A multi‐source seeder for digital releases

Sadly, the issues persists for me. Check this release. iTunes has the same barcode as I verified it on the source code, but a-tisket completely ignores it. Another example, this release that it’s exclusive to iTunes, no results retrieved. Can anyone check those to see if the problem is on my end?

Well, this is not good news. I just tried both of them, neither is coming up. I’ve added several today, so I know a-tisket is working and still finding them. However, the 2 you show here, aren’t working for me either. I did notice the the first link you gave was to a release on 12/16/2021. All releases I’ve tried from before this month work fine. I tried the old fashioned iTunes API and it returns no result. I did this from my personal, so not banned.
Update: I check using old school iTunes API (which is what a-tisket uses) and it doesn’t find them using the UPC lookup option anymore https://itunes.apple.com/us/lookup?upc=075679761378. However, if you use the ID, it still does find them https://itunes.apple.com/us/lookup?id=1599819007. I tried releases before this month and they work fine on both UPC or ID lookup.

@atj . Is there a way to update this to use the ID instead of the UPC? This would be preferred anyway as sometimes different digital releases (labels different) have the same barcode, but different IDs due to labels.

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Problem is I get a blank screen whenever I search by iTunes ID on a-tisket

Yeah, that happens (only on the original). The mirror never does and if the mirror is fixed with all the suggestions we won’t have to use marlon’s anymore. If you have a barcode but no ID, it normally works. It’s not finding Apple releases on either the mirror or the original. It’s not all releases this month either. I just added one that was released the same day (12/15/2021) without any issues. I’ve added some pre-orders today that won’t be released until 2022 and they work fine. But I tried to add one yesterday that was released on 12/10/2021 and it didn’t work. Not sure what’s going on at Apple, but it’s not finding some new releases when using UPC lookup. Until this gets fixed, if ever, I’d suggest also referencing Jaxsta (which I do anyway) for country availability. And just manually add any Apple Music links in which we know the barcode is the same. Remember, there is an iTunes standalone importer. Not the best, but better than nothing.

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Perhaps I’m missing something but can you clarify what you are asking for? As far as I can tell you can enter the iTunes / Apple Music ID in a-tisket and it works, however the API doesn’t return a UPC so it’s not possible to pull in the matching release from Deezer or Spotify.

It’s unfortunate but Apple seem to be slowly deprecating the iTunes API in favour of Apple Music. So please be prepared for the day (which I predict will not be in the too distant future) when iTunes lookups cease to work in a-tisket.

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Just to clarify, the “blacklisting” explanation was complete speculation on my part. I’ve been consistently amazed that Apple seem to have no rate limiting / abuse detection mechanisms on their API endpoints. It felt like the most logical explanation, given that a worldwide iTunes lookup in a-tisket results in about 180 API queries.

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Sure. Since early last year, all Apple Music pages now have UPCs on their pages. It’s found by just a simple search on the “view page source” for “UPC”. It returns a result. (There’s a script that many of us have been using to easily find it located at: ToadKing/apple-music-barcode-isrc (github.com) that easily obtains barcodes, that shows how easy this is now). Currently, if a release is on Apple Music, the only way a-tisket knows (without manual input or borrowed from Spotify/Deezer) what the barcode is for an Apple Music page is hoping that it is located in the “.jpg” filename and takes it from there. Instead of using the “.jpg” filename to find the upc, just use method here. That should be a simple fix.

I know that’s not what you are asking about. To clarify about the ID question is this:

  1. Does a-tisket currently find the countries by going one-by-one through each country and seeing if the lookup by UPC returns a result to each country?
  2. If it does, can it just do the same thing by Apple Music ID instead? Just search for countries using the ID lookup instead. It appears that for some reason, many new releases starting this past December, that lookups by UPC aren’t working, but they still are by IDs. See my examples above.
  3. It has no bearing on Spotify & Deezer because the barcode would still be found on all Apple Music releases.
  4. Currently Spotify & Deezer also show barcode, but when it does a lookup of countries, it just does the API result on their ID’s, not the barcode. I know this because many times, different Spotify & Deezer releases have the same barcode, but different IDs and it doesn’t try to say that they are the same release.
  5. Using barcode for iTunes gives false information and always has because the same barcodes are used on the same releases sometimes EVEN ON DIFFERENT LABELS AND IDs. There is no reason any longer that Apple Music should be treated differently than Spotify & Deezer other than having to manually look up each country.

I can look up any release in the US by ID and I get API results. So, I was wondering if instead of using barcodes for lookups, if it was just possible to do it by ID. It’ll give more true results and should echo what Deezer & Spotify show from their APIs. And I agree, if they ever get rid of the iTunes API without making the Apple Music API free that would be a problem, but I suppose that could be said if any of the 3 APIs were no longer free and available.

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Also, as you might have noticed, Apple Music in addition to barcodes has labels & ISRCs as well which could be incorporated into a-tisket.

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Is there a way to “force” the site to show the complimentary links page for releases that are already in the MB database? It used to come up most of the time, but I haven’t seen it in a while. Even if I can put in a release ID in the URL of the cached URL or something, it would be a huge help for adding artists.

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It still comes up all the time for me. Mostly on Spotify & Deezer releases. Seems not to be working on Apple Music releases. I know of no way to force it.

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just noting that south korea seems to be a problem, too.
i ran an ep here and it shows it as excluded, but it is definitely available: ‎Fantasy - Single - 페이의 앨범 - Apple Music

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You forgot to check the auxiliary box for iTunes at the bottom. It finds it when you do that. But yes, it is removing South Korea from the Deezer results

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Hi, do you mind sharing the original Tisket source code with me?
The link shared by the creator returns a 404 error.
I just want to learn a few things from it.
Thank you.

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I don’t know where this is being discussed, but has there been any update on why the iTunes UPC lookup API no longer works?

Edit: I noticed the iTunes UPC lookup API started working a couple days ago. YMMV. I still don’t know whether Apple intentionally took it down because of tools like the one being discussed here.

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It doesn’t appear to be working for new releases, which leads me to believe that there is an arbitrary cut off date after which UPC lookups no longer work.

For example, here’s a release from October 2021:

$ curl -s 'https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?upc=8718723185646' |jq
{
  "resultCount": 1,
  "results": [
    {
      "wrapperType": "collection",
      "collectionType": "Album",
      "artistId": 387969348,
      "collectionId": 1589460842,
      "artistName": "Various Artists",
      "collectionName": "Volume 005 - EP",
      "collectionCensoredName": "Volume 005 - EP",
      "collectionViewUrl": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/volume-005-ep/1589460842?uo=4",
      "artworkUrl60": "https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music115/v4/1c/0e/84/1c0e84f1-7634-a5d9-62c2-165d4c6fdc6f/source/60x60bb.jpg",
      "artworkUrl100": "https://is5-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music115/v4/1c/0e/84/1c0e84f1-7634-a5d9-62c2-165d4c6fdc6f/source/100x100bb.jpg",
      "collectionExplicitness": "notExplicit",
      "trackCount": 4,
      "copyright": "℗ 2021 We’re Going deep",
      "country": "USA",
      "currency": "USD",
      "releaseDate": "2021-10-08T07:00:00Z",
      "primaryGenreName": "Dance"
    }
  ]
}

Compared to a release from this month:

$ curl -s 'https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?upc=8718723192361' |jq
{
  "resultCount": 0,
  "results": []
}

As far as I’m aware Apple has not published any information about changes to the iTunes API, but it seems to me that it is being slowly phased out in favour of the Apple Music API (which does not support UPC lookups). This began when iTunes URLs started redirecting to Apple Music.

Actually, it may well be related to this:

Anyone know of any releases that were put out on the 24/25/26th November 2021?

Yes:

Thanks. I just manually tested UPC lookups for each of those releases:

  1. Succeeded
  2. Failed
  3. Failed
  4. Succeeded

So the results are inconclusive unfortunately.

I’m finding that having only 5 languages having English as default option in a-tisket’s language field leads certain users to not bother selecting the correct language using the release editor before submitting a release. This is an area where this (otherwise excellent) tool leads to lower data quality. I would either support the full list or just remove the field altogether and let users manually set the language using the release editor, or leave the field blank if in doubt.

Edit: Perhaps having “English” as default is more to blame than having a limited number of options. Amended my suggestion accordingly.

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Another suggestion: a “copy ISRCs” button so that ISRCs gleaned by a-tisket from the Deezer API can easily be pasted into https://magicisrc.kepstin.ca/. MagicISRC might need an update for this to work smoothly, so maybe a userscript might be a better solution (at least in the short term).

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hey! just wondering- i’ve been making releases without curaçao worldwide, but i’m now realizing that they do have spotify? see, this shows a release that is available in all countries except curaçao, and this is only from spotify:
https://d.ontun.es/#/explorer/album/1RdjrGEcYyiz3NxHLXciPe

would this be a spotify bug then, or do major labels purposely not include it? also, i noticed the reason the old atisket says “worldwide” is because they just don’t list it ? like it doesn’t say it’s in the included countries…
i just wish i knew someone who lives there so i could ask them :smiling_face_with_tear:

sorry if this has already been covered! i didn’t read the full thread.

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