Build label platforms, sub-distribution services, or native music-tech products on top of direct DSP contracts, DDEX-compliant delivery, and proven distribution infrastructure. No intermediaries. No lock-in.
A music distribution API, also called a music delivery API, lets your platform deliver releases, manage catalog and read royalty data programmatically, without operating DSP relationships yourself. limbo/'s API is that layer on real infrastructure: direct DSP contracts, Merlin Network access and DDEX-native delivery behind a REST + JSON:API interface with OAuth 2.0.
The API is the same surface our own platform runs on. You're not using a thinner wrapper of a thinner reseller of a major distributor's API. Direct rails, all the way down.
Run your own multi-tenant distribution service. Approve releases. Manage splits. Issue payouts. Your customers never know the rails are ours.
Distribution as a feature inside your app. A creator tool that ships to DSPs from a "publish" button. An A&R platform that signs and delivers in the same week.
Already have your own DSP / Merlin licensing? Use our SupplyChain + Analytics + Royalties as the delivery + reporting layer underneath your existing contracts.
Six resource groups cover catalog management, delivery, approvals, analytics, identity resolution and rights. Same auth, same envelope, same versioning across all of them.
List, search and paginate the full catalog. Filter by UPC, ISRC, artist, release-date range, DSP delivery status. Cursor-based pagination. Sub-account scoping via Bearer token.
Trigger DDEX-compliant delivery of a release across one or more DSPs. Per-territory controls. Scheduled / timed releases. DDEX ERN 4.3 or 3.8.2 selectable per partner.
Pre-approve or reject submissions from sub-accounts before they ship. Reason codes. Bulk actions. Webhook-emit on state change so your moderation UI stays in sync.
Daily streaming trends per release, per DSP, per territory. Fraud-stream flags. In-house AI engine, not a reseller of someone else's analytics product. CSV/JSON export.
Resolve a track or release to its DSP identifiers: Spotify URI, Apple Music ID, YouTube video set, ISRC, UPC. Bidirectional. Spotify URI detection for catalog reconciliation.
Declare AI-disclosure metadata, opt-in / opt-out for AI-DSPs, UGC whitelist / blocklist. Per-track publishing splits. Survives metadata updates post-delivery, no resubmission required.
The same data the API exposes is also available via limbo/Chat, the first MCP server in B2B music distribution. Connect Claude, ChatGPT or any MCP-compatible client and query your catalog, deliveries, royalties and analytics with words. Your data stays in your infrastructure.
Every transport spec, every wire format, every auth flow is something your engineering team has used before. No proprietary lock-in formats. Bring your stack as-is.
Full support for ERN 4.3 and 3.8.2. Per-partner protocol selection. Backwards-compatible with downstream DSPs that haven't moved up yet.
All REST responses follow the JSON:API spec. Sparse fieldsets, includes, cursor pagination. Predictable shape for codegen.
Bearer tokens with 1h TTL, multi-session, individual + global revocation, 2FA at the platform layer. Per-account rate-limiting.
Built under EU data-protection standards. KYC verification on every entity. Manual admin approval before access. Fiscal data + withholding handled.
Distribution data is rights-bearing financial data. The API is built like one, not like a content-management proxy.
OAuth 2.0. Multi-session per account. Individual token revocation. Global logout invalidates every session at once. 2FA enforced at the platform layer.
Linear ramp by account tier. Burst-tolerant. Soft-fail with explicit retry headers so your worker pool doesn't queue death-spirals.
Releases ship in 24–48h depending on metadata quality. Validation runs before queueing: broken submissions fail fast with line-level reasons.
Admin · Manager · Label · User · Analyst. Admin impersonation logged for every assist. Sub-account release validation before propagation.
The API is the transversal layer. Every Music Block ships its own resources under the same auth and envelope. limbo/Humans is always included; activate the rest as you grow.
The foundational block. Real senior humans behind every integration, not a ticket queue. Included in every stack. Here, you are not just another number.
POST releases, manage UPCs / ISRCs, schedule per-DSP and per-territory drops. The thing the API was born for.
Daily streaming trends, fraud flags, AI engine in-house. Programmatic from day one, no human-readable dashboard required.
Independent · on Curvee · private by design. Line-by-line statements. Splits, recoupment, advances. Your data never leaves limbo/.
The transversal layer itself. REST + JSON:API. OAuth 2.0. Guided integration test. MCP server bundled.
Run a fully-branded distribution platform under your own domain. 3-tier sub-accounts. Custom SMTP, logo, signup. "Provided to YouTube by your brand."
Delivery-only. For teams with their own DSP / Merlin contracts. We get your music + metadata where they need to go, under your contracts, not ours.
Official YouTube Services Directory approved partner. OAC + Label Channels. Content ID + Claims.
Royalty advances + catalog sales. Keep ownership or sell, masters and/or publishing. Backed by professional investor partners.
Every release validated against Merlin + every major DSP's content-integrity policy before it ships. Acoustic fingerprinting. Human QC layer on top.
The first MCP server in B2B music distribution. Natural-language catalog queries from Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible client.
Four operations you can run in five minutes against the test environment. Same auth as production. No support ticket required.
$ curl GET /v2/catalog?filter[artist]=Akua -H "Authorization: Bearer $LIMBO_TOKEN" ← 200 OK data: [ { id: "rel_8x2yQpA9", attrs: { title: "The Blackest Joy", tracks: 12 } }, ... 4 more ] meta.next_cursor: "c2..."
$ curl PATCH /v2/approvals/sub_3kdmZ -d '{"data":{"attributes":{ "state": "approved", "note": "passes Agent QC" }}}' ← 200 OK state: "approved" delivers_at: "2026-06-15T00:00Z" webhook: approval.granted → fired
$ curl GET /v2/trends? filter[release]=rel_8x2yQpA9& filter[date.from]=2026-05-16 ← 200 OK by_dsp: { spotify: { streams: 142,803 }, apple: { streams: 38,201 }, youtube: { streams: 91,772 } } fraud_flags: 0
$ curl POST /v2/ai/rights -d '{ "track_isrc": "USUM72500842", "ai_disclosure": "none", "ai_dsps_opt_in": false }' ← 201 Created rights_id: "rt_19sM..." applies_to: 1 track effective: "immediate"
This isn't a wrapper. It's the same surface our own platform has been running on since the API became a first-class layer. Every claim below is verifiable, public, and not a promise. Merlin Network member since 2014, and an official member of the Music Fights Fraud Alliance.
Twenty years bootstrapped. Zero outside capital. Founder-owned. The platform you sign onto today will still be here next decade.
We own the licensing relationships. Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, Tidal, Amazon, Beatport, TikTok: direct, plus Merlin Network for the rest.
Latest DDEX ERN spec end-to-end. JSON:API on the REST side. GDPR + KYC built-in. EU and US regulatory standards.
First MCP server in B2B music distribution. Catalog responds in natural language to any MCP-compatible client. In production since 2025, included with every plan.
Both describe the same layer, and limbo/ covers it end to end. Delivery is the part that moves a release to each store: DDEX ERN packaging, per-DSP protocol selection, transfer and status. Distribution is that plus the commercial layer around it: the DSP contracts the release travels under, catalog management, and royalty reporting on the way back. One API surface handles all of it.
OAuth 2.0 with bearer tokens. Tokens have a 1-hour TTL, support multi-session, and can be revoked individually or globally. 2FA is enforced at the platform layer for every account. Test-environment tokens are issued at onboarding; production tokens require KYC.
ERN 4.3 and 3.8.2. Each delivery picks the version compatible with the downstream DSP. You don't need to know which is which: the partner-protocol map is maintained on our side.
Not a self-serve one, and we would rather tell you that than have you find out. What you get is a guided integration test in a dedicated test environment, against the same validation rules production uses, plus a demo platform pre-loaded with catalog, artists and analytics. Test keys are issued when we scope your integration together.
Per-account, linear by tier, burst-tolerant, and it scales with usage. Soft-fail with Retry-After headers so workers don't compound. Your exact limits are set with you when we scope the integration.
24–48 hours from POST /v2/distributions to live on platform, depending on metadata completeness and the specific DSP ingest cadence. Validation happens before queue: broken submissions fail in seconds with line-level reasons.
Independent and private by design, running on Curve. Royalty data never sits with a competitor. Not exposed to major labels. Not exposed to venture capital. Line-by-line per DSP, territory and track. Splits, recoupment, advances. Available via GET /v2/royalties and as monthly CSV / XML.
Yes, in development. release.live, release.failed, approval.granted, royalty.statement.ready, claim.received. HMAC-signed payloads. Retries with exponential backoff. Beta access available on request.
Yes. limbo/API is the transversal layer; limbo/WhiteLabel sits on top with branded UI, custom domain, and 3-tier sub-account architecture. You can also build your own UI directly against the API.
limbo/Chat is the first MCP server in B2B music distribution. Connect Claude, ChatGPT, or any MCP-compatible client to query catalog, deliveries, trends and royalties in natural language. Your data stays in your infrastructure; we do not train on it. In production since 2025, included with every plan.
Custom commercial proposals built around your catalog, your stack, and your business model. There is no generic price page because there is no generic customer. Start the conversation and we will scope an actual setup against your real numbers.
Go deeper: how to integrate a music distribution API, the RESTful API FAQ, and limbo/Chat, the MCP server built on this API.
Read the spec. Run the integration test. Or get a custom proposal scoped against your real catalog and business model.
A short qualification form. Senior engineering joins the first call, and test keys arrive with your onboarding.