How can I search for albums with generic titles using the Spotify Web API?

It is possible to search by name for an album in the Spotify catalog using the Spotify Web API.

However, if the album name is a common word or phrase, the search response may contain thousands of results. I can't see a way to narrow the search by artist name.

Here is an example: searching for album Country by artist Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad.

The API request is:

http://ws.spotify.com/search/1/album?q=country

The response is:

  

  11861
  0
  100
  
    How Country Feels
    
      Randy Houser
    
    886443789852
    0.73964

    
      CA US
    
  
  ...more albums...

There are 11861 results, and the results are paged, with 100 albums per page. A request can be made to get the next page, but if the album I'm looking for is on the last page I will have to make 118 separate requests to the API before I find it.

Is there a better way?

Answer

You can use the advanced search query language to help, especially if you know the artist in advance. For example:

http://ws.spotify.com/search/1/album?q=artist:Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad

...will limit the search to albums by that artist.

http://ws.spotify.com/search/1/album?q=artist:Giant Panda Guerilla Dub Squad Country

...will return only the album you want.

The full advanced search reference is currently unavailable in the chaos that was the new Spotify redesign, but you can find it in the Wayback machine here.