

My own Rap Genius API - timrogers
http://timrogers.co.uk/2013/08/17/ballin-with-my-own-rapgenius-api/

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dewitt
I appreciate that you want access to their content, and _I_ may personally
agree they ought to build an API. But isn't it up to them to decide whether or
not to do so?

Otherwise isn't it just stealing?

(Fully expecting this to be a controversial comment, but I'm curious what the
prevailing sentiments on scraping without permission are these days. Good,
because all content should be free, especially crowd-sourced content? Or bad,
because the contributors didn't agree to such third-party usage, and it could
limit Rap Genius' ability to build a business?)

~~~
timrogers
OP here. It's a fair point. I'd love to hear the thoughts of other HNers.

I tend to think that this kind of thing is okay for personal use, whereas it
wouldn't be en masse - for instance, if you were using it to power and
advantage a competing music site. Others' opinions may differ.

For instance, I've previously built scrapers for banking services (American
Express
[[https://github.com/timrogers/amex](https://github.com/timrogers/amex)] and
Lloyds TSB
[[https://github.com/timrogers/lloydstsb]](https://github.com/timrogers/lloydstsb\]))
and the UK's university application system, UCAS
([https://github.com/timrogers/ucas](https://github.com/timrogers/ucas)) and
none of these organisations seem to have had any problem with it, but the
library has been really gratefully received by users.

~~~
dewitt
Thoughtful reply, I really appreciate that. Thank you.

And don't get me wrong—I love APIs, I build them for a living. And I know how
much users love them. Unfortunately, not all companies love providing them, or
have the economics of doing so fully worked out.

~~~
timrogers
No problem - great to engage with people's opinions. HN has such a wealth of
knowledge.

You might find my response below
([https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6229617](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6229617))
interesting, on that front. My guess is that for Rap Genius, the only API that
will make real sense is one offered on a commercial basis.

------
kenshiro_o
Great stuff! I honestly find it shameful that they don't have an api. A couple
of months ago I built one in Node.js
([https://github.com/kenshiro-o/RapGenius-
JS](https://github.com/kenshiro-o/RapGenius-JS)). If anyone is interested in
improving/using the project let me know!

~~~
timrogers
I actually saw your library, it's super cool - it's currently pretty much the
top result for "Rap Genius API", apart from the tweet I refer to
([https://twitter.com/RapGenius/statuses/245057326321655808](https://twitter.com/RapGenius/statuses/245057326321655808)).

As I've said in other comments, I'd love RG to have a public API, but I can
see why they don't.

It'd be cool to compare notes on parsing Rap Genius. Drop me an email if you
have a moment, me@timrogers.co.uk.

~~~
kenshiro_o
Sure! I'll send you a mail tomorrow when I return to London. Sharing ideas on
how to improve parsing is a great idea!

~~~
timrogers
Awesome! Speak to you soon hopefully!

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why-el
I would assume they are at least thinking about an API, as it's fairly easy to
construct/what they are doing is easily portable elsewhere (Think Medium like
comments all over the place).

With this said, nice work.

~~~
timrogers
Thanks. I'd imagine an API is on the cards, but I could be wrong. As far as I
can see, beyond the website, their data has two markets:

\- Embedding in personal blogs - this is probably best achieved by a simple
embed code (which I'm planning to use my gem to build), rather than a full API

\- Commercial use - for instance, Spotify (or competitor) might like to
display rich lyrics in-app.

The situations which would demand a full-on API, I suspect, would be
commercial use. Thus, I'd imagine that any API they build will be private and
commercial, providing a (first?) revenue stream.

------
georgespencer
Nice work!

~~~
timrogers
Thanks George - I appreciate it.

