Overview
- SoundCloud announced the deal on July 22, 2026, taking ownership of Nina Protocol’s editorial archive and genre map and giving artists the choice to opt into a migration of their music catalogs.
- Artists who opt in will get access to SoundCloud’s creator features, including direct-sales tools that let them keep 100% of royalties, unlimited uploads, mastering and promotion services, and audience insights.
- Nina Protocol launched in 2021 as a Solana-based Web3 distribution and marketplace that let artists sell directly to listeners and retain ownership, but it announced a shutdown after failing to build a sustainable business model.
- A Components report found Nina ran on roughly $50,000 over its lifetime and left about 77% of nearly 37,000 listings uncollected, a gap that may limit how many musicians choose to migrate their catalogs.
- The acquisition signals SoundCloud’s continued push to expand services for independent creators and comes with existing artist protections in the company’s policy that say uploaded content will not be used to train generative AI.