maloja/API.md

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Scrobbling

Scrobbling can be done with the native API, see below. In order to scrobble from a wide selection of clients, you can also use Maloja's standard-compliant APIs with the following settings:

GNU FM  
Gnukebox URL Your Maloja URL followed by /apis/audioscrobbler
Username Doesn't matter
Password Any of your API keys
ListenBrainz  
API URL Your Maloja URL followed by /apis/listenbrainz
Username Doesn't matter
Auth Token Any of your API keys
Audioscrobbler v1.2  
Server URL Your Maloja URL followed by /apis/audioscrobbler_legacy
Username Doesn't matter
Password Any of your API keys
⚠️ Note that these are the base URLs - some scrobblers ask you for the full endpoint instead.

Scrobbling Guideline

Maloja makes no assumptions about scrobbling behaviour. The clients should decide when and whether a play is scrobbled - the server will accept it as long as it contains all necessary data. However, a general guideline is:

  • As soon as a track has been played for 50% of its length or 4 minutes, it should be counted as a scrobble
  • That scrobble should be submitted when the play has ended in order to know its duration
  • If the total play duration is enough to count as a scrobble, but not longer than the total track length + enough for a second scrobble, it should be submitted as a scrobble with the according duration
  • If the duration exceeds this value, the first scrobble should be submitted as a scrobble with the duration of the full track length, while the second scrobble is queued up following the above suggestions in regards to remaining time
📝 Example

The user starts playing '(Fine Layers of) Slaysenflite', which is exactly 3:00 minutes long.

  • If the user ends the play after 1:22, no scrobble is submitted

  • If the user ends the play after 2:06, a scrobble with "duration":126 is submitted

  • If the user jumps back several times and ends the play after 3:57, a scrobble with "duration":237 is submitted

  • If the user jumps back several times and ends the play after 4:49, two scrobbles with "duration":180 and "duration":109 are submitted

API Documentation

The native Maloja API is reachable at /apis/mlj_1. Endpoints are listed on /api_explorer.

All endpoints return JSON data. POST request can be made with query string or form data arguments, but this is discouraged - JSON should be used whenever possible.

No application should ever rely on the non-existence of fields in the JSON data - i.e., additional fields can be added at any time without this being considered a breaking change. Existing fields should usually not be removed or changed, but it is always a good idea to add basic handling for missing fields.

Submitting a Scrobble

The POST endpoint /newscrobble is used to submit new scrobbles. These use a flat JSON structure with the following fields:

Key Type Description
artists List(String) Track artists
title String Track title
album String Name of the album (Optional)
albumartists List(String) Album artists (Optional)
duration Integer How long the song was listened to in seconds (Optional)
length Integer Actual length of the full song in seconds (Optional)
time Integer Timestamp of the listen if it was not at the time of submitting (Optional)
nofix Boolean Skip server-side metadata fixing (Optional)

General Structure

The API is not fully consistent in order to ensure backwards-compatibility. Refer to the individual endpoints.
Generally, most endpoints follow this structure:

Key Type Description
status String Status of the request. Can be success, ok, error, failure, no_operation
error Mapping Details about the error if one occured.
warnings List Any warnings that did not result in failure, but should be noted. Field is omitted if there are no warnings!
desc String Human-readable feedback. This can be shown directly to the user if desired.
list List List of returned entities

Both errors and warnings have the following structure:

Key Type Description
type String Name of the error or warning type
value varies Specific data for this error or warning instance
desc String Human-readable error or warning description. This can be shown directly to the user if desired.

Entity Structure

Whenever a list of entities is returned, they have the following fields:

Scrobble

Key Type Description
time Integer Timestamp of the Scrobble in UTC
track Mapping The track being scrobbled
duration Integer How long the track was played for in seconds
origin String Client that submitted the scrobble, or import source
📝 Example
{
  "time": 1650684324,
  "track": {
    "artists": ["Jennie Kim","HyunA","LE","SunMi"],
    "title": "Wow Thing",
    "length":200
  },
  "duration": 196,
  "origin": "client:navidrome_desktop"
}

Track

Key Type Description
artists List The artists credited with the track
title String The title of the track
length Integer The full length of the track in seconds
📝 Example
{
  "artists": ["Blackpink","Chou Tzuyu"],
  "title": "MORE",
  "length": 171
}

Artist

Artists are just represented as raw Strings.

Example

📝 Example
"Red Velvet"