Nintendo’s refusal to put its music on streaming services is really frustrating

On February 4th, popular video game music YouTuber GilvaSunner shut down their channel.

The reason? More than 2,200 “copyright blocks” from Nintendo. For GilvaSunner, this was the straw that broke the camel’s back, following numerous other takedowns in the 11-plus years the channel had been on YouTube.

“I’ve decided that at this point it’s really not worth it to keep the channel up any longer,” GilvaSunner said in a February 1st tweet. “There are many different opinions over what is happening and that’s fine! I can understand pretty much all sides. I know this is disappointing to read for a lot of you, but I hope you can respect my decision to want to move on at this point.”

The loss of GilvaSunner’s channel was a significant blow to many, myself included, as it was often one of the few ways to listen to a large selection of video game music, particularly Nintendo’s. I’m someone whose musical tastes have often skewed towards soundtracks over mainstream albums, especially as I like to have songs on in the background while writing. You can see, then, why GilvaSunner would be so appealing to me. But it certainly wasn’t just me; prior to the shutdown, GilvaSunner’s channel had surpassed 1.5 billion total views, so it clearly had a massive audience. That’s why it’s sad, to say the least, that GilvaSunner is no longer around.

But if I’m being honest, it also ticks me off. It’s the latest bafflingly out-of-touch move from Nintendo, a company that otherwise puts out consistently great games and hardware. That’s because the company, to this day, refuses to make its music available on streaming platforms. While music from the likes of The Legend of Zelda and Mario is undeniably iconic, there is, perplexingly, no official way to listen to it — no Spotify, Apple Music or even whole OSTs to purchase and download.

When a company routinely declines to make its software available, it’s understandable that people would take it upon themselves, like GilvaSunner did, to offer solutions. It’s a big reason why fans pirate Nintendo games; the company fails to preserve many of its classic games on modern systems. But while it’s more understandable that Nintendo would crack down on piracy, its constant takedowns of YouTube uploads of mere songs is head-scratching. In the case of GilvaSunner, the videos weren’t monetized and they didn’t profit from them in any other way, like Patreon. So, Nintendo, you’re going to remove videos containing music from your games and not even make said music available elsewhere? What? And no — Super Smash Bros. Ultimate‘s in-game music player is not at all a solution; even if you own the game, no one should have to lug around a Switch like an MP3 player.

“I definitely don’t just speak for myself when I say that this music is extremely meaningful.”

Nintendo’s nonsensical aversion to music streaming was even more pronounced earlier this week when The Pokémon Company — in which it holds a minority stake — launched the “Pokémon DP Sound Library,” an official hub to access and sample music from Pokémon Diamond and Pearl. Although these are Nintendo-published games, The Pokémon Company ultimately owns and operates the series, which is undoubtedly why this even happened. Regardless, it feels bizarre to have some Pokémon music — a Nintendo-exclusive franchise — while missing anything from Mario and Zelda or even, say, Kirby, Donkey Kong, Metroid and Fire Emblem. (The lack of Fire Emblem: Three Houses tracks especially hurts — it’s one of my all-time favourite Nintendo games.)

What makes the situation even worse is that so many other gaming companies have wisely taken to bringing their music to streaming. Square Enix’s Final Fantasy VII Remake (Nobuo Uematsu & co.), Kingdom Hearts III (Yoko Shimomura & co.) and Nier: Automata (Keiichi Okabe); Atlus’ Persona 5 (Shoji Meguro); Xbox’s Halo (Martin O’Donnell & co.) and PlayStation’s The Last of Us (Gustavo Santaolalla) are just some of the games with outstanding soundtracks currently on music streaming services. While there are certainly some omissions from these catalogues (the lack of the first two Kingdom Hearts titles is especially disappointing to me), there’s undeniably still a lot of stellar tracks represented there. In any event, it’s far better than nothing, which is what Nintendo offers.

I definitely don’t just speak for myself when I say that this music is extremely meaningful. Uematsu’s incredible Final Fantasy music, in particular, has played an integral role in my life. For me, the emotional power of music is felt all the more for gaming OSTs, based on the amount of time I spend with a game, its world and its characters. Being able to take out my phone and throw on some Final Fantasy VII music is extremely cathartic; all of the nostalgia tied to that seminal game comes rushing in. It’s consoling when I’m sad, thrilling when I’m excited, and all-around just a big part to who I am. The impact of having that music quickly accessible right from my phone can’t be understated. Similarly, I know there are many Sonic fans, including one of my close friends, who felt similarly when Sega released a nearly two-hour anniversary concert for free. The list goes on.

All of this also just helps honour the work of the artists. As I was writing this piece, I saw the official Devil May Cry account retweet composer Casey Edwards, who shared that February 2022 marked the fifth anniversary of “Devil Trigger” from Devil May Cry V. Immediately, that reminded me of an absolute banger that song is and compelled me to listen to it. Thankfully, Capcom has had the song available on both YouTube and streaming services for years now, so I could immediately celebrate alongside Edwards.

That’s a lighthearted example, but for a more touching, take Final Fantasy XIV. I’m slowly going through the saga (I’m finally on Shadowbringers) and am absolutely adoring Masayashi Soken’s scores; they’re a key part of why the game’s emotional narrative hits so hard. What’s more, all of the scores pre-Endwalker, the latest expansion, are streaming, so I can continue to enjoy the game even when I’m not actually playing it. (Endwalker‘s OST, thankfully, comes to streaming later this month.)

And Shadowbringers‘ soundtrack might just be, in some ways, the game’s most meaningful, as Soken revealed last year that he composed the final tracks while in a hospital battling cancer alone during COVID. It was a profoundly moving story that saw XIV director Naoki Yoshida, fans and composers alike tearfully celebrating his return. Now, it’s impossible to say whether Nintendo would have made music available had such a heartfelt story applied to one of its own games, but in the case of XIV, at least, that was never a concern. Soken’s story adds so much more weight to his work, and I’m grateful that it’s so readily available for fans.

Of course, GilvaSunner isn’t the only video game music channel; there are others you can find for some Nintendo music. I definitely am going to. But it shouldn’t come to that! We shouldn’t have to scour the web to find particular songs, YouTubers shouldn’t have to try to help out only to be punished for doing nothing wrong, and artists shouldn’t have their work inaccessible to their audiences. And unlike GilvaSunner, Nintendo would actually profit from doing this; it would obviously make money from licensing the songs or even selling them outright. Doing so would also help promote the games while earning goodwill from fans. It’s not at all unreasonable or unrealistic to ask this of Nintendo.

Having said all of this, am I optimistic that the Japanese gaming giant will someday change its tune? Sadly, no, but I’d love to be wrong. If nothing else, though, this just makes me appreciate the work of people like GilvaSunner even more. A lot of fond memories came from that channel, and I’m grateful for that. They were a hero — Nintendo just couldn’t see it.

Image credit: Nintendo