Nintendo Music App Launch Sparks Concern Over Future DMCA Takedowns

Nintendo has launched a new Nintendo Music smartphone app offering many of the company’s staple soundtrack songs as a perk to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. This move raises concerns over Nintendo’s potential to crack down on Internet users who have been collecting and posting Nintendo music online for years.

Access to Nintendo Music

The Nintendo Music app includes hundreds of songs from titles to download or stream, ranging from 1985’s Super Mario Bros. to last year’s Pikmin 4. The music selection is not comprehensive, but it covers many of Nintendo’s popular series, including Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, Fire Emblem, Metroid, and Animal Crossing. More tracks will be added over time, mirroring the process Nintendo has used to add to its Nintendo Switch Online classic game downloads.

Nintendo’s History of DMCA Takedowns

The launch of the Nintendo Music app follows a history of stringent DMCA-fueled takedowns of Nintendo music uploaded to the Internet by others. In 2019, Nintendo issued copyright strikes for Nintendo soundtrack songs posted by popular YouTube channel GilvaSunner. By 2022, Nintendo followed up with takedowns for thousands of additional tracks uploaded by GilvaSunner.

Defiance from Other Uploaders

Despite the launch of the Nintendo Music app, some Nintendo music uploaders elsewhere on the Internet remain defiant. The Metroid Database posted on social media about its longstanding collection of “every single Metroid soundtrack ever released” while bad-mouthing “Nintendo’s pathetic offering” of only a few Metroid tracks in its app.

Nintendo’s Approach

Nintendo’s “Game Content Guidelines” generally allow the use of Nintendo’s copyrighted content, but prohibit the straight posting of things like music without creative or editorial input. This has led to other video game publishers posting official versions of their