Right now it looks like a mystery. Please help me in solving it.
I use iTunes public API to fetch an album: "Metallica" by Metallica (see it in browser: US region, MV region). I construct the following URLs to fetch it via API:
Here's the actual behaviour I observe:
If I query GET https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=579372950&country=MV&entity=album
in a Spring app (using RestTemplate
+ Jackson HttpMessageConverter
) I get an empty response:
{
"resultCount":0,
"results": []
}
If I navigate to https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=579372950&country=MV&entity=album in a browser I get a file download prompt. The file contains an empty response:
{
"resultCount":0,
"results": []
}
If I query API using HttpPie http get https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=579372950&country=MV&entity=album
I get a non-empty response !!!
{
"resultCount": 1,
"results": [
{
"amgArtistId": 4906,
"artistId": 3996865,
"artistName": "Metallica",
"artistViewUrl": "https://music.apple.com/us/artist/metallica/3996865?uo=4",
"artworkUrl100": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music/v4/0b/9c/d2/0b9cd2e7-6e76-8912-0357-14780cc2616a/source/100x100bb.jpg",
"artworkUrl60": "https://is1-ssl.mzstatic.com/image/thumb/Music/v4/0b/9c/d2/0b9cd2e7-6e76-8912-0357-14780cc2616a/source/60x60bb.jpg",
"collectionCensoredName": "Metallica",
"collectionExplicitness": "notExplicit",
"collectionId": 579372950,
"collectionName": "Metallica",
"collectionPrice": 9.99,
"collectionType": "Album",
"collectionViewUrl": "https://music.apple.com/us/album/metallica/579372950?uo=4",
"copyright": "℗ 1991 Blackened Recordings",
"country": "USA",
"currency": "USD",
"primaryGenreName": "Metal",
"releaseDate": "1991-08-12T07:00:00Z",
"trackCount": 13,
"wrapperType": "collection"
}
]
}
I tried it multiple times and the results seem to be consistent. I compared the requests and they seem to be identical.
Why does iTunes respond differently to different clients? I can't understand. What important detail am I missing?
Similar questions:
This problem happens to the following regions (it's a complete list):
I spotted a difference:
http get 'https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=579372950&country=MV&entity=album'
-> empty responsecurl 'https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=579372950&country=MV&entity=album'
-> empty response
http get https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=579372950&country=MV&entity=album
-> 1 album in response
curl https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=579372950&country=MV&entity=album
-> 1 album in responseif I don't use quotes around URL, the request is interpreted as GET https://itunes.apple.com/lookup?id=579372950
. the default country is US and therefore I see 1 US album in response.