diff --git a/picard/const/__init__.py b/picard/const/__init__.py
index 89f7701bf..fa52d183e 100644
--- a/picard/const/__init__.py
+++ b/picard/const/__init__.py
@@ -98,3 +98,13 @@ MUSICBRAINZ_SERVERS = [
     'musicbrainz.org',
     'beta.musicbrainz.org',
 ]
+
+# Plugins API
+PLUGINS_API = {
+    'host': 'picard.musicbrainz.org',
+    'port': 80,
+    'endpoint': {
+        'plugins': '/api/v1/plugins/',
+        'download': '/api/v1/download/'
+    }
+}
diff --git a/picard/plugin.py b/picard/plugin.py
index 770c7cca9..c1d80c7f6 100644
--- a/picard/plugin.py
+++ b/picard/plugin.py
@@ -20,6 +20,7 @@
 from PyQt4 import QtCore
 from collections import defaultdict
 import imp
+import json
 import os.path
 import shutil
 import picard.plugins
@@ -29,7 +30,7 @@ from picard import (config,
                     version_from_string,
                     version_to_string,
                     VersionError)
-from picard.const import USER_PLUGIN_DIR
+from picard.const import USER_PLUGIN_DIR, PLUGINS_API
 from picard.util import os_path_samefile
 
 
@@ -173,6 +174,19 @@ class PluginWrapper(PluginShared):
         return self.file[len(self.dir)+1:]
 
 
+class PluginData(PluginShared):
+
+    """Used to store plugin data from JSON API"""
+    def __init__(self, d, module_name):
+        self.__dict__ = d
+        super(PluginData, self).__init__()
+        self.module_name = module_name
+
+    @property
+    def files_list(self):
+        return ", ".join(self.files.keys())
+
+
 class PluginManager(QtCore.QObject):
 
     plugin_installed = QtCore.pyqtSignal(PluginWrapper, bool)
@@ -181,6 +195,11 @@ class PluginManager(QtCore.QObject):
         QtCore.QObject.__init__(self)
         self.plugins = []
         self._api_versions = set([version_from_string(v) for v in picard.api_versions])
+        self._available_plugins = {}
+
+    @property
+    def available_plugins(self):
+        return self._available_plugins
 
     def load_plugindir(self, plugindir):
         plugindir = os.path.normpath(plugindir)
@@ -265,6 +284,27 @@ class PluginManager(QtCore.QObject):
                     self.plugin_installed.emit(plugin, False)
             except (OSError, IOError):
                 log.warning("Unable to copy %s to plugin folder %s" % (path, USER_PLUGIN_DIR))
+    def query_available_plugins(self):
+        self.tagger.xmlws.get(
+            PLUGINS_API['host'],
+            PLUGINS_API['port'],
+            PLUGINS_API['endpoint']['plugins'],
+            self._plugins_json_loaded,
+            xml=False,
+            priority=True,
+            important=True
+        )
+
+    def _plugins_json_loaded(self, response, reply, error):
+        if error:
+            self.tagger.window.set_statusbar_message(
+                N_("Error loading plugins list: %(error)s"),
+                {'error': unicode(error)},
+                echo=log.error
+            )
+        else:
+            self._available_plugins = [PluginData(data, key) for key, data in
+                                       json.loads(response)['plugins'].items()]
 
     def enabled(self, name):
         return True
diff --git a/picard/tagger.py b/picard/tagger.py
index 69a04246b..b4e4e9a9e 100644
--- a/picard/tagger.py
+++ b/picard/tagger.py
@@ -193,6 +193,7 @@ class Tagger(QtGui.QApplication):
         if not os.path.exists(USER_PLUGIN_DIR):
             os.makedirs(USER_PLUGIN_DIR)
         self.pluginmanager.load_plugindir(USER_PLUGIN_DIR)
+        self.pluginmanager.query_available_plugins()
 
         self.acoustidmanager = AcoustIDManager()
         self.browser_integration = BrowserIntegration()