Nearly two months after Nina Protocol announced it was shutting down, the free, independent music platform has been acquired by SoundCloud. The agreement allows SoundCloud to inherent Nina Protocol’s editorial archive, genre map, and—if artists choose to opt into SoundCloud’s “creator ecosystem”—their music catalogues.
Musicians who take SoundCloud up on that offer will reportedly “gain access to industry-leading tools for distribution, direct fan monetization, audience growth, fan engagement, and more equitable streaming revenue, helping them reach new listeners around the world.”
SoundCloud is encouraging artists who formerly used Nina Protocol to join their ranks for three main reasons: to sell music directly to fans while keeping 100% of their royalties; to build stronger fan communities through comments, DMs, and public playlists; and to utilize SoundCloud’s tools for mastering, promotion, unlimited uploads, and audience insight.
“Nina has always been about empowering independent artists and documenting the communities that drive music forward,” said Mike Pollard, Nina Protocol’s CEO and co-founder, in a press release. “SoundCloud built that foundation: without SoundCloud, there wouldn’t be Nina. As we considered the future of the platform, we wanted to ensure our artists and editorial work found a home that shared and actively practiced those values. SoundCloud was the natural choice.”
Founded in 2021 by Jack Callahan, Mike Pollard, and Eric Farber, Nina Protocol was a Web3-based streaming service and music marketplace built on the blockchain platform Solana. It began as a distribution service, allowing artists to upload music directly to listeners via the blockchain and retain its full ownership and sales revenue, before broadening to allow artists and labels to build custom hubs for their catalogs. ML Buch, James K, Yung Lean, Purelink, Aya, Ana Roxanne, and other musicians distributed records through Nina Protocol, while prominent imprints who used the platform included Warp, Hyperdub, AD 93, and Stroom.
On July 6, Components published a report on Nina Protocol’s data over the years. In it, journalist Chris Good notes that roughly $50,000 was spent on Nina Protocol throughout its entire lifetime, while about 77% of its nearly 37,000 listings were uncollected. Pitchfork has reached out to a representative for SoundCloud for comment on the article.
Last year, SoundCloud updated its AI policy and terms of use after getting backlash for its murky wording suggesting that content uploaded to the site might be used as training data for artificial intelligence. “AI should support artists, not replace them,” the company’s chief executive, Eliah Seton, wrote in an open letter, promising that artist content will remain unaffected nor used to train generative AI.
