SoundCloud has acquired Nina Protocol, a decentralized music platform that shut down in May 2026 after failing to establish a sustainable business model. The deal, announced Wednesday, July 22, 2026, brings Nina’s editorial archive and music discovery tools under SoundCloud’s ownership. Financial terms were not disclosed, and it remains unclear whether any Nina team members will join SoundCloud.
Nina Protocol was founded in 2021 by independent musicians Jack Callahan, Mike Pollard, and Eric Farber. The platform allowed artists to sell music directly to fans and keep 100% of their revenue, operating without reliance on traditional streaming services. It was built on the Solana blockchain for fast, low-cost transactions and used Arweave for permanent decentralized storage of music files and metadata. Nina announced it would shut down on May 28, citing an inability to build a sustainable business model.
As part of the acquisition, SoundCloud will take ownership of Nina’s editorial archive and “genre map,” which it says will help surface emerging artists and music to a wider audience. SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton said in a statement that the company’s priority is to “honor what they’ve created, while carrying that mission forward,” adding that the goal is to help independent artists build fan relationships and access tools to grow sustainable careers.
For artists who used Nina Protocol, SoundCloud is offering a migration tool to transfer their work to its platform, along with a complimentary SoundCloud Artist subscription through the end of the year, which includes monetization features and audience growth tools.
The acquisition marks SoundCloud’s first since its 2022 purchase of AI music company Musiio and suggests the company is continuing to expand beyond music hosting into a broader platform for independent artists.
Source: TechCrunch