Python file that has always worked suddenly getting json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

Question

This file has worked every time I've run it every day until today. Based on the error, here's what I think is the relevant code:

LastFM_artistMBID = MusicBrainz_artistMBID
get_artist_info_from_LastFM = lastFM.makeGetArtistInfoFromLastFM_URL(LastFM_artistMBID)
artist_info_from_LastFM = requests.get(get_artist_info_from_LastFM)
artistData = json.loads(artist_info_from_LastFM.text)

That last line is what the error(s) at the bottom seem to hate.

The MusicBrainz_artistMBID variable in the first line above is an item from the mbid_array2 list below. All of the above code is part of the get_artists_data function below. If you need more code, I can edit this answer.

for mbid in artistsData.mbid_array2:
    get_artists_data(mbid)

Errors (including the first line from a print command while debugging):

<Response [200]>
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "getArtistDataCron.py", line 216, in <module>
    get_artists_data(mbid)
  File "getArtistDataCron.py", line 54, in get_artists_data
    artistData = json.loads(artist_info_from_LastFM.text)
  File "/home/bombybomb/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/json/__init__.py", line 354, in loads
    return _default_decoder.decode(s)
  File "/home/bombybomb/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/json/decoder.py", line 339, in decode
    obj, end = self.raw_decode(s, idx=_w(s, 0).end())
  File "/home/bombybomb/anaconda3/lib/python3.6/json/decoder.py", line 357, in raw_decode
    raise JSONDecodeError("Expecting value", s, err.value) from None
json.decoder.JSONDecodeError: Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0)

I've tried several solutions and suggestions I've found from Googling but nothing seems to fix it. This file worked fine every time until today.

Answer 1

Expecting value: line 1 column 1 (char 0) means that the given value is entirely empty. Chances are the server is responding with no content at all due to a problem on the server end. You would just have to wait until the issues on the server are resolved if you have no access to fixing the server issues.