SoundCloud has acquired select assets from independent music platform Nina Protocol, marking its first acquisition since purchasing AI music company Musiio in 2022. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Rather than acquiring the entire company, SoundCloud is taking ownership of Nina’s editorial archive, community-driven genre map, and an opt-in migration tool that allows artists to transfer their music, content and followers to SoundCloud. The deal does not include Nina’s team or its blockchain infrastructure built on Solana and Arweave. The acquisition comes as Nina officially shuts down after announcing in May that it could no longer sustain its business.
What was Nina Protocol?
Founded in 2021 by independent musicians Jack Callahan, Mike Pollard, and Eric Farber, Nina Protocol positioned itself as a blockchain-based alternative to traditional streaming services. The platform allowed artists to retain 100% of their sales while operating their own digital storefronts, using Solana for low-cost transactions and Arweave for permanent file storage. Despite attracting artists and labels including Warp Records, Hyperdub, Yung Lean, dBridge, Purelink, ML Buch, and Surgeon, Nina struggled financially, and only introduced a $1 Community Revenue Share fee per transaction in October 2025. According to the Components newsletter, Nina processed approximately $50,000 in lifetime sales across around 37,000 listings, with 77% of releases generating no revenue. “We looked at our options for how to fund the platform and continue working on it, and saw no viable paths forward,” the company said when announcing its wind-down.
SoundCloud Expands Its Independent Artist Ecosystem
For artists migrating from Nina, SoundCloud is offering a free Artist subscription through the end of 2026, along with access to Fan Support, distribution with 100% royalty retention, on-demand vinyl, audience insights, mastering tools, unlimited uploads, and its Fan-Powered Royalties model. SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton described the acquisition as “a natural extension” of the company’s investment in independent artists, adding that “the next movements in music emerge from communities long before they reach the mainstream.”
While Nina Protocol is gone, its editorial content and music discovery tools live on through SoundCloud, preserving part of a platform that earned widespread cultural credibility despite ultimately failing to establish a sustainable business model.
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