cap_data`	TODO	How many times songs can be streamed before… something.
`is_purchased`	?bool	If you purchased the release. `null` when not logged in.
`items_purchased`	TODO	TODO
`is_private_stream`	?bool	?
`is_band_member`	?bool	?
`licensed_version_ids`	?	?
`package_associated_license_id`	?	?
`has_video`	?bool	Whether the page has a video or not.
`tralbum_subscriber_only`	bool	Whether the release is a subscriber-only release
?`featured_track_id`	?int	Featured track of the release. `null` when there’s no tracks in the album. Not present for track releases.
?`initial_track_num`	?	? Not present for track releases.
?`is_preorder`	bool	Whether the album is up for pre-order. Not present for track releases.
`album_is_preorder`	bool	Whether the album of the release is up for preorder.
`album_release_date`	string	Release date of the album.
`trackinfo`	?[TrackInfo]	Array of track information
`playing_from`	string	“album page” or “track page”
`url`	URL	URL of the release. Will be the artist’s custom domain if they have one.
`use_expando_lyrics`	bool	?

Current

TrackInfo

Package

ItemType

"album" | "track"

back