A side-by-side look at the Genius and WIA Music catalog MCP servers: transport, auth, tools, quality signals, and the config to install either one in Claude, Cursor, Windsurf or VS Code.
Verdict: choose Genius for art & culture work as a local process; choose WIA Music catalog for art & culture. You can also run both side by side in one mcpServers block.
search, get_song, get_artist.Rows where the two servers differ are marked.
| Spec | W WIA Music catalog | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Art & Culture | Art & Culture |
| Quality signal | 57/100 · Good | 39/100 · Fair |
| Install command | Confirmed | Not confirmed yet |
| Transport | Local subprocess (stdio) | — |
| Auth | Not declared | No auth required |
| Pricing | Not declared | Free |
| Required env vars | None listed | None listed |
| Verified owner | Community listing | Community listing |
| GitHub stars | 0 | — |
| Directory activity | 1 views 0 installs 0 upvotes | 0 views 0 installs 0 upvotes |
| Tools | 4 | Not listed |
| Full listing | View Genius | View WIA Music catalog |
searchSearch Genius for songs by title, artist, or keyword. Returns song METADATA hits (id, title, artist, Genius URL, release date, pageviews) — NOT lyric text (the Genius API does not return lyrics). Example: search({ query: "kendrick lamar humble", limit: 10 })get_songGet METADATA for a single Genius song by ID: title, primary artist, album, release date, pageviews, Genius URL, and a short "about" description. Does NOT return lyric text (not available via the Genius API). Example: get_song({ id: 378195 })get_artistGet METADATA for a Genius artist by ID: name, Genius URL, image, follower count, alternate names, and a short "about" description. Example: get_artist({ id: 1421 })artist_songsList an artist's songs ranked by popularity. Returns song METADATA (id, title, artist, Genius URL) — NOT lyric text. Example: artist_songs({ artist_id: 1421, limit: 20 })No tool names declared yet. Check the project README from the listing page.
Paste either block (or both) into your client config, e.g. claude_desktop_config.json or ~/.cursor/mcp.json. We only show a config when the install command is confirmed.
{
"mcpServers": {
"genius": {
"command": "npx",
"args": [
"-y",
"@pipeworx/mcp-genius"
]
}
}
}
No confirmed install command for WIA Music catalog yet — follow the setup steps linked from its listing page rather than a guessed package name.