Will the new Nintendo Music app lead to more DMCA takedowns from Nintendo?

Last night, Nintendo pulled off a surprise launch of a new Nintendo Music smartphone app, offering many of the company's staple soundtrack songs as a perk to Nintendo Switch Online subscribers. But the new subscription freebie could give Nintendo additional motivation to once again crack down on Internet users who have been collecting and posting Nintendo music online for years now.

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 current music selection is far from comprehensive, but it at least touches on many of Nintendo's most popular series, including Zelda, Pokemon, Kirby, Fire Emblem, Metroid, and Animal Crossing (plus some popular background music from various Wii Channels). Nintendo promises that more tracks will be "added over time," mirroring the process Nintendo has used to add to its Nintendo Switch Online classic game downloads.

Nintendo Music users can build their own playlists, of course, or choose from a number of pre-arranged playlists to suit different moods or character themes. The app also syncs with your Nintendo account to highlight music from games you play and offers options to avoid "spoilers" from certain game music or extend songs in lengthy loops.

The sad fate of GilvaSunner

The launch of the Nintendo music app follows a history of some rather stringent DMCA-fueled takedowns of Nintendo music uploaded to the Internet by others. Back in 2019, for instance, Nintendo famously issued dozens of copyright strikes for Nintendo soundtrack songs posted by popular YouTube channel GilvaSunner, leading to a backlash from fans. By 2022, Nintendo followed up with takedowns for thousands of additional tracks uploaded by GilvaSunner, leading them to conclude that "at this point, it’s really not worth it to keep the channel up any longer."

While GilvaSunner didn't make any money off the ad-free YouTube channel, some observers have noted in the past that "Nintendo itself doesn’t make any money from its soundtracks, either, because there is no official way to pay to listen to them." That's no longer strictly true, as the Nintendo Music app is being sold as a perk to make a paid Nintendo Switch Online subscription a bit more appealing.