Nintendo Drops The Hammer on YouTube Music Channels — Virtually Guaranteeing an Increase In Piracy

Photo Credit: Nintendo

Nintendo is hitting YouTube channels featuring popular game soundtrack with copyright strikes.

Many channels are voluntarily shutting down in the wake of the strikes.

Several YouTube channels shut down yesterday after Nintendo issued repeated copyright strikes. The GilvaSunner channel had over 300,000 subscribers. The owner shared a screenshot of his inbox of dozens of copyright strikes.

The videos uploaded to the channel included music from The Legend of Zelda series and Super Smash Bros. According to the channel owner, Nintendo started with the most viewed content on the channel and went from there. All of the claims appear to be coming from the Japan HQ.

Nintendo has a history of being unfriendly toward YouTubers.

Back in May, the company went after the YouTube channel BrawlBRSTMS3. The channel included all of the official soundtracks of the Super Smash Bros. series.

Nintendo’s response to the issue would be understandable if the music was available to listen to anywhere else. So far, Nintendo remains one of the few gaming companies that hasn’t embraced streaming.

You can listen to the full catalog of Final Fantasy games on Spotify, but all Nintendo uploads on the service are unofficial.

Many channels that feature content with Nintendo music have begun removing those videos. Fans have turned to YouTube to listen to music outside of the game for years. It’s unfortunate that Nintendo has taken this approach, but perhaps they’ll eventually get with the times.

Before there was a massive backlash to Nintendo issuing copyright strikes on YouTube, Nintendo did not support let’s players. At least now there’s a program in place for people to play and share Nintendo content as a partner.

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Someone needs to fly to Japan and let Nintendo know about Spotify because removing songs with no alternative sucks. This is how you get people to pirate more of your music rather than purchase soundtracks.

6 Responses

  1. Avatar
    Jack Humber

    Those songs were eligible for fair use under their copyright but no Nintendo is greedy. Nintendo used the help of anti-piracy firm to detect all versions of their songs and have them file the DMCA claims against the uploaders!

  2. Avatar

    Nintendo is showing communism here! I declare a boycott on buying anything Nintendo-related in the future!! Seriously, Big N, we have rights, y’know!!

  3. Avatar

    They won’t listen man. They are one of the many old-school mindset companies in Japan who refuse to make changes and adjust to the trend

  4. Avatar
    Electrohead Dante

    Ah well. If they don’t wanna publish it somewhere like Spotify or iTunes (which still exists in some capacities) or make available, then yo-ho yo-ho, a pirate’s life for the listeners.

  5. Avatar

    It’s their music, so they should be able to choose where their music appears.
    That does not make pirating it “right” or “a right”