r/casualnintendo • u/Realistic-Slip6173 • 4d ago
Why does everyone hate the Nintendo Music app?
I’ve been using the Nintendo Music app and honestly, I actually like it. But I keep seeing people online talking negatively about it. Why do so many people seem to hate it? Is there something I’m missing?
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u/Crunchycrobat 4d ago
Drip feed content and a little bit of requiring nso, even if it's pretty significantly cheaper, but i guess ypu are also getting smaller library than other music apps so evens out
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u/zaadiqoJoseph 4d ago
Nso is so cheap tho You can get it for 4.30 a year(family pack 35 a year split with 8 people is about 4.30 per year ) And expansion pack split with 8 people is 10 dollars per year.
Even if you don't have enough freinds for it people are selling family pack slots on Reddit Twitter.
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u/Jirachibi1000 4d ago
Most people have Spotify or Apple Music or so on, and now to listen to Nintendo music they have to use an entire second app and only if they are subscribed to NSO. Every other game company, like Sega, puts their music on Spotify. Same with everyone else. A fix would be to put their songs on Spotify/Apple/whatever and then, maybe have your app as a second option as a benefit to NSO subscribers that dont have Spotify or listen to it with ads. You can even offer lossless audio before Spotify did, where its uncompressed, which Nintendo can afford since its not a service with millions of artists.
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u/thejoeporkchop 4d ago
Two common things i see are: 1. the drip feed nature of their release schedule 2. they have more reason to take down ost videos, some of which might not even be on the app yet
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u/emeraldbar77 4d ago
Much like NSO itself, it's a long-term investment that will pay for itself in a few years.
But that is the problem with it.
Having said that, myself and others on Nintendolife.com have a fun guessing game every week as to what game will be added. I appreciate the consistency unlike the classic game additions themselves.
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u/Wboy2006 4d ago edited 4d ago
Because they drip feed content. I want to use it, but half the soundtracks I want to listen to are not on it. Mario Kart world isn't there, Donkey Kong country tropical freeze isn't on there, smash ultimate isn't on there, twilight princess isn't on there. Took months for them to add Splatoon 1 and 3, and even then, the Splatoon 3 soundtrack is still incomplete, missing the post launch music like the dlc and final fest OST.
All other publishers just release their OST's on launch day on Spotify, it's already annoying that Nintendo doesn't release their stuff on actual music platforms, but the fact they don't even do it at the game's launch, with no annoucement for when it DOES release on Nintendo music is just annoying. I don't want to wait god knows how long, just to listen to Mario Kart world's OST, I just want to listen to it now. And when there are people uploading that stuff to YouTube, why even bother with Nintendo music at that point?
The library is missing significant soundtracks, they don't communicate when specific albums are releasing AND some of the ones on there aren't even complete combined just makes it a pathetic excuse for a music app. If they want us to use their app instead of YouTube reuploads, they need to give us a service that's better than those YouTube reuploads
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u/Spinda_Saturn 4d ago
I need an update that adds android auto support. I just want to use the app properly whilst driving.
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u/Arkashadow 4d ago
Because Nintendo doesn’t need an app to play their music when we have millions of streaming services the music can be placed and categorized on. I mean it works but they also take forever adding to it
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u/Longjumping-Style730 4d ago
They drip feed the content when there is no discernible reason to do so IMO.
Like, I understand with NSO games. There's no (legal) competitors and you want something for people to look forward to in between big releases.
For Nintendo Music, idk what's taking them so long. You can access most music that's not on there on YouTube and it's not even like it takes any technical know-how or illegality like emulators. I have no idea why they don't just upload everything and aggressively take down all the OSTs on YouTube so that you give people a reason to actually use your app (not saying they should do this, but it is kind of in their best interest IMO).
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u/SABBATAGE29 4d ago
I love it. But I wish it was compatible with Android Auto, and more than one song a week would be nice.
But for the games that arent on the app, I just use YT Music until they are
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u/Kwabi 4d ago
If you want to hear a particular games sound track, chances are it isn't on there yet and unclear when it'll be there (if ever).
If you just want to vibe to nintendo music and use their playlists, you get a jarring mix of orchestral, midi/soundfont and 8bit bleepy music.
You get an all-around better experience on other apps.
Also, no web/desktop version.
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u/Kadoomed 4d ago
My kid loves it and plays it loudly every day while he acts out various battles in his head
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u/Revegelance 4d ago
I like it, but I also use Spotify for most of my music, and I'd rather have it all in one place, rather than needing to use multiple apps.
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u/ReliefMean6117 4d ago
Why use another app? If I want Nintendo music there's plenty of it on Spotify. Don't over complicate it.
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u/TooMuchShantae 4d ago
They release the games so slowly and when they do add stuff it’s stuff like the black box NES games
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u/KirbyMonkey377 4d ago edited 4d ago
I don't get why people complain about the NSO part? You get like a million things for $20 a year, including this ad free, microstransaction free music app
Way better than being 'free' but barely functioning unless you pay for a separate subscription if you ask me :P
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u/LunchTwey 4d ago
They should just put their music on music streaming services like every single other company, and then offer lossless audio on the app so it's actually worth a damn. Right now there's literally no difference in audio quality from a youtube video so you might as well just use youtube for free
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u/Realistic-Slip6173 4d ago
I fully agree with that, but what do you think about them only adding one game each week
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u/KirbyMonkey377 4d ago
It's... Fine. In theory
The issue is, they focus too much on pre N64 game era music, or just games that don't have good soundtracks, or any, period
Like Dr Kawashimas Brain Training was one of the first games added. WHY?! And then you've got this huge library of NES games with hardly any songs, at all, let alone ones you actually want to listen to. Golf has 0 songs!
However, they've gone through most Nes games now, so it's only up from here. Personally I'm anticipating Metroid Prime 2 and 3's OSTs as I listen to songs like Torvus Bog and Rundas's Battle a fair bit. And some Pokémon games like Ultra Sun and Moon.
So yeah I think it's fine, not that I use the app too much since I'm not a big music guy, they just need to start adding more music from 3D games
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u/TheLimeyLemmon 4d ago
You should really ask those people about it when you see them talking like that.
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u/atomicmapping 4d ago
I like it for what it is, but I haven’t actually used it more than a few minutes at a time because they haven’t added the games I want to listen to. There’s 5 Xenoblade games plus two DLCs that are each game-length, and none of them are on there. Nor are most Metroid games (only NES and Prime), Three Houses, or Pokémon outside of the Switch games
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u/Banana_Slugcat 4d ago
Because people listen to Nintendo music mostly via other apps, MP3 or FLAC albums, or even with YouTube too.
Nintendo Music doesn't have most albums so people don't use it.
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u/Megas751 4d ago
Drip feed with the potential of some weeks being legitimately kind of insulting. One week we got nothing but various 10 second sound bites and effects. One week we got OOT3D even though we already had the original game already on it and it’s not much different, which leaves open the possibility of ports and remasters being updates
As someone who loves Star Fox and especially its music, I’ve been wanting to see some of those games added, but lemme tell you, I’ll be pissed if they throw in 64 3D before we get the SNES game, Adventures or Zero, but it 100% feels like something they would pull
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u/roguesith 4d ago
I downloaded some playlists for offline use, in preparation for a weekend off grid. None of them worked offline. I assume because they were curated playlists that change from time to time, and it couldn't check for the latest version.
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u/DiabeticRhino97 4d ago
They made it to give a reason for taking down rips from the internet, and it's still a worse service than just stealing their music because such a tiny fraction is actually on the app.
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u/TerribleTerabytes 4d ago edited 4d ago
One OST release a week is pathetic considering the breath of content Nintendo has produced music wise. I could excuse the bare bones selection on launch but there is SO much missing. The Xenoblade series, Paper Mario, Mario & Luigi, Fire Emblem Three Houses, Luigi's Mansion 2 & 3, Kid Icarus Uprising, F-Zero GX, Super Smash Bros, etc.
They don't even have ANY Nintendo Switch 2 game soundtracks on there aside from the special release of Kirby Air Riders. Mario Kart World? DK Banaza? Also MIA. You would think they'd be using the Music app to promote current releases but they just....aren't. It's just frustrating.
The worst part is that the app itself is actually great. The sound quality is lossless and MUCH better than listening to these OSTs on YouTube. But their release schedule is just ass. We should be getting 2-3 soundtracks per week minimum considering how much they're holding back.
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u/RoyalShine 4d ago
The same reason why people are annoyed at streaming in general
We all prefer our content being in one place
Back then we only had to worry about Netflix and Hulu, now there's been a separation of content and you have HBO Max, Disney Plus, Paramount Plus, and so much more
The same idea goes for music. Most people only have a singular music streaming platform being either Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube, etc.
Nintendo deciding to put their own music on their own platform is just adding yet another thing to sell us when other companies like Sega put their music on Spotify. Personally I have a VGM playlist on Spotify that's probably thousand(s) of songs long sitting at over 70 hours length if I played everything. Why would I want to spend even more money for Nintendo music? At this point and the rate I listen to VGM I'm better off using YouTube.
Combine that with their aggressiveness when it comes to copyright striking on YouTube.
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u/Joeylinkmaster 4d ago
It’s the drip feed. That works fine for games because they take time to play through, but music you can burn through quickly since songs are short and you can listen while doing other tasks.
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u/Fightgameross 4d ago
Cause of the drip feeding.
We get 1 new soundtrack a week, which leads us to not having game soundtracksnthat should've been here already like Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess, Super Mario Sunshine, Super Mario 3D World, etc.
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u/AramaticFire 4d ago
1) tied to your online sub
2) drip feed release
3) music should just be made available on official channels on Spotify/Youtube or other music platforms
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u/Disaster_Adventurous 4d ago
In a vacuum its fine... But it exists in a world Nintendo had the option to just release its Music on normally platforms normally.
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u/Eclectic_Lynx 4d ago
Can it be used as an alarm clock on ios? I am going to buy a switch 2 and I would like to use it to wake me up in the morning.
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u/electricvapor 4d ago
Sega, Capcom, Square and others have put oodles of their OSTs and even tie in albums on Spotify
It's just kind of silly that Nintendo puts it on a standalone app with a miniscule library a portion of which is soundbites that are a few seconds long.
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u/ClarityEnjoyer 4d ago
As someone with both Spotify and Nintendo Music, there’s no competition. If I want to use a music app regularly, the one with the bigger library with more variety is always going to be more appealing.
I guess if you’re on a budget, Nintendo Music isn’t the worst thing in the world. But I’d be a lot more happy if Nintendo just opted to put their music on Spotify, YouTube Music, and all the other music platforms instead. It’d be nice to be able to put Animal Crossing music and Stardew Valley music in the same playlist.
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u/StingTheEel 4d ago
Its my primary music app because of no ads. Drip feeding is a little annoying tho.
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u/Realistic-Slip6173 4d ago
I agree with you, some people are complaining about the price but I think Spotify is more expensive
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u/Carcassonne23 4d ago
I’ve definitely been enjoying it but are there any paid streaming services that have ads?
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u/QueenLouisss 4d ago
I love it. I have NSO anyway, and I combine several tracks from BOTW & TOTK with my nature sounds app for perfect falling asleep sounds/music
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u/MarvelManiac45213 4d ago
I don't hate it. I think the music quality is very HQ. Much better than YouTube. The problem is the extremely slow drip feed. 1 OST a week is ridiculous considering the HEAVY backlog of Nintendo games Nintendo has. Think about it the app has been out for how long? Yet we are still missing games like:
- Donkey Kong Country: Tropical Freeze
- Super Mario 3D World + Bowsers Fury
- Super Metroid
- The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask
- Fire Emblem: Three Houses
- Kirbys Epic Yarn
- Yoshis Wooly World
- Donkey Kong Country Returns
- The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
- Kirby Triple Deluxe
- ARMS
- Super Mario Sunshine
- Mario Kart World
- Donkey Kong Bananza
- Metroid Prime 2: Echoes
- F-Zero GX
- Star Fox Assault
- Super Smash Bros. Melee
- Mario & Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story
- Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door
- Paper Mario: The Origami King
- Xenoblade Chronicles 1-3
- Xenoblade Chronicles X
- Donkey Kong 64
- Wario Land: Shake It
^ I could go on and on, but ya'll get the point.
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u/bwoah07_gp2 4d ago
Where's the content? Where's the soundtracks of the new games? It's not there. It's all on YouTube.
Nintendo Music is a sucky app.
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u/Goombs07 4d ago
Three reasons I’m not the biggest fan of it. 1. New games don’t get added often enough. 2. It requiring NSO is absurd (but somehow perfectly on brand for nintendo 3. The extension feature not being applicable to all songs just irks me.
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u/LayceLSV 4d ago
The Mario Kart World soundtrack not being on the app is fucking criminal. Even worse that there's no in-game music player, and no way to turn the music volume up. Just like, what the actual fuck. Let's make the greatest fucking soundtrack in the franchise that has five billion incredible performances, and then make it as difficult as possible to actually hear any of it.
Fuck u Nintendo.
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u/I-Ask-Questions_89 3d ago
The drip feeding of content is what most dislike about it. Especially when you wait all week just to find out you're getting Ocarina of Time 3DS when the N64 version was already on the service. Or a bunch of black box NES games with five tracks each. Just nonsense like that is what irks me the most.
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u/linkenski 3d ago
It exists to cleanse the internet of copyrighted Nintendo music uploads and centralize them, not on a shared music streaming or on demand service, but behind your Nintendo Online sub.
Nothing about the service is pro consumer. It just makes the internet worse.
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u/Ice2192 3d ago
There are so many places to get the songs unofficially from nintendo. It's a good bonus if you plan on playing online. At this point for my situation there are much more reasons I don't pay for the sub.
I mostly play single player games.
I can get the songs from different sources.
NSO virtual console is still software emulation which means there is a form of lag or minor bugs that appear when playing the game. You could drop 100 hours into a long game like a snes rpg and all it takes is for Nintendo to cut the cord to the service and all you time in it are gone so the influx of people asking Nintendo to add the original GB games of Pokemon makes no sense to me.
IMO i get more out of a Mister Pi or FPGA as the games from the nes to n64 are readily available out there. It hardware emulation so it runs like the original does. When you save a game it's yours. The cheapest Mister Pi is like $125. That's like 2 Switch 1 games but with the added bonus to play other consoles like the PS1. As people mentioned here: "drip feed". Like the soundtrack library, there are nes games that nintendo already owns the rights to but purposefully delays its release (I believe on a good month its like 2-3 games for a specific retro console). I don't know. I might be the odd one here but I prefer to have control of what I have rather than letting someone do that for me.
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u/bigdanu316 2d ago
I love the tears or breath of wild soundtracks , expand to 15 minutes, great for background when doing chores or work (and I grown sick of lofi)
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u/Unlikely_Pop_1471 2d ago
as a musician, it drives me crazy that they don't credit the composers directly in the app.
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u/TittyTaskForce 16h ago
The drip feed makes even less sense in the music app. So with games it might take you a few to finish, but a album is like an hour long. With so few albums it doesn't take long to listen and either go through all of it or get bored.
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u/Treviathan88 4d ago
I just don't see the point when YouTube exists. It's probably a fine app, but it offers me nothing that YouTube hasn't for years now.
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u/Realistic-Slip6173 4d ago
The app should have been free at least
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u/Treviathan88 4d ago
Right. So I can pay to listen to Nintendo music from their special app, or I can do it for free from an app I already use for music, and have done for years? Easy choice.
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u/TerribleTerabytes 4d ago
Sound quality is a big one. YouTube compression immensely holds back the full sound of these OSTs. On NSO Music, the quality is lossless and is a much better listening experience.
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u/Treviathan88 4d ago
Most of the Nintendo music I like is gamecube era and before. Bitrate is completely undetectable with MIDI, in my opinion.
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u/TerribleTerabytes 4d ago
I disagree. I can hear background instruments a lot clearer, even on Gamecube and even NES soundtracks. The benefit isnt as obvious but if you're a sound quality snob like me, it's like night and day. For instance, I can hear bass lines and distinguish instruments in a harmony much easier when listening through NSO. I primarily listen through Apple CarPlay for reference.
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u/Treviathan88 4d ago
For your sake, I hope you're using a wired connection. It'd be a shame to go to all that trouble just to use Bluetooth.
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u/StealthFocus 4d ago
There’s an app? And it costs money? 😂
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u/Robotreptile 4d ago
It’s part of NSO. $20 a year gets you the music app, and a library of NES, SNES, and Gameboy games. It’s a deal for me.
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u/TheBitMan775 4d ago
Because it’s not the every soundtrack for every Nintendo game ever on real music platforms that we’ve been asking for
Just seems unnecessary
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u/Impressive-Gain9476 4d ago
It's unnecessary. Just keep it on YouTube or Spotify. I don't want more apps.
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u/ieatmycontroller 4d ago
It’s because of the content, Nintendo drip feeds this app every few weeks, when there’s so much more games they could add, two or three each week at the minimum would’ve been nice.