Nintendo Music

[Eidolon2010]

Nintendo launched its own app, including soundtracks for games... and consoles

(Official translations, but no credits...)

For now:
*Super Mario Bros.
*Metroid (Famicom Disk System)
*Metroid
*Dr. Mario
*Kirby's Dream Land
*Donkey Kong Country
*Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island
*Star Fox 64
*The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
*Fire Emblem: The Blazing Blade
*Metroid Prime
*nintendogs
*Wii Channels
*Super Mario Galaxy
*Tomodachi Collection
*The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
*Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
*Super Mario Odyssey
*Kirby Star Allies
*Animal Crossing: New Horizons
*Splatoon 3
*Pokemon Scarlet / Violet
*Pikmin 4

[rheaost]

I'm wondering, could we put listings for Nintendo Music-exclusive OST's, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Pikmin 4?

[Toad King]

Originally Posted by twiilit

I'm wondering, could we put listings for Nintendo Music-exclusive OST's, like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe or Pikmin 4?

The current rules requires you to be able to purchase the albums while these are all streaming only/downloading in-app only.

[Eidolon2010]

Added "Super Mario Bros. Wonder"

[Eidolon2010]

Added "Donkey Kong Country 2: Diddy's Kong Quest"

[zierts]

Originally Posted by Toad King

The current rules requires you to be able to purchase the albums while these are all streaming only/downloading in-app only.

Before long, Nintendo will start charging for this. They do not mention the word "free" for a single time in their announcement trailer.

I'd like to check two things on the app. Firstly, what the sound quality is, particularly sampling rates of the songs and comparisons to previous releases. Secondly, whether the "Extend to..." feature offers seamless looping.

[Toad King]

Originally Posted by zierts

Before long, Nintendo will start charging for this. They do not mention the word "free" for a single time in their announcement trailer.

I'd like to check two things on the app. Firstly, what the sound quality is, particularly sampling rates of the songs and comparisons to previous releases. Secondly, whether the "Extend to..." feature offers seamless looping.

They're already charging for it since you need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to use it.

As for stream quality, they list bitrates on their support site. Highest quality is 320kbps.

[zierts]

Originally Posted by Toad King

They're already charging for it since you need a Nintendo Switch Online subscription to use it.

That, I'm aware of. But I think they'll feel at some point they can make more money with it if they charge for tracks and soundtracks. Though probably not as part of NSO then anymore. They might be testing the waters on demand and user behavior now.

Originally Posted by Toad King

As for stream quality, they list bitrates on their support site. Highest quality is 320kbps.

That's a start but of course says little if we don't know the format they are using. At least at 64kbps, it would make a big difference whether it's Opus, Vorbis, AAC or even MP3 files. That, plus sampling rates and masters they are using.

I could also see them using a proprietary encoding and container format if they offer seamless looping.

Originally Posted by BlazingAbyss

I've heard that you can download the music from the app to your phone for offline listening, if that's the case, is there a way to export the files like how you can with iTunes? I'm not too concerned about the albums that already have physical releases, but it would be nice to archive the ones that don't.

The way I understand it, you can download tracks but you can only listen to them using the Nintendo Music app offline. The files have to be stored somewhere on your phone, so you could listen to them without the app as long as you have the proper codec and the files are not encrypted (which they probably are). Another, dirtier possibility would be to play the files while having a sound recording app run in the background. Needless to say both ways will result in Nintendo's CEO hunting you down and personally smacking you over the head with your phone for having violated their TOS.




Edit: Okay, so some people looked under the hood. It's AAC-encoded stereo audio. Some files have a sample rate of 44.1 KHz, some 48 KHz...but the sample rate is not used to the full extent. Channel frequencies are capped somewhere at around 20 KHz and thus below the 22.050 KHz or 24 KHz that would be possible.

Metroid Prime channel frequencies:

GameCube game: 16 KHz
OST: 19 KHz
Nintendo Switch game: 24 KHz
Nintendo Music: 20 KHz

The Nintendo Music files for Metroid Prime are not based on the OST album master. Seems like Nintendo went back to the archives and converted from there as the app files have the second-highest sound quality so far, right after the Metroid Prime Remastered files on Nintendo Switch.

On the other hand, Donkey Kong Country is based on the OST album master. It has the same added environmental sound effects heard on the Super Donkey Kong OSV and DK Jamz. Some of the birds heard on the CDs and Nintendo Music during the drum part of "DK Island Swing"/"Jungle Level" are not there in the game. Also, the reverb is telling.

Strangely, Game Boy soundtracks are 48 KHz files while still having channel frequencies capped at about 20 KHz.



All in all, a solid effort for a newly launched app. If there's anything to put Nintendo at fault for, it's that it took them too long to make their music officially available. And that's coming from someone who doesn't like the money-grabbing attitude of present-day Nintendo while still fully supporting their YouTube music purge in the last 5 years.

[BlazingAbyss]

I've heard that you can download the music from the app to your phone for offline listening, if that's the case, is there a way to export the files like how you can with iTunes? I'm not too concerned about the albums that already have physical releases, but it would be nice to archive the ones that don't.

[Mentalo]

I don't know if "extracting" music files from the app is possible but it'd be nice to see if they have any clue of who composed each music!
I know the chances are low but that did happen before: the Remix 10 music file on the Super Mario Run official website was tagged with Kenta Nagata as the "Mix artist".

[zierts]

Originally Posted by Mentalo

I don't know if "extracting" music files from the app is possible but it'd be nice to see if they have any clue of who composed each music!
I know the chances are low but that did happen before: the Remix 10 music file on the Super Mario Run official website was tagged with Kenta Nagata as the "Mix artist".

No such luck as the Nintendo Music files are newly converted. I could see some newer games having composer credits hidden in the tags but not the "classics" up until the 2010s. For most of those, composer credits are, at best, hidden deep down in Nintendo's vault on yellowed documents, not to be seen for decades until the company itself decides to dig them up and share them.

[Eidolon2010]

Added "Wii Sports"

[Eidolon2010]

Added "F-Zero X"

[Eidolon2010]

Added "Brain Age: Train Your Brain in Minutes a Day!"

[BlazingAbyss]

It looks like the app now features diffrent versions of the same games in the search section. Currently there is now Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime Remastered, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U and Switch,) The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. However, if you select the alternative release it'll simply redirect you to whichever version was uploaded first. Those being Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, the Switch version of BotW, and the original releases of Metroid Prime and Syward Sword. Does anyone know if Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had any tracks that weren't previously featured in the original release?

[Mentalo]

Originally Posted by BlazingAbyss

It looks like the app now features diffrent versions of the same games in the search section. Currently there is now Mario Kart 8, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Metroid Prime, Metroid Prime Remastered, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD. However, if you select the alternative release it'll simply redirect you to whichever version was uploaded first. Those being Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and the original releases of Metroid Prime and Syward Sword. Does anyone know if Mario Kart 8 Deluxe had any tracks that weren't previously featured in the original release?

Yes, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe without DLC has a few exclusive tracks not featured in the base Wii U game, and with its DLC, that goes up to like twice music of the base game (so Deluxe + its DLC's new music ~= Base game + its DLC's music when looking at numbers)

So I'm expecting the same treatment when Pikmin 3 and Super Mario 3D World's sountracks release.

[BlazingAbyss]

Originally Posted by Mentalo

Yes, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe without DLC has a few exclusive tracks not featured in the base Wii U game, and with its DLC, that goes up to like twice music of the base game (so Deluxe + its DLC's new music ~= Base game + its DLC's music when looking at numbers)

So I'm expecting the same treatment when Pikmin 3 and Super Mario 3D World's sountracks release.

I realized that I forgot to include The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild among the games that were currently listed under multiple consoles in the app. While the game was originally released for the Wii U, the app initially released its soundtrack under the Switch, and the listing that was recently added under the Wii U defaults to the Switch version as well. Any idea if the Switch version featured any new music like the Deluxe version of Mario Kart 8 did? If not then that would currently make it the only soundtrack on the app that defaults to a later release despite it not having any new tracks.

Edit: My mistake, I had forgotten that BotW released simultaneously on both Wii U and Switch.

[Eidolon2010]

I wonder if both "Hyrule Warriors" would be featured here, knowing that the soundtracks for both "Fire Emblem Warriors" were handled by Koei Tecmo on physical releases.

[Eidolon2010]

Added "Super Mario 64"

[Mac_Tear]

With this weekly addition of soundtracks we will have the entire Nintendo catalogue available at the end of the year. Just joking, but hey it's cool to see they put some effort into this, altho I haven't seen a clear pattern which soundtrack they would release next.
Wish they would do the same with their NSO subscription service...

[BlazingAbyss]

It's a little strange that they translated "クッパ" as "King of the Koopas" on the Super Mario Bros. 3 album rather than his localized name, "Bowser." Especially since they used his localized name on previous Nintendo Music albums. Either this was an oversight or an attempt to differentiate the track from other tracks with the same name since while his name was changed to Bowser, Bowser is still the "king of the koopas."

[Eidolon2010]

Added "Dr. Mario (NES)", "Tetris (NES)", "Tetris (Game Boy)"

[Eidolon2010]

Added "Kirby and the Forgotten Land"

[BlazingAbyss]

How odd, I took a look at Kirby and the Forgotten Land in the app and saw that it said following, "Twenty-three of the game's tracks are here today, and the rest are coming later this year!" I'm not sure what would prevent them from uploading it all at once. The fact that they said "later this year" rather than "next month" has me a bit concerned as well. Hopefully this doesn't become a reoccurring thing, they're already drip feeding their soundtrack releases as it is.

[Mac_Tear]

Originally Posted by BlazingAbyss

How odd, I took a look at Kirby and the Forgotten Land in the app and saw that it said following, "Twenty-three of the game's tracks are here today, and the rest are coming later this year!" I'm not sure what would prevent them from uploading it all at once. The fact that they said "later this year" rather than "next month" has me a bit concerned as well. Hopefully this doesn't become a reoccurring thing, they're already drip feeding their soundtrack releases as it is.

I guess it's because of the recently released (well, last year) official CD soundtrack, which prevents Nintendo from releasing all the music. It's the same with Tears of the Kingdom, which I guess is one of the most wanted soundtracks for the app.

[MIDIWIZI]

Trying not to hurt the recently released multi-CD's sales, maybe. Although I think the appeal of a CD isn't just the music, but the whole special package (booklets, artwork, notes, etc.)... I agree though, the app is having a bit of a drought, it's not really a great idea to push these as regular releases when they're really just samples.

[Eidolon2010]

Added "F-Zero", and new tracks for "F-Zero X" (Expansion Kit)

[RBM95]

We are also getting a Forgotten Land expansion on Switch 2 (which assuredly will add new music), so maybe this played some kind of factor in the limited song selection for the time being. That being said, I wonder how long will it be until anything from Switch 2 appears on Nintendo Music to begin with.

[Eidolon2010]

Added "Luigi's Mansion"

[Eidolon2010]

Added "The Legend of Zelda"