It has been almost a month since Nintendo unveiled Nintendo Music, their music streaming service with soundtracks from some of their most iconic games.
The app, available to all Nintendo Switch Online members, marks yet another venture from the company to branch out past video games – and one that is specifically significant due to the company’s past.
Nintendo’s messy history with music
Nintendo as a company is notorious to fans for being very protective over their I.P.s, especially when it comes to their music.
Nintendo’s library of music includes 40+ years of some of gaming’s most iconic tunes, and yet despite this, only a tiny minority of these songs are accessible by official means outside of the games they originate from.
While Nintendo would occasionally provide official avenues for listening to their music, such as the soundtrack CD that came with the 25th year anniversary edition of Super Mario All-Stars, these releases were few and far between.
This left many fans to turn to unofficial means, such as YouTube channels that would take the soundtracks from these games, and put them online for anyone to access – referred to in the music world as “rips”, for the act of “ripping” a song from its original source.
However, Nintendo was very clear in their campaign against these unofficial means, often taking down these YouTube videos with copyright strikes.
While it was in Nintendo’s legal right to strike these videos, this crusade was widely unpopular with fans, with regular public uproar over the practice.
The question from fans was crystal clear: Why take down fan music channels, yet refuse to give suitable official alternatives?
So while other game companies, such as Sega or Square Enix, released their soundtracks on popular music streaming surfaces, Nintendo fans were resigned to carrying their switches around to hear their favorite arrangements, or listening to unofficial uploads online.
Until Nintendo Music.
The highs of Nintendo Music
Nintendo has a reputation for inserting gimmicks into every product they release. As a fan, it is occasionally infuriating to watch the company take big swings and completely miss the mark, bogging down the experience of what would otherwise be a solid product.
So you would have to imagine my relief to learn that, for all its bells and whistles, Nintendo Music at its core operates like a no-nonsense music streaming platform.
All of the features and freedom you would expect from a normal music app are present on Nintendo Music, with a “favoriting” system, the ability to download tracks to listen to offline, and developer-created playlists that change on a daily basis.
Yet the app is not lacking in Nintendo flare – something that was vital to justify the creation of another music app, instead of putting all of their soundtracks on an already existing platform.
Indeed, Nintendo Music feels like a platform optimized specifically for housing game soundtracks, with features like a spoiler prevention system that allows users to hide soundtracks for games they have not yet played, and the ability to choose between listening to the “top tracks” or “all tracks” for any given soundtrack.
However, in its current state, Nintendo Music’s library still leaves much to be desired.
The Lows of Nintendo Music
While the diversity of the music present on Nintendo Music is promising to diehard fans, the quantity of different soundtracks is sorely lacking. Some of the games featured show that Nintendo is not afraid to dig past their flagship franchises for good tunes, but some classic hits are still lacking
Nintendo’s musical legacy is vast, and the relatively tiny amount of games from the company’s history represented on their music app does not come anywhere near honoring that legacy.
Multiple times I have already gone to look up a soundtrack on the app, just to be met with nothing.
While I’m glad that more niche Nintendo games are being represented, it does feel strange to think that Tomodachi Collection made it onto the initial line up while games like Super Mario 64 did not.
That being said, Nintendo has promised to continue adding new soundtracks over time.
Sure enough, a few days after the service’s release, they made good on this promise, adding the Super Mario Bros. Wonder soundtrack to the app.
However, what is more troubling to me than the lack of soundtracks is the lack of artist credit on these works.
From Koji Kondo to Kazumi Totaka, many insanely talented composers have graced the ears of Nintendo fans, and have made their place in the legacy of the company’s history.
Yet, the app gives no credit to the artists who created the content it houses.
On Spotify, I can listen to Sneakman from the Jet Set Radio soundtrack and, in just a few clicks, find Hideki Naganuma’s artist page to listen to his discography. On Nintendo Music, if I wanted to find more songs by the composer of Gusty Garden Galaxy, Mahito Yokota, I would be out of luck.
This sets a worrying precedent for an app that, due to the company’s history of protectiveness over their soundtracks, has become the main official catalog of Nintendo’s musical legacy.
Nintendo Music has a legacy to uphold
Nintendo’s advertising is painting its music app as a sweet bonus for NSO subscribers; a little extra something for fans.
But, as the only comprehensive official avenue for listening to Nintendo music, it has (inadvertently or not) become much more: a library tasked with upholding and preserving the musical history of one of gaming’s oldest companies.
In this regard, Nintendo Music is sorely lacking.
While the roster of soundtracks can be expanded overtime, and an artist credit feature could be added in a simple update, there is another problem with the service that is not so easily resolved.
Nintendo Music, as aforementioned, is attached to Nintendo Switch Online.
This should concern any gamers familiar with the industry’s ever-evolving relationship with the live service model.
We have seen Nintendo products like the Wii Shop Channel, or even Super Mario Maker, completely shut down after Nintendo decides that the cost of maintaining those servers is not worth it.
This practice means that a small but significant amount of gaming content has been lost to time forever.
It is not likely that Nintendo Music will share this fate any time soon, but online server based streaming is far from the most secure form of digital preservation.
Why Nintendo Music matters
As a longtime Nintendo fan, their music is very important to me. As with many other fans, some of their music was the backing track for fond childhood memories, or unforgettable game nights with friends.
The idea that these songs can all coexist on a platform, readily available at a moment’s notice, is exciting. But the idea that a live service model means that these songs could be taken away at any time is terrifying.
While it is a giant wish fulfillment for many fans to finally be able to listen to some of their favorite game soundtracks on an official service, Nintendo has, willingly or not, undertaken a large responsibility to preserve and honor a giant legacy.
It is up to Nintendo to shoulder this responsibility wisely, and properly celebrate and preserve the decades of innovation and triumph in their musical library.