Nintendo Music is now available in Apple CarPlay — letting you soundtrack your commute with Mario Kart

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Did you know that Nintendo has its own music streaming service? It first landed back in October 2024, and I completely forgot that it was ever a thing. But for those of you with an active Nintendo Online subscription, this service lets you listen to Nintendo soundtracks from throughout history. It saves you the trouble of looking for a YouTube playlist that hasn't been hit by a copyright strike yet.

I bring this up because Nintendo has just rolled out a bunch of updates to Nintendo Music. The first big change is that Nintendo has added web browser support to the service, which will let you listen through your desktop machine. A new tablet-optimized app should also offer a better quality big-screen experience, rather than contending with the stretched-out version of the phone app.

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Perhaps most exciting is the fact that Nintendo has added support for Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. This means you have better control over the app while you're driving, through your car's touchscreen display and via voice controls.

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This means you can drive to work while bopping along to the Mario Kart soundtrack, or matching the weather with the appropriate tunes from Animal Crossing. You just have to remember that real life isn't like a video game, and it's not acceptable to start tossing banana peels at passing drivers simply because you don't want them to overtake you.

Nintendo music app on a car display — (Image credit: Nintendo)

Remember that real life isn't like a video game, and it's not acceptable to start tossing banana peels at passing drivers.

It's also probably not a good idea to get behind the wheel after eating a large portion of mushrooms. You know exactly what I'm talking about.

Sadly, the service is not free, and you will need an active subscription to Nintendo Switch Online if you want to take advantage of all the tracks Nintendo Music has to offer. You only need the basic subscription, which is $20 a year or $4 a month. That also comes with the ability to play games online, chat with friends, store saves in the cloud, and the ability to play classic games from the NES, SNES and Game Boy.

The $50 annual Switch Online + Expansion Pass subscription also comes with all those perks, plus access to games on new systems and free expansion packs for certain games like Animal Crossing and Mario Kart 8.

This is also a good time to mention that the Nintendo Switch 2 price will be increasing later this year. From September 1, the cost of a Switch 2 console will be rising by $50 in the U.S., meaning you'll have to pay $499, and you won't even get any games bundled in with the system.

Thankfully, you still have plenty of time to pick up a Switch 2 before that happens. You can also take advantage of the new $499 "Choose Your Game" bundle, which lets you pick up a console with one of three games: Donkey Kong Bananza, Mario Kart World, or Pokémon Pokopia. That saves you $20 to $30 on the cost of buying one of those games separately.

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Tom is the Tom's Guide's UK Phones Editor, tackling the latest smartphone news and vocally expressing his opinions about upcoming features or changes. It's long way from his days as editor of Gizmodo UK, when pretty much everything was on the table. He’s usually found trying to squeeze another giant Lego set onto the shelf, draining very large cups of coffee, or complaining about how terrible his Smart TV is.