Nintendo’s The reputation of hunting down anyone who uses their intellectual property in a way they don’t like is pretty well documented. Some of these incidents make sense, such as the prosecution of ROMs and other things that could hypothetically affect the sales of games and consoles. But now Mario Pursue has found a new target audience: musicians who create sheet music based on the soundtracks of its games.
As reported by NintendoLifetwo YouTube channels that have created sheet music versions of Nintendo titles, Sheet Music Boss And Subscribe tohave recently informed their respective communities that Nintendo has started targeting sheet music sites such as Musicnotes and providing sheet music for games such as Pokemon, MarioAnd The Legend of Zelda. Purpleschala says Musicnotes is “actively trying” to reverse this decision. Sheet Music Boss says their arrangements were “properly licensed” and the original artists received royalties for sales of the sheet music.
“We’re working on it, but it’s super frustrating,” wrote Sheet Music Boss. “Especially because so many Nintendo songs are NOT available as sheet music ANYWHERE. We’re sorry to everyone affected, and please know that this is completely out of our control!”
Officially licensed video game sheet music is often hard to come by, so it’s no surprise that dedicated fans have taken it upon themselves to fill this gap so that other musicians can learn and play songs from their favorite Nintendo games. However, it is surprising that Nintendo is only now cracking down on these arrangements after apparently hosting them on Musicnotes for several years. Purpleschala had arrangements of songs such as “The Edge of Dawn” and “Fodlan Winds” from Fire Emblem: Three Houses on the site for five years before Nintendo came knocking. We’ve reached out to Nintendo and Musicnotes for comment on the situation and will update the story if we receive a response.
At least both channels still have their Musicnotes accounts, where most of their works are still available. Purpleschala mainly arranges songs for piano, while Sheet Music Boss offers arrangements for piano, string and wind instruments.
