Music listeners today have unprecedented access to a deep catalog of music across myriad genres from ‘round the world, thanks to inexpensive tools for production and free distribution on the internet. But with unlimited offerings on tap, it’s not always easy to find new music you love, much less learn about the creators behind that music along the way.

When you choose an 8tracks playlist based on a theme or genre, you’re served a wide variety of tracks by different artists, and you likely discover more music than you do on other music services. However, to support this discovery experience, we’d like to help you learn more about the artists themselves, rather than letting the songs become merely a cog in a themed radio station.

Accordingly, we announced this week that we’re tapping OpenAura’s Artist Info API to deliver deep, accurate and current information about artists big and small, offered up through our pervasive player.  Using OpenAura’s API, we tap into a central source of information on artists, one which allows artists to control their online identity and earn revenue from that content. Artist bios and images are updated and refined over time, and independent artists have an equal opportunity for representation.

We view 8tracks as essentially a “matchmaking” platform for listeners and artists, as mediated by our DJ community, and so we’re particularly excited to leverage OpenAura to help further the bonds between music creator and music consumer.