Introduction To Nokia MixRadio API For Windows Phone 8

Introduction

In this article we will take an overview of Nokia latest MixRadio API. Earlier its name was Nokia Music API. This Nokia service is platform independent and can be used in desktop apps, android apps, windows phone apps, windows store apps etc. Nokia MixRadio API is a collection of web services and other C-sharp APIs that allow the user to show the API elements in your own application with custom look and feel. With this API you can show various music contents like music charts, Albums, Artists ,Mixes and search results etc.

The best part of this API is that it is not limited to a single country or music type but it offers music from

More then 200 countries
3 million global and local artists.
25 million plus tracks
Century of recordings.

This article mainly focuses on C# API and its use in windows phone 8. C# API is available for the following platforms:

Desktop Apps (.Net 4.5)
Windows Store Apps
Windows Phone 8 Apps

Nokia MixRadio API

This API can be used in two ways. The two ways are :

Using Launcher API of Window Phone
Using API tasks

Using API with launcher is simple but is of limited use. Launcher API in windows phone allows your application to integrate with common operating system tasks such as taking picture, opening store, web browser, phone call, message etc.

Using Launcher API, The application can launch the Nokia MixRadio app with some settings and user can use that app. This method requires the client to have nokia MixRadio app preinstalled.

Using launcher API following tasks can be done:

Search for music.
Show Artist details.
Show Gigs nearby.
Show available mixes.
Show product details.
Play a mix.

If one want to use the full power of MixRadio API then the best way is to make use of API methods instead of using MixRadio launcher. Using MixRadio API methods the following tasks can be done:

Search for an artist.
Search for a product (such as album, single or track).
Get search suggestions.
Get top artists.
Get top products.
Get products by an artist.
Get new releases.
Get a list of genres.
Get artist details (such as name, country, location, genre, and thumbnails).
Get product details (such as name, category, genre, performers, prize, and thumbnails).
Get artist recommendations.
Get product recommendations.
Get artists around a location.
Get a list of available mixes.
Get user play history.
Get user top artists.

Summary

That's enough to get an introduction about this API. In my upcoming article we will learn how to use it and integrate it in our windows phone 8 application.

Reference