Luma vs Bandsintown API for AI agents
Luma is Luma's JSON API for managing your own calendar's events and guests, plus a separate MCP server that can search public Luma events. Bandsintown API is an API for artists and their teams to show their own Bandsintown tour dates on their websites and apps.
The short answer
- Luma: Hosts automating their own Luma calendars, and agents finding public Luma events such as tech and community meetups through the MCP server.
- Bandsintown API: An artist's own website showing that artist's tour dates with ticket links.
Side by side
| Luma | Bandsintown API | |
|---|---|---|
| Searches | The API covers only the calendar its key was created on. The MCP server can search upcoming public Luma events by keyword, location and date range. | Upcoming and past events for one artist, looked up by artist name or ID; there is no open search across all events. |
| Returns | Not stated on its pages | Event date and time, venue name and location, lineup, description, ticket links (offers) and the Bandsintown event link. |
| Before the first call | API: a Luma Plus subscription on the calendar and a per-calendar API key (200 requests a minute per calendar). MCP: any Luma account, signed in through OAuth. | An API key (app_id) from Bandsintown for Artists, linked to a single artist; other uses need Bandsintown's approval or a partnership. |
| Free | The MCP server works with any Luma account, without Luma Plus. | – |
| Paid | The API needs Luma Plus, listed at $59 a month billed annually. | – |
| Acting on a result | Not stated on its pages | Ticket link: events include ticket offers, and the terms may require using Bandsintown's ticket links as the primary ones. |
| Limits on keeping or showing results | Not stated on its pages | Session-based caching is allowed if you notify Bandsintown; content must be attributed to Bandsintown. |
| MCP server | Official MCP server at https://mcp.luma.com (searches public Luma events and manages events you host). | – |
Where Openpath fits
Openpath has no event listings yet. Events are on its roadmap, from organizers who list them themselves. Get listed.
Questions people ask
What do I need before I can use Luma?
API: a Luma Plus subscription on the calendar and a per-calendar API key (200 requests a minute per calendar). MCP: any Luma account, signed in through OAuth.
Is Luma free?
The MCP server works with any Luma account, without Luma Plus.
Sources
Every line about another company comes from its own pages. Prices and terms change, so check the source before you rely on one.
Luma, read on October 15, 2026:
- docs.luma.com/reference/getting-started-with-your-api: “To use the Luma API, you need a Luma Plus subscription.”
- docs.luma.com/reference/getting-started-with-your-api: “The Luma API is a JSON-based API that allows you to programmatically manage your events and guests.”
- docs.luma.com/reference/getting-started-with-your-api: “only grants access to the calendar it was created on”
- help.luma.com/p/luma-api: “The Luma API uses a per-minute rate limit shared across read and write requests:”
- luma.com/pricing: “$59 ... Per month, billed annually”
- luma.com/pricing: “API access”
- help.luma.com/p/mcp: “search upcoming public events on Luma by keyword, location, and date range.”
- help.luma.com/p/mcp: “Anyone with a Luma account can connect — you don’t need Luma Plus.”
- help.luma.com/p/mcp: “https://mcp.luma.com”
Bandsintown API, read on October 15, 2026:
- help.artists.bandsintown.com/en/articles/7053475-what-is-the-bandsintown-api: “designed for artists looking to promote their shows on their websites”
- help.artists.bandsintown.com/en/articles/7053475-what-is-the-bandsintown-api: “Each API Key is linked to a single artist unless authorized otherwise by Bandsintown.”
- help.artists.bandsintown.com/en/articles/9186477-api-documentation: “returns the list of events including their date and time, venue name and location, ticket links”
- help.artists.bandsintown.com/en/articles/9186477-api-documentation: “If there are no tickets or live shows in an event, the "offers" array will be empty.”
- corp.bandsintown.com/data-applications-terms: “meant to be used solely by artists, or people working in connection with or on behalf of artists”
- corp.bandsintown.com/data-applications-terms: “cannot be used under any other circumstances unless specifically approved by Bandsintown”
- corp.bandsintown.com/data-applications-terms: “You may employ session-based caching of Bandsintown API results, provided that you notify us of such caching”
- corp.bandsintown.com/data-applications-terms: “fails to attribute the Bandsintown Content appropriately to Bandsintown is expressly prohibited”
- corp.bandsintown.com/data-applications-terms: “the ticket link(s) provided to you by the Bandsintown Data Applications as the primary ticket link(s)”