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SoundCloud absorbs Nina Protocol’s catalogue and editorial archive after shutdown
Developed over time first seen 4 months ago
SoundCloud has acquired the remaining assets of Nina Protocol, the independent, blockchain-based music platform that announced its closure nearly two months earlier. Under the deal, SoundCloud inherits Nina's editorial archive and genre map, while former Nina artists can choose to migrate their catalogues onto SoundCloud's "creator ecosystem", gaining access to distribution, direct fan monetisation and audience-growth tools. Nina's co-founder and chief executive, Mike Pollard, called SoundCloud "the natural choice" given its role in laying the foundations for Nina's existence, framing the move as continuity rather than a simple shutdown.
Nina Protocol was founded in 2021 by Jack Callahan, Mike Pollard and Eric Farber and built on the Solana blockchain, letting artists sell music directly to fans while retaining full ownership and revenue; it was used by acts including ML Buch, Yung Lean, James K and Purelink, alongside labels such as Warp and Hyperdub. A report published by Components on 6 July found that only around $50,000 (roughly £39,000) had been spent on the platform across its lifetime, with about 77% of its nearly 37,000 listings left uncollected, underlining the commercial struggles that preceded its closure. The acquisition follows SoundCloud's own efforts last year to reassure artists over its AI policy, after backlash over wording that suggested uploaded content could be used to train generative AI.
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In short
- SoundCloud has absorbed Nina Protocol's archive and offered artists its platform
- Nina Protocol shut down in 2026 after struggling financially since its 2021 launch
- Report found just $50,000 was spent on Nina Protocol over its lifetime
How this story developed
- 4 months ago Fresh details of the agreement emerged showing SoundCloud will let opted-in Nina artists keep 100% of royalties on direct sales and gain access to comments, DMs, mastering, promotion and analytics tools, a sweetener disclosed alongside a 6 July report reiterating that Nina generated only around $50,000 in lifetime spending with 77% of its listings never collected.
- 4 months ago SoundCloud completed its acquisition of the shuttered blockchain platform Nina Protocol, absorbing its editorial archive and genre map while inviting former users to move their catalogues to its "creator ecosystem," with co-founder Mike Pollard calling SoundCloud "the natural choice" even as the buyer itself stayed silent on the deal.
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The case for
The acquisition represents a pragmatic rescue of artists' work and career opportunities that might otherwise be lost entirely. Rather than allowing the platform to simply disappear, SoundCloud provides genuine infrastructure, distribution tools and monetisation capabilities that artists can voluntarily access, whilst preserving the editorial archive that documents Nina's contribution to independent music. This acknowledges commercial reality whilst still enabling the artists who built the platform to continue their work, backed by an established player with resources and reach.
The case against
This acquisition marks a retreat from the decentralised, artist-empowered vision that made Nina Protocol distinctive and attractive in the first place. Artists are migrating from a blockchain-based model designed to eliminate intermediaries and preserve full artist sovereignty to a centralised corporate platform, surrendering the direct-to-fan ownership structure that was Nina's fundamental promise. The consolidation also compounds concerns about artist data and uploaded content, particularly given SoundCloud's earlier controversial positioning on AI training—the very protections that crypto platforms theoretically offered are now being abandoned.
Explained simply
SoundCloud is a long-established online platform where musicians can upload, share and stream their music, and it has now taken over Nina Protocol after that platform announced it was closing down. Nina Protocol was a much smaller, independent service launched in 2021 by Jack Callahan, Mike Pollard and Eric Farber, built using blockchain technology (a system for recording transactions that underpins cryptocurrencies) so artists could sell music directly to fans while keeping full ownership and revenue. It attracted a niche but notable following, including artists such as ML Buch, Yung Lean and Ana Roxanne, and labels like Warp and Hyperdub.
The deal means SoundCloud is taking on Nina's back catalogue of music and its editorial content, such as written features and genre classifications, and offering former Nina artists the option to move their music onto SoundCloud's own platform, along with tools for distribution and earning money from fans. This matters because it marks the end of one of the more prominent attempts to use blockchain technology to give musicians more direct control over selling their work, and raises questions about how well that model can sustain itself commercially.
Context around the closure includes findings that Nina Protocol saw very limited financial activity during its existence, despite its high-profile users, which helps explain why a shutdown and handover to a larger platform occurred. SoundCloud itself has faced separate scrutiny in the past over how it handles musicians' uploaded work, including a dispute over its policies on using content to train artificial intelligence systems.
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Originally published by Pitchfork as “SoundCloud Acquires What’s Left of Nina Protocol”.