Top 10 Best Streaming APIs: YouTube, Spotify, Twitch and more
Top 10 Best Streaming APIs: YouTube, Spotify, Twitch and more
Streaming platforms have changed the way we consume entertainment. In the last 10 years, many streaming services have emerged, changing the way video and music are delivered and shared. Many of these platforms have millions of users, making them very influential in today’s entertainment industry ]. Some of these platforms allow third-party applications to connect to them easily using APIs (Applications programmable interfaces). In this article, we will examine some of these streaming APIs and rank them.
We looked at several Streaming APIs based on the following four main criteria:
- API features: We evaluated the various features that make the APIs appealing for accessing and sharing videos
- Popularity: We take into account the number of active users
- Pricing: We reviewed the cost of integrating the API into applications.
- Ease of use: We assessed the ease of integrating each of the APIs into applications.
Eventually, we came up with the following list of Top 10 Best Streaming APIs.
- YouTube API
- Spotify API
- Twitch API
- Netflix API
- Vimeo API
- Apple Music
- Deezer API
- Musixmatch API
- Dailymotion API
- Mixcloud
TL;DR: Here’s a table summarizing our findings.
1. YouTube API
Owned by Google, YouTube is the world’s most popular video sharing and streaming platform.
API Features: YouTube API allows the developer to easily integrate YouTube functionalities into their mobile and web applications. This API allows you to play YouTube original content directly from your application, search for content and manage playlist. In addition, developers can use this API to easily access video analytics. Developers can use this API via two types of calls, REST and XML-RPC.
Popularity: YouTube is currently used by 1 Billion people Month
Ease of Use: Google has a very large developer community, They have also provided well-written documentation with code samples and relevant examples.
Price: This API is completely free to use
2. Spotify API
Spotify is a music streaming platform that allows users to access millions of songs and play via the web, desktop, or mobile devices.
API features: The Spotify APIs allow developers to read audio features of songs and analyze their various attributes, such as danceability and valence. Developers can also integrate Spotify music into third-party applications, serve recommendations to users, and search and manage artists, albums, tracks, or playlists.
Popularity: Spotify is currently used by 180 million users worldwide
Ease of Use: The Spotify API is well documented, something that enhances its ease of use. Furthermore, there is a vibrant community of Spotify developers who are willing to help each other make the most of the music service.
Price: This API is offered free. However, for more premium features users are required to pay $9.99 per month.
3. Twitch API
Primarily focused on streaming gaming videos, Twitch is a live streaming video platform owned by Twitch Interactive, a subsidiary of Amazon.
API Features: Twitch API provides developers with the data they need to build tools for creators to grow their audiences. With this API developers can easily integrate amazing Twitch features into their web or mobile applications. Twitch supports OAuth 2.0 and OIDC, which enables your application to take actions on behalf of a Twitch account or access certain data about a user’s account.
Popularity: Twitch currently has more than 15 million daily active users
Ease of Use: Twitch has done an excellent job creating wonderful documentation. In addition, the developer community is very large so you can sure that a large majority of questions you might have will already have been answered.
Price: Free
4. Netflix API
Netflix is the world’s leading subscription service for watching TV episodes and movies on your favourite device.
API Features: With thousands of movies in its database, Netflix API allows developers to access movie ratings and user information. It also gives them access to data like queues and rental history. With OAuth standard security, the subscriber can control which applications can access the service on their behalf.
Popularity: Netflix currently has around over 148 million streaming subscribers worldwide.
Ease of Use: Netflix provides comprehensive documentation and other resources to make it easier implementing the API into your web or mobile application.
Price: This API is offered free
5. Vimeo API
Headquartered in New York City, Vimeo is an open video platform that allows content creators to securely upload, share and monetize their content.
API Features: Using Vimeo API developers can access all the amazing features from Vimeo and integrate them into applications. Vimeo uses the OAuth 2 specification which implies developers must send their user to a Vimeo URL, where they will be given the choice to accept or deny access. Vimeo’s API endpoints support multiple actions. Each action is defined by it’s HTTP method.
Popularity: Vimeo is currently used by 100 million users worldwide and 400 thousand paying subscribers
Ease of Use: Vimeo has provided easy-to-follow documentation on how to get started implementing the API into your application.
Price: This API is free
6. Apple Music
Own by Apple Inc, Apple Music is a music streaming platform that allows users to stream videos and music online and offline
API Features: The Apple Music API allows developers to integrate streaming music into their websites and third-party applications. This API also supports playback of Apple Music. Furthermore, if a user grants you the access rights, you can retrieve and amend data related to that user.
Popularity: Apple Music is a popular service around the world, especially for iOS users. As of December 2018, the platform had 56 million subscribers.
Ease of Used: Apple Music has exhaustive documentation about how to start using its API. Besides, there is a vibrant community of Apple developers who are always ready to assist each other make the most of Apple products.
Price: Free
7. Deezer API
Deezer is an online music streaming platform, This service allows users to listen to their favourite music on multiple devices, even offline.
API Features: Deezer API allows developers to access the platform’s data and escalate the functionality of applications. Some of the data you can access include albums, playlists, radio, artists, track users, comments, search, and editorial.
Popularity: Deezer currently has more than 14 million users worldwide
Ease of use: Deezer has an easy to follow documentation for its plugins, API, and SDKs. This way, integrating the API into your website is easy.
Price: Free
8. Musixmatch API
Based in Italy, Musixmatch is a music service that allows users to search and share their favourite lyrics and translations in more than 50 unique languages.
API Features: Musixmatch API allows developers to integrate lyrics into their application. The API has methods for accomplishing various tasks, including getting a list of the top artists per country, getting a list of the top songs per country, searching for tracks, getting information about tracks, and getting translated lyrics for any language.
Popularity: Musicxmatch currently has more than 30 million users worldwide
Ease of use: To assist developers in getting started, Musixmatch offers an easy to follow API documentation and SDKs for iOS and Android devices. There is also an API playground you can use to test the functionality of the API endpoints.
Price: This API has both free and paid plans. The paid plan offers a lot more advanced features and it cost around $1.5 CPM (Cost Per Impression) per month
9. Dailymotion API
Based in France, Dailymotion is one of the biggest video-sharing technology platforms in Europe. The company offers a wide range of video storage and viewing capability to its users.
API Features: Dailymotion API allows developers to access various data regarding videos, users, and comments. For example using the DATA API developers can interact with the video player and embed it on your own website or application via the PLAYER API. Dailymotion API uses the OAuth 2.0 protocol for managing authentication and authorization flows between the API and third-party applications.
Popularity: Dailymotion currently has more than 300 million users worldwide
Ease of Use: Dailymotion has provided easy-to-follow documentation on how to get started implementing the API into your application. Additionally, Dailymotion has a very fast growing community.
Price: This API is completely free to use
10. Mixcloud
Based in the United Kingdom, Mixcloud is an online-based service that lets registered users to browse and stream music available on the platform.
API Features: This API allows developers to create applications that can access Mixcloud’s database. With the API, you can complete various tasks, including displaying information about users, searching the available music collections, uploading shows, and editing uploads.
Popularity: Mixcloud currently has over 17 million users per month
Ease of Use: The API has been designed to focus on simplicity and ease of use. Mixcloud provides resourceful documentation with everything you need to start implementing the API on your applications.
Price: Free
That’s Rakuten RapidAPI’s list of Top 10 Best Streaming APIs. We hope you’ll find an API that you can integrate into your application.
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