iTunes UPC Database

DanielTB80 · January 18, 2020, 9:20pm

Greetings,

I have been perusing the MusicBrainz forums and I noted that some people have expressed frustrations over trying to identify the correct UPC to use with iTunes releases since iTunes makes it difficult to identify sometimes. I have run into this issue myself and I spent some time researching the underlying cause and I have identified a solution.

I have been able to acquire a copy of the iTunes Collection Match binary file (described in https://affiliate.itunes.apple.com/resources/documentation/itunes-enterprise-partner-feed/) dated 1/8/2020 in binary format from a friend of mine, which contains the information to match any iTunes album ID to a iTunes UPC.

Using a binary reader, such as https://www.proxoft.com/BinaryViewer.aspx, a search using the iTunes album ID in the file will yield a match for the UPC used for the album release.

I have tested a few albums by taking the resulting UPC and using the iTunes Search API (example “https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?upc=720642462928”) and confirmed that it works for the small test sample. It needs further testing though to validate its use for all users. The problem is how to do this in a manner that doesn’t kill my bandwidth on distributing the file/information.

I want to provide the 115MB file to an MusicBrainz admin or someone who is willing to host it for others to use or can incorporate it into a web search tool. I reached out to marlonob to incorporate it it into his search tool at https://etc.marlonob.info/atisket, but I haven’t received a response from him yet. I really do not want to receive a million requests for the file itself.

I also can not guarantee that I will be able to acquire future updates of this file, but it should be of some use for existing releases.

Please let me know how to proceed with this file to best help benefit the MusicBrainz community.

Thanks!

tigerman325 · January 20, 2020, 6:45am

I’d love a copy of this, but I have no way of hosting. I update iTunes releases daily and this would be of use when the barcodes can’t be found in either the .jpg filename or on ISRC.

DanielTB80 · October 11, 2020, 8:57pm

I have pulled together a Google Drive folder to archive the files for the communities use. I will try to upload the database quarterly.

Google Folder Link

Weilberg04 · November 16, 2020, 4:39pm

This is fabulous. Thank you so much.
Would you know if such a database also exists for iTunes music videos? Or, more specifically, would you have access to such a file?
Thanks a lot!

tigerman325 · November 19, 2020, 12:38am

I’m sure they likely wipe them, but if there was a way to get these from past years, it’d clear up so much.

Deleted_Editor_1807782 · February 13, 2021, 6:46pm

Sorry to revive this old thread, but are we getting a update with January 2021 releases?

DanielTB80 · February 14, 2021, 12:16am

I have previously posted the 1/8/21 file. The next quarterly update will be in April.

DanielTB80 · June 15, 2021, 5:44pm

Documentation is back up on Apple’s website.

DanielTB80 · June 15, 2021, 5:48pm

I may have found the file you are looking for. It is listed as “video match XX-XX-XX” in the Google folder.
Please let me know if it is the file you are looking for.

Weilberg04 · July 18, 2021, 11:02am

This is so great - extremely helpful! I only saw your post just now. Otherwise, I would have thanked you sooner. Well, thanks a lot!!

DanielTB80 · October 1, 2021, 4:05am

Q3 2021 Incremental Update

I noted that the Apple Enterprise Partner Feed Support Personnel had not released an updated complete match database since July 2021. I submitted a support ticket inquiring as to the cause of this.

Per response to my support ticket inquiry dated 09/30/2021:

“The EPF feed is currently being updated to a new version (v5). The new feed will be live in the coming weeks and will include Apple Music data and updates to help efficiency.”

Hopefully, this will be updated by Q4 2021. I will check every so often for an update, but I can not commit that a complete update will be uploaded anytime soon.

In the meantime, I uploaded as many of the incremental files as I was able to locate and they are located in the “Q3 2021 Incremental” folder.

-DanielTB80

DanielTB80 · December 9, 2021, 3:31am

Greetings all,

Apple appears to have completed their conversion to the new EPF v5 feed sometime in Nov 2021. They also pulled all database files off the EPF site dated prior to 11/25/2021.
Apple changed their folder hierarchy in v5, but I believe that I have correctly identified the correct full match files that I uploaded previously.
The new files are dated 2021-12-07 in the Google Folder folder.
I will need the community to test and confirm this assumption. Please let me know if you find something amiss.

Thanks everyone,

-DanielTB80

ProphetSix · January 7, 2022, 10:10am

Hi there! Is there any way you can tell me a little better how to get the UPC? I did everything I was told in your initial post, but I cant seem to get an actual UPC (that looks like one anyway).

or better yet, can you give me the UPC to this album?

tigerman325 · January 7, 2022, 9:32pm

Right click on the page, and select “view page source”. Search for “UPC”. It’s there. I collect the database because it’s helpful for releases that have been pulled from Apple Music and are no longer available. If you don’t mind using scripts I’d use the following:
https://github.com/ToadKing/apple-music-barcode-isrc/raw/master/apple-music-barcode-isrc.user.js

It gives you the UPC as well.

tigerman325 · October 24, 2022, 11:36pm

This seems to no longer work as of today. I hope they still will have these files available.

babarpop · January 7, 2023, 11:37am

@tigerman325 any ways to have access to the whole Apple Music DB?
Is this db will be one day ingested into MB ?

tigerman325 · January 7, 2023, 6:30pm

I have nothing to do with this. However, the files that Daniel is posting is the entire Apple Music DB on the date that the file is named. They don’t change (because you download them locally to your hard drive), so it’s good to have for when releases are removed from Apple Music, you have a file that has the old IDs-barcodes match. There is no automatic way of adding all metadata to MB with these files. You have to just do it the traditional one release at a time way.

DanielTB80 · January 7, 2023, 9:45pm

I concur with @tigerman325.

I am providing the files for use by others and myself.

I do not have plans to do anything more than this at this time.

babarpop · January 10, 2023, 10:53pm

@DanielTB80 where did you have access to it ? If this is the whole UPC one, do you have same kind of table for ISRC? it will be really cool to map all track from Apple

DanielTB80 · January 11, 2023, 1:24pm

Per the guidance from Enterprise Partner Feed - Apple Services Performance Partners, the tables for ISRC should be found in the song_match and video_match database files.

I have previously posted the video_match database so it is already on the Google Drive. I just posted the song_match database, so see if that gives you what you need.