Online Music: Nintendo should take Square Enix as an example

Online Music

After a historical phase during which the major players in the industry never seemed really interested in applying measures to assist in the preservation of video games, in recent years there have been several companies that have made very important steps forward in this sense. Microsoft, for example, has been pushing the concept of backwards compatibility since the beginning of the eighth generation of consoles, while Sony has recently founded a "Preservation Team" dedicated to this very purpose, as well as inserting the classics of the first PlayStation in a tier of new PS Plus subscription. Like a stubborn freshwater salmon, Nintendo is instead sailing in the opposite direction of what is now a trend in the sector, and although it is now surrounded by virtuous examples, the Japanese company continues to rise in the news for the violent removal from the network of any unauthorized content that belongs to it, even if there is no profit behind its publication.

It is clear, Nintendo has every right to defend its material from piracy and from uncontrolled diffusion of software and emulators through the ether, but if we talk about the artistic contents present in those video games that have made entire generations of enthusiasts, there is an obvious alternative to copyright strikes. And almost paradoxically, it is Square Enix who shows us the way, another Japanese company that has chosen an approach opposite to that of Nintendo.

Nintendo against its community

The live concert of Splatoon 2 at Nintendo Live 2019 In the first months of 2022, Nintendo has occupied the front pages of specialized sites with a news that has revived the debate on the issue, and which once again brought the inevitable negative publicity to the giant led by Shuntaro Furukawa. GilvaSunner, a YouTube channel that in the previous eleven years had meticulously assembled a real musical encyclopedia by uploading many Nintendo video game soundtracks, is progressively wiped out by a rain of strikes that lead to the removal of over 3,500 tracks in just a few days.

The disappearance of the GilvaSunner channel leaves almost half a million subscribers without a point of reference for the recovery and listening of the boundless music production that Nintendo has unwittingly recorded during its long history as a publisher, all while the company does not seem to be in any way receptive to the fans' request for a legal alternative for the use of these artistic contents.

With the closure of the Creators Program someone had hoped for the beginning of a more relaxed relationship between the company and the content creators who work with the copyrighted Nintendo material, but, how demonstrates the example of GilvaSunner, the Kyoto house seems to be deaf to the requests of its own community, also because the solution to the problem is very easy to identify and is within the reach of the company, at least in the case of music taken from video games.

Square Enix makes its music available to everyone ... and monetizes it as well

The Distant Worlds concert: Music From Final Fantasy There is, in fact, another publisher, also Japanese, which has taken a completely different approach from that of Nintendo, offering an extraordinary service to fans, while managing to safeguard and monetize its enormous artistic heritage threatened by the passage of time. We are talking about Square Enix, which instead of fighting the work of fans with strikes and legal threats, has landed on the YouTube Music streaming service with a new label, to which about 5,500 tracks referable to its video games now refer.

Searching for Square Enix Music in the platform's search engine, you can reach over 60 music albums that include the complete soundtracks of some of the publisher's famous titles, such as those of Final Fantasy VII Remake, Nier: Automata, Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy IX .

Looking for the name of the legendary composer Nobuo Uematsu instead, you will find the original soundtracks of all the other Final Fantasy, from the first to the eighth, as well as the recordings of the Distant Worlds concerts that brought the music of the video games of the series around the world.

As if that weren't enough, the company has created a brand new YouTube channel, Square Enix Music Channel, which does more than just include playlists with direct links to all the tracks of the soundtracks just mentioned, but goes as far as hosting interviews and musical insights with Japanese composers and producers. There are even mixes that can be played in the background while you work, study or play, a symptom of how Square Enix is ​​genuinely interested in promoting the channel rather than targeting it to host a crystallized encyclopedia of the musical works it has produced. br>

What awaits Nintendo?

A classic musical insight on the Square Enix YouTube channel Looking at the incredible work done by Square Enix, no valid reasons come to mind why Nintendo should not follow the his example, using platforms such as YouTube to preserve and make accessible to old and new gamers the music tracks that helped make the games of the great N the timeless masterpieces we remember today. By publishing a music archive on the most popular streaming services, Nintendo could not only continue to defend proprietary material by removing unauthorized copies popping up on the net, but it would also have the opportunity to monetize its reproduction, eventually managing to get closer to that community of enthusiasts who until now had tried to preserve the history of the Japanese giant only to have a letter of formal notice delivered by the company's lawyers.

It would be a move that would really satisfy anyone, and which would first of all have the merit to start a preservation process capable of defending Nintendo's immense artistic heritage, a baggage of love and memories that is in danger of being lost forever.

What is your opinion on this? Do you think Nintendo is right to protect its intellectual property or would you like the company to move to start initiatives like the one put in place by Square Enix? Tell us in the comments below!

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