Yahoo opened a new API for developers, this time tapping their index of information about music and artists.

Web developers with a need for a more musical experience on their sites may want to check out the latest service being made available by Yahoo.

The Yahoo Music API debuted on the company’s Developer Network, Yahoo announced today:

The Yahoo! Music API gives developers access to the Yahoo! Music catalog of artists, albums, tracks, videos, ratings and more. It provides numerous ways to browse the catalog: through charts, search, similarities, genres, artists, and user recommendations and ratings. Adding content to your site becomes simple when using our API and video player.

A site developer could use this API to build an application with personalized features. Registered users could place their ratings and recommendations under unique profiles. An application could use that information to show visitors what its members think about a given song or artist.

The Music API is the latest in a string of such access to data Yahoo continues to make available. Yahoo opened its biggest index, search, through its SearchMonkey developer tool earlier in 2008.