A Handful Of "Hidden" Splatoon 2 Tracks Have Been Removed From Nintendo Music

I hope stuff like this does eventually release because this would help to preserve these more obscure tracks and make them more easily accessible to the masses. Like they could totally release more remix/original cd releases put on the app

I can confirm that if you added them to a
playlist and have them downloaded you can still listen to them. My understanding however is that if you haven't downloaded them, then they cannot be listened to. Despite having them downloaded, I also can't add them to other playlists (at least when online, I haven't tried while being offline).

This is a real shame, and I recommend going to support website for Nintendo Music and sharing feedback asking that these tracks be re-added.

By the way, you guys should really read your comments more, I mentioned these existing on your original article about Splatoon 2 being added lol

I don't know much about the series but aren't the Splatoon tracks usually recorded by vocal artists? Maybe it's a licensing issue they've yet to iron out.

"Thank you for your understanding."
Nah, sorry I don't understand.

@BTB20 I couldn't possibly agree more, it's ridiculous and they didn't even justify it beyond just saying "we didn't intend to do something cool"

@JohnnyMind It's really confusing because this just seems incredibly poor for PR? It's a net negative, there's no actual justification given, and the entire message reeks of being rushed out. With how popular Splatoon is in Japan, music very much included, I feel like this is guaranteed to see a lot of pushback, so who at Nintendo possibly thought this was a good idea?

Good grief Nintendo. No wonder Kit and Krysta quit.
🤦🏻‍♀️

This is such a bizarre decision. It's not like these tracks being available in the app really hurt anything; it was just a nice little secret for people to find if they wanted to. And then they have the chutzpah to say "Thank you for understanding." I can't understand. The only way I'll understand is if they fixed the Splatoon 2 soundtrack to include them.
I thought maybe these tracks were removed because they don't appear in game, but that defense fell apart quickly after I realized Breath of the Wild's E3 2014/Nintendo Switch Presentation 2017 trailer music isn't just on the app; it's actually in the soundtrack, so you don't have to search for it and download it to be able to listen to it!

What a disaster. Nintendo will get bored with this app soon enough anyway. Theyve already demonstrated they dont have half the respect for their own work as the great people on youtube who lovingly put together personal, emotional compilations with full composer credit and sometimes original art.

They're doing just fine on my plex server with a copy ripped from the CD. Same with all the bonus failure tracks from DKC2 and everything they didn't include on the app like Jib Jig. I like the Nintendo Music App. I use it for my kids all the time. But this is why streaming music services are all a bit lousy. You own nothing and are at the whim of anything someone decides needs to be pulled for any reason. I also never lost access to Neil Young's catalog when he threw his tantrum. Nintendo music should not be considered a real solution, it's a curated selection like NSO.

I've already moved on from the Music App after about a a week or two.

And the people that were negative about this app from the start have been validated

I've now tried adding these songs to another playlist while being offline and while it does work for the duration I am offline, the second I go online they get removed. This happens even if the playlist is put into a downloaded state.

Luckily my playlists that already had these songs prior to the removal are thus far unaffected.

Well, that’s not cool. Good thing I’m fortunate to have imported Splatune 2 and Octotune when they first released. This means we won’t have the old Deep Cut song from when they were back in Jr. High School that’s exclusive to the upcoming Ordertune.

Nooooo! I love the Inkopoils Memorial Mixtape! I listened to it 5 times already yesterday... But I didn't download it, so... I guess now it's too late.

Transparently they wanted to withhold these tracks forever so the app doesn’t obsolete the physical release.

They should’ve just left it as-is for this one OST. Drawing attention to their removal like this makes it look 100x worse.

So what the heck is the point of this app if they REMOVE SONGS when I can still just look em up on YouTube?!

@Polley001

It's unlikely most of the contributors read the comments. Heck, I've written articles for websites I have legit never even been too. Slightly more likely the staff writers check them from time to time, but even that I wouldn't count on.

If you have information or a correction to an article, you might want to instead try the contact form or send it directly to the editor, Gavin Lane.

@HeadPirate Yeah you're probably right, I'll keep that in mind.

It truly has me baffled how they decide what to release.

I’m sure there’s some licensing hullabaloo with games developed at Retro, Gamefreak, Rare, etc, but music for games they solely own shouldn’t be that difficult to get on there. I’m sure it takes some time to come up with the themed playlists for each soundtrack, but it can’t be that hard.

I’m assuming the drip feed is purely artificial to generate a little hype boost every so often (emphasis on “a little” at times; sorry Brain Age). But even this doesn’t explain how they plan to go about adding tracks to existing games. These tracks are now missing from S2’s soundtrack, and S3 is still missing Side Order and Grand Festival. New Horizons also lacks any music from Happy Home Paradise, yet all of the Scarlet/Violet DLC music was available from launch as far as I am aware.

There’s still no precedent so far for “Tracks have been added to the such-and-such soundtrack!” and until there is I really have no idea what the plan is. Whatever the plan is, REMOVING MUSIC should not be part of it!

@JimNorman I'm not sure exactly when it happened, but the in-game message about the removal was updated.

It now says:
Splatoon 2 Track Availability Update

Some tracks related to the recently added Splatoon 2 album were made available in error. These tracks could be accessed only by Search and were not part of the album track
list.

These tracks are no longer available. Thank
you for your understanding.

For now I can still play these tracks normally, but adding tracks to one of my playlists that had them caused them to be removed from that specific playlist.