Photo Credit: NintendoNintendo has sent over 4,000 copyright strikes to a YouTube channel hosting its soundtracks.
The GilvaSunner YouTube channel has almost 500,000 subscribers but will be shut down soon. The account owner says that Nintendo started by sending 1,300 copyright strikes against their channel. As the week progressed, 2,200 further blocks were received.
“After thinking about this a lot over the past few days, I’ve decided that at this point, it’s really not worth it to keep the channel up any longer, and will therefore delete the GilvaSunner YouTube channel this coming Friday,” the owner writes. This person uploaded soundtrack music from many of Nintendo’s popular franchises over the last 30 years.
Many gamers are bitter the channel is being removed because Nintendo does not offer its music to stream. The only place to listen to Nintendo music is in the game while playing it or on special CD soundtracks that are limited editions and rarely released outside of Japan. Nintendo has been slow to embrace the world of video game streaming, so it’s no surprise that music streaming isn’t on their radar.
Nintendo has issued takedowns and copyright blocks against the GilvaSunner channel for years. But it has never received such a massive wave of copyright strikes to request material to be removed. The videos were not monetized (according to GilvaSunner). The channel included soundtracks from many of Nintendo’s most popular games, including:
- The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past
- The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
- Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Super Smash Bros. Brawl
- Yoshi’s Island
- Super Mario Land
- Super Mario Galaxy
- New Super Mario Bros.
- Mario & Luigi: Dream Team
- Super Mario 3D World
- Luigi’s Mansion
- Kid Icarus Uprising
- Kirby’s Dream Land
Several gaming outlets like Kotaku have contacted Nintendo to ask if they plan to release their music on streaming services. But so far, the Japanese game publisher hasn’t answered.
“I’m not angry or surprised Nintendo is doing this, but I do think it’s a bit disappointed there is hardly an alternative,” GilvaSunner says about losing the channel. “If Nintendo thinks this is what needs to be done, I will let them take down the channel. It is their content after all.”
