Yahoo may seem like it's in a death spiral, but that has not stopped the developers from doing their work. Today we saw the announcement of the Yahoo! Music API.
The API is a fairly complete offering, giving developers lots of access to various parts of Yahoo's catalog as well as user recommendations and ratings. As an example of what can be done with the new API, Yahoo points to their music video application on Facebook, which has been up and running since last year.
As a developer, the first question seems to be what data formats are available. Obviously, Yahoo is listening to the developer community because the API offers XML, JSON and RSS formats. There is also extensive API documentation in the API Guide. Most importantly, what does the API give you and what makes it better than the others?
The API is broken into 9 services and the video player API. The video player API allows you to embed the Yahoo! Music Videos Flash Player to quickly play any videos found through the API services.
The only initial concern with the API is that any service calls for ratings or recommendations require the use of BBAuth, a Yahoo-specific authentication mechanism. Otherwise, there is a lot you can do with these services, including:
* Artist Service
* Category Service
* Image Service
* Rating Service
* Release Service
* Station Service
* Track Service
* User Service
* Video Service
Each of the services has several options as well. For example, the Artist Service allows you to retrieve information for a specific artist by ID. There are also services for retrieving the list of popular artists and the artists within a specific category. As expected, several of the services have a search method when you do not know the ID of the item you would like to retrieve.
How does the API compare to other API offerings from Yahoo Music competitors? Imeem has an API that is geared towards how the site is used, allowing you to get information about your playlists, your friends and groups as well as some basic catalog information. Last.fm has an API that has been around for quite some time at AudioScrobbler.net. Most of the Last.fm API pertains to your profile, tags and recent activity. Given that both Imeem and Last.fm have a heavy social component, they are significantly better for finding recommendations from your "friends". However, given the breadth of the services available, especially for standard catalog information, Yahoo's API looks like a formidable competitor.
One important addition to all of this is Yahoo's terms of service. You are limited to 5000 requests per day, which should be fine for a simple mashup as long as you do not get much traffic.
As expected, you are not allowed to use the API for commercial purposes, but you may contact Yahoo for permission. This is not any different from many other music APIs, so that is no surprise. Oddly enough, there is one item that needs to be highlighted:
You shall not use the Yahoo! Music APIs in a product or service that competes with products or services offered by Yahoo!
I can understand the point of this, but it seems a little heavy handed. If they are afraid of someone having a competing service that is better, make a service that is better than theirs.