SoundCloud was announced It’s Wednesday acquired Nina Protocol, a decentralized music platform that allowed independent artists to sell music directly to their fans while keeping 100% of their revenue.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. It’s also unclear if any members of Nina’s team will be joining SoundCloud. The company has not yet responded to a request for comment.
The deal is SoundCloud’s first acquisition since 2022, when it bought AI music company Musiio to help improve music discovery. The deal signals that SoundCloud continues to expand beyond hosting music into a broader platform for independent artists.
As part of the acquisition, SoundCloud will take ownership of Nina’s editorial and “genre map.” The company writes in the blog post that this allows it to maintain Nina’s “rich collection of music journalism, artist features and cultural commentary” and “helps expose emerging artists, scenes and music to even more listeners.”
“[Nina Protocol] has built an incredible platform by putting independent artists, scenes and communities first, and it’s our priority to honor what they’ve created as we continue that mission,” said SoundCloud CEO Eliah Seton.
The acquisition comes a few months after Nina was announced would shut down its platform on May 28, saying it was unable to create a sustainable business model.
Founded in 2021 by independent musicians Jack Callahan, Mike Pollard and Eric Farber, Nina Protocol offered artists a way to operate their own digital storefronts without relying on traditional streaming platforms. The service was built on the Solana blockchain for fast, low-cost transactions and used Arweave for permanent decentralized storage of music files and metadata.
For Nina Protocol artists, SoundCloud offers one migration tool to transfer their work to its platform. Additionally, artists will receive a free SoundCloud Artist membership until the end of the year, which includes monetization features and audience growth tools.
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