SoundCloud has acquired Nina Protocol, the blockchain-based music marketplace that officially ceased operations on July 15, 2026. The acquisition, announced on Wednesday, July 22, marks a significant consolidation in the music-tech space, though financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed.
Nina Protocol had established a distinct reputation as a decentralized marketplace, offering artists a platform for releases and editorial content that prioritized ownership and direct distribution via blockchain infrastructure. Despite its innovative approach, the platform announced its closure in May, leaving many to wonder about the future of the catalog and the unique editorial work cultivated by its community.
Under the terms of this new agreement, artists who previously utilized Nina will be granted the opportunity to migrate their music to SoundCloud, allowing them to opt into the platform’s broader creator ecosystem. Furthermore, the deal includes the integration of Nina’s extensive editorial archive and its signature genre map—a sophisticated tool designed to visualize the complex connections between various musical scenes and sounds.
In a statement regarding the transition, the Nina Protocol team noted, “We prioritise a company’s ethos above all else, and we would not be engaging in this partnership to transition Nina’s context and community to SoundCloud if we did not feel entirely comfortable with their values and plans.”
While the acquisition is finalized, SoundCloud has yet to provide specific details regarding the long-term preservation of the archive. The company is currently evaluating how to best maintain or republish the editorial content and third-party contributions that defined the Nina experience. For many artists who built their followings on the platform, this period of transition brings a degree of uncertainty, as the editorial voice and genre-mapping tools were central to what distinguished Nina from traditional marketplace alternatives.
This move reflects a broader industry trend where larger platforms absorb niche, artist-focused services rather than competing with them directly. For SoundCloud, which has spent recent years aggressively rebuilding its own creator monetization tools, the acquisition provides a ready-made archive and a cohort of artists already well-versed in independent distribution models.
Nina Protocol shared the official announcement on Instagram: