Which Music Streaming API Is Right for You?

Natalie Brooks

May 19, 2025

Choosing the right music streaming API can drastically impact the efficiency and capabilities of your application or music business operations. Whether you’re a developer building the next data-rich platform or an A&R professional scouting talent, the right data provider can help you stay competitive. In this article, we compare four of the most prominent music data APIs available today: Viberate, Chartmetric, Soundcharts, and Songstats. Each offers powerful tools for accessing music-related data, but differs in scope, coverage, and pricing.

Quick Pricing Comparison

Pricing plays a key role in selecting the right API provider. Viberate starts at €300 per month for up to 60 API calls per minute and three months of historical data. Chartmetric's API pricing begins at $350 per user, per month with a limit of 1 request per second. Soundcharts doesn’t publicly list pricing; instead, they provide it upon request. Songstats offers enterprise-level API access, though they also don’t provide standard pricing publicly.

Viberate: Clean, Curated Data with Full Ecosystem Coverage

Viberate’s music data API delivers daily-refreshed data on over 11 million artists, 100 million tracks, 19 million playlists, 6,000 festivals and 100,000 labels. What makes Viberate especially compelling is their commitment to data integrity — they’re the only provider guaranteeing unique artist IDs without duplication, promising one artist = one profile. That’s a huge advantage for developers looking to avoid redundancies or errors when building music-related apps.

In addition to this clean and structured database, Viberate’s API includes access to TikTok, Spotify, and YouTube Music metrics. The service is particularly attractive to startups and tech teams thanks to its developer-friendly pricing and wide industry coverage. Use cases include everything from A&R scouting and app development to feeding data into artist profile systems or reporting dashboards for labels and collecting societies. The option to access raw data or let Viberate process it for you makes it flexible for a range of technical competencies.

Chartmetric: Proprietary Metrics and Deep Historical Context

Chartmetric offers powerful insights for developers who need rich historical and analytical context. Their API provides access to data on over 9 million artists, with historical information going back five years. What sets Chartmetric apart is their suite of proprietary metrics like the "Career Stage Score," "Recent Momentum Score," and "Network Strength Score," which help users interpret raw numbers in a more meaningful way.

Chartmetric’s Developer API is particularly suitable for developers building custom solutions for large-scale applications in the music industry. It's useful for professionals who are data-savvy and need more than just surface-level analytics. While their $350/month per user pricing is on the higher end, it could be justified for those seeking granular detail and long-term trend analysis.

Soundcharts: Real-Time Radio and Global Music Monitoring

Soundcharts’ API offering is geared toward data and tech teams that want to analyze music data at scale. The platform covers 12 million artists and 54 million songs with insights sourced from over 26,000 charts, 7 million playlists, and 2,400 radio stations. Soundcharts has a strong focus on real-time global and local data, including radio airplay, audience statistics, and metadata cleaning using a cross-platform linguistic engine.

One key benefit is the ability to match Soundcharts data with your proprietary datasets, allowing for custom analysis like financial forecasting, A&R scoring, or personalized consumption trends. The historical depth is also impressive — they offer up to 7 years of social data, 5 years for radio airplay, and 4 years for streaming insights. However, the lack of public pricing may deter smaller developers or teams just starting out.

Songstats: Cross-Platform DSP Data with Minimal Friction

Songstats offers a developer-friendly API that taps into data from 18 major streaming and social media platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. The API is built on REST principles and returns JSON data, streamlining the integration process for development teams. You can fetch information on artists, tracks, and labels using identifiers like ISRC or Spotify ID, and filter by specific platforms or receive data from all supported sources at once.

The Songstats API is ideal for companies looking to enhance their apps, dashboards, or reporting tools with reliable data. Their Radiostats API adds another layer by providing airplay insights from over 50,000 radio stations and TV channels. Rate limiting is enforced at 10 requests per second, and data is updated more frequently for resources recently accessed, ensuring current and relevant insights.

The automatic handling of metadata and smart aggregation means developers spend less time on setup and more time on innovation. Although Songstats doesn’t list standard prices, its enterprise-oriented features suggest it's positioned for larger teams with custom requirements.

Verdict: Why Viberate Stands Out

Each of the APIs reviewed brings something unique to the table. Chartmetric excels in advanced proprietary metrics and long-term trend visibility. Soundcharts shines with its massive global radio and streaming dataset, especially suited for in-depth technical analysis. Songstats impresses with wide DSP coverage and efficient implementation.

But for teams that value clean, curated data and need high coverage across streaming and social media platforms without overcomplicating things or breaking the bank, Viberate stands out. With its affordable pricing, clear structure, and strong data integrity, it offers the best entry point for developers, labels, and startups looking for scalable and reliable music data.

If you’re evaluating your options in the music streaming API landscape, Viberate deserves a closer look — especially if unique artist IDs, broad ecosystem coverage, and pricing transparency are on your priority list.