Not groovy
Nintendo buries beloved YouTube channel in 3,500 copyright blocks
GilvaSunner, one of the most popular YouTube channels for listening to Nintendo’s original game soundtracks, might shutter as a result.
Nintendo has earned a reputation for bringing the hammer down on fans who celebrate its properties in the "wrong way," but the company has really outdone itself this time.
The house of Mario reportedly sent over 3,500 copyright blocks to a single video game music channel on YouTube in just over a week. That's a lot of unhappy red squares. It’s gotten to the point that one of the most beloved video game music channels on YouTube might actually delete itself due to the barrage.
Tune it out — If you've listened to video game music on YouTube, you've probably visited one of GilvaSunner's videos, as their channel is one of the most popular of its kind on the platform. According to a recent tweet, Nintendo unleashed 1,300 copyright blocks to the channel last week. This was followed by 2,200 more on Monday.
The full list of affected soundtracks is below, and it includes many of the most notable and beloved Mario and Legend of Zelda OSTs out there, as well as Luigi's Mansion for some reason.
Following Monday’s wave of copyright blocks — and anticipating more blocks to come — GilvaSunner said that it’s simply not worth it to keep the channel running anymore. As such, they will delete the channel this coming Friday, February 4th. If this happens, it will be the end of an era for YouTube video game music, as the channel has been around for more than a decade at this point.
No fun allowed — GilvaSunner said in a December 2020 tweet that these soundtrack videos aren't monetized, so they aren't profiting off the massive hits, but nasty Nintendo doesn't seem to care. As usual with this sort of thing, while it's certainly Nintendo's right to block unauthorized use of their copyrights, many of these soundtracks aren't available on popular streaming platforms like Spotify, which fuels the demand for YouTube soundtracks.
As we noted above, Nintendo is perhaps the most ban-happy company in the video game industry. It's hard to imagine Nintendo allowing a fan creation as elaborate and impressive as the PSX Bloodborne demake to exist, for example. If Ninty wants to keep fans happy, maybe they should keep the hammer in their pocket for a while.
