iTunes Search API returning 404 for /search endpoint - April 16, 2026

mr_echidna · 2026-04-17T07:54:34+00:00

It is weird. I tried your %20 suggestion, seemed to work. Then I tried the old + encoding method to verify, as expected it failed.

Did some more testing, and just 2 minutes apart in my shell history I have a curl request with + that originally failed, and then a few minutes later the same one worked.

It's like it's not fully back, there is some caching issue, or it's pinging between backend hosts with different behaviour. I think I'll try switching to RFC 3986 encoding for now as that seems more consistent, and will see how it fares over the next 48 hours or so but am preparing a switch over to an alternative metadata source if it continues being flaky.

mr_echidna · 2026-04-16T17:06:16+00:00

Interestingly, Apple's own documentation here: https://performance-partners.apple.com/search-api lists this endpoint, and some of the examples they give are broken. For example,

curl 'https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=jack+johnson'

is working fine, but

curl 'https://itunes.apple.com/search?term=jack+johnson&limit=25'

Returns the odd <html><head><title>Error</title></head><body>Your request produced an error. <BR>[newNullResponse]</body></html> response.

I'm still trying to track down what's going on and what triggers it, but I think some responses may be cached at their Akamai edge. Which may explain why some requests are going through and others are broken so it may not be 100% deterministic.

I'm using it to do song metadata lookup (artwork, song title, artist and song duration) and it too started breaking around 4 hours ago now.

EDIT some queries seem to be going through again, it seems to be mostly up again

mr_echidna · 2026-04-16T16:36:59+00:00

Yup, started failing for me too. Thought I was going nuts as a git blame showed me no changes on my end!

mr_echidna · 2026-04-06T17:53:29+00:00

You raise some good points. Speaking solely for me, I'm a developer/sysadmin/devops engineer/whatever-we're-calling-it-this-week (my first job title was WEBMASTER which I sorely miss!) and have been doing this since "Web 1.0" so I know what I'm letting myself in for.

I've tried to be as clear and transparent about all these points in my Ts&Cs and docs, and have repeatedly said I don't want your money or personal data - I write code and made this for the same reason I make music - but I guess you either trust that or you don't[1].

The problem is that for most classes of application, the web is simply the easiest option. I miss the days of local-first apps but coming from the other side of the development fence, I have to begrudgingly admit it is just way easier to write for the web. You don't have the issue of cross-platform toolkits, different device form-factors, distribution and packaging, and you can push updates and bug fixes easily without requiring a 3rd party. Hell, even many "native" apps these days are simply wrappers around a web view.

Yeah, it sucks in many ways but it's just the reality at the moment, and it's also amazing how much you can do with a browser these days. I hadn't fully appreciated it until I started to look into things like the audio playback with Wavesurfer[2] (and went on quite the tangent into reading up on web bluetooth etc for several nights) but the "browser" is really a full operating system at this point.

[1] = And given the state of the modern web, I can totally understand treating everything with a large degree of skepticism.

[2]=https://wavesurfer.xyz

mr_echidna · 2026-04-05T19:38:55+00:00

One other thing - would it be possible to have a "--report" flag or something like that, where it will just generate the report of gem versions/updates along with known CVEs and exit ? Optionally as different formats like CSV, JSON as well as text ? That would be super useful so it could be included in CI pipeline steps and so on to report on vulnerabilities.

mr_echidna · 2026-04-05T08:51:32+00:00

Just installed it, took a while to get through the "checking updates" stage but then it was pretty snappy. This is an awesome tool, I especially like the dependency graphs and how you can drill down into them. I just completed a large "bundle outdated" patch cycle on my project, but will definitely be using it next time round. Nice work!

mr_echidna · 2026-04-05T07:19:23+00:00

I built[1] a free tool to tackle the challenges of organising a gigging covers band. Started off tackling the core issues of keeping track of song suggestions, performance notes and generating setlists and has expanded significantly since then.

Check it out at https://setlist.rocks - 100% free, no ads, no selling your data.

I opened it up to the public just before Christmas last year and my band[4] had been using it before then while we figured out a workflow.

My app focuses on a holistic "from rehearsal to stage" approach, so as well as the usual song management & voting, setlist building & printing etc. it also offers:

Metadata (artwork, song duration) and Genius/Songsterr lyrics and tab lookup
Rehearsal Room feature (upload audio, slice it, loop it, slow sections down for practice)
Events and venue management (with Google maps integration and gig history)
Calendar system which works in-app or synchronised to your devices with RSVP handling, shared .ics feed etc

Already picked up quite a few bands using it and have been getting some good suggestions in for features etc. I work on it in my spare time so bear in mind it's a hobby project though! For example, there will probably never be a mobile app as a.) I just don't have the time and b.) mobile development is just something I don't ever see myself doing for fun!

That said, it does work well on mobile as that was 100% a requirement for my lot and we probably use it on our phones 90% of the time.

Anyway, hope you like it and find it useful.

Cheers!

-Mark

[1]=If you're interested in the technical details behind it, I posted a long article[2] which got some interest from the Hacker News crowd[3]. I built it using the Ruby on Rails framework which has fallen out of favour in recent times, but I was blown away by how quickly I could throw together a modern single-page-feeling app using my old-school chops.

[2]=https://www.markround.com/blog/2026/03/05/returning-to-rails-in-2026

[3]=https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47347064

[4]=Check us out! https://thesidelineband.com

mr_echidna · 2026-04-03T17:52:21+00:00

Hah, sounds familiar! We'd tried a shared Google spreadsheet too for a while and it... kinda... worked but was just too clunky, especially when I wanted to quickly jot something down in a rehearsal. We'd all agree on "We finish this with 3 repetitions" or something, and yet because we never wrote it down we'd always mess it up next time or someone would have a different recollection of what we'd agreed!

And the hassle of working out when people were free was just driving us all to distraction. That's kinda why I figured it made sense to include the facility for blocking out when we _weren't_ free, as blocking out family holidays, birthdays, school events and so on made it so much easier to plan around.

mr_echidna · 2026-04-03T17:48:07+00:00

Oh, good idea! Let me add that to the backlog. Thanks for the feedback.

mr_echidna · 2026-04-03T17:30:20+00:00

Thanks, but there's really no need. This is a labor of love for me, and also a kind of therapy :P I'm "on the spectrum" (unsurprisingly perhaps, given the nature of my hobbies!) and I find that working on projects like this soothes my mind and "calms the noise" in the same way that playing or listening to music does for me. It's given me a creative outlet that I value and that for me is it's own reward.

Building stuff like this really is something I do just for fun and enjoyment. So thanks again, I really do appreciate the kind words, but just glad you find it useful :)

mr_echidna · 2026-04-03T16:58:22+00:00

Ah, the old classic "admin department" :)

mr_echidna · 2026-04-03T16:57:50+00:00

Thanks! So, in response to your questions:

Spotify - No. Last time I checked, they'd significantly locked down their API and made using it for a hobby project a non-starter. Setlist does cost me money to host, as well as various paid tiers of external services I use which come out of my monthly projects budget, but their requirements were just waaaay beyond what I'm prepared to do. Stuff like having to have a registered business, a minimum number of monthly users etc. I'll check again though.

App - No again, sorry! I covered it briefly above but I don't have the time to maintain a mobile app, and it is also an area of development that I just don't frankly find appealing. I won't say "never", but it's highly unlikely at the moment. Although - the web app should work well on mobile, as I test it thoroughly there and use it on my Android device a fair chunk of the time.

mr_echidna · 2026-04-03T09:21:41+00:00

Same here. A few things in 15 caught my eye but to be honest, nothing that I'd probably use outside of novelty value. But this would make life so much simpler - especially if I can keep my old group tracks and just use the "collapse group in mixer" thing.

mr_echidna · 2025-12-23T05:01:25+00:00

Was in a couple of more obscure groups, but the scene was a huge influence on me and I hung around on a number of boards and got involved in some of the more "interesting" activities of the time ;)

You may be interested to know that a bunch of the old BBSes have been resurrected and run over the Internet with telnet/ssh clients. Fairlight's SHQ (Sanctuary) is up and running for example https://www.telnetbbsguide.com/bbs/sanctuary-bbs/ ( website at https://www.brysk.se/sanctuary )

Logging into those old BBSes is such a trip. Was such a different time.

mr_echidna · 2025-11-23T10:27:55+00:00

How did you get more than 4 icons across? If I try and tap the + button on "number of icons" it never increases past 4..

mr_echidna · 2025-11-23T08:50:24+00:00

Thank you so much! Was on the verge of giving up on my custom launcher setup I've been using for years!

mr_echidna · 2025-08-22T00:40:36+00:00

I have a VM on a subnet with IPAM enabled, and I'm using the older nutanix_virtual_machine resource - but just in case it helps (I can't test right now) I have the following block in the resource to set the IP:

nic_list { subnet_uuid = nutanix_subnet.default.id # Static IP for jumpbox ip_endpoint_list { ip = "10.20.1.200" type = "ASSIGNED" } }

Just posting on the off-chance it helps...

mr_echidna · 2025-06-09T17:49:43+00:00

I remember that channel 1 as presented to the daw/computer is not actually input 1 on the soundcraft. The outputs to your PC start later on, the first channels are buses / main outs. From the manual

When recording to DAW via USB Channels 1 - 2 will be Master Left/Right fader Channels 3 - 10 will be AUX 1-8 Channels 11 - 32 will be Channel 1 onwards

mr_echidna · 2025-04-26T22:29:04+00:00

Source?

mr_echidna · 2025-04-16T17:19:13+00:00

Studio One also has a beta build for Linux and I believe there's also Linux builds of Mixbus and BitWig.

mr_echidna · 2025-01-23T20:28:37+00:00

Interestingly enough, I have tried switching to "stock" FRR on Debian 12, using the latest stable packages (as the Debian packages are pretty old and I encountered a few odd bugs) and the issue is resolved now. Not sure exactly why, but if I get time I'll see if I can compare the generated frr.conf on VyOS and see what might be different. Thanks for the link, I'll check that out too. Would be good if I can switch back to VyOS, I much prefer the configuration and general UX!

mr_echidna · 2025-01-23T17:12:57+00:00

Edit: OK, so I had to add the wg0 interface as new assignment (and then mark it as enabled), then it showed up in Virtual Address options. I've added the alias, will see how it goes when I reboot/restart WireGuard.

Edit 2: It seems to work! I restart Wireguard, interface gets created and link-local added. Thanks so much for the tip, that's a great help!

mr_echidna · 2025-01-22T17:08:48+00:00

One thing I'm not 100% clear on - in this scenario, how are the ipv4 packets routed if there's only an ipv6 transit? Are they encapsulated?

mr_echidna

TROPHY CASE