Nina Protocol, a free and impartial music platform, is ready to close down. The Web3-based streaming service and market introduced as we speak (Could 28) that it’s going to start winding down operations in phases over the following six weeks. Customers are suggested to export their releases and purchases earlier than the platform goes offline utterly on July 15.
In a press release, Nina expressed its mission: “We aimed to construct an infrastructure for impartial music that empowered musicians to promote their music, form their narratives, and join with listeners on their phrases.” Regardless of creating significant connections and fostering a love for brand spanking new music, the platform struggled to discover a sustainable income mannequin at its present scale.
Based in New York in 2021 by Jack Callahan, Mike Pollard, and Eric Farber, Nina began as a distribution service that allowed artists to add music on to listeners by way of blockchain expertise, retaining full possession and income from their releases. Constructed on open-source code, it enabled artists to create customized hubs for his or her catalogs. Notable artists comparable to ML Buch, James Okay, Yung Lean, Purelink, Aya, and Ana Roxanne, together with labels like Warp, AD 93, Stroom, and Hyperdub, utilized Nina for his or her music distribution.
Taking cues from the Weblog Period of on-line publishing, Nina established a various editorial crew that shared scene reviews, essays, interviews, and curated playlists from artists, journalists, and followers alike. Editorial lead Cal Hickox shared with Rolling Stone in 2025, “We wish folks to carve out their very own corners right here. The dream is for somebody to start out {a magazine} on Nina, write about their pals’ bands, and create an entire world round that.”
Nina additionally organized an occasion sequence often called Nina Evening and launched a podcast titled 400 Flooring. In 2024, they expanded their choices with a cell app and launched a neighborhood revenue-sharing mannequin the next yr. This program added a $1 payment to every buy as an alternative of taking a minimize from the artist’s share, with the payment distributed “evenly and transparently” between the platform and its customers, based on Nina’s web site.
“We’re hopeful and excited to see how others will proceed to innovate in impartial music and enhance our nook of the music world,” Nina said in its announcement. “The realities of the music trade could seem daunting within the period of Huge Streaming, however we should resist cynicism and preserve hope.”
Under is Nina Protocol’s full assertion concerning the shutdown:
We remorse to tell you that we’re winding down Nina Protocol.
The location will progressively stop operations over the following six weeks. We advocate utilizing this time to withdraw your earnings and export your releases, purchases, and connections.
Our objective is to facilitate a easy transition in an effort to retain your Nina actions earlier than the platform goes offline fully. After July 15, each the location and app shall be completely unavailable.
We’re exploring choices to archive Nina Editorial on-line and can share a hyperlink as soon as accessible.
In 2021, we acknowledged the fatigue amongst musicians dealing with the one-size-fits-all fee buildings, context-collapse, and algorithm-driven discovery of mainstream streaming providers. We got down to create an infrastructure for impartial music, permitting musicians to promote on to followers, curate their context, and join with listeners on their very own phrases. Our mission was to liberate impartial music from the stronghold of Huge Streaming, which we believed disproportionately benefited main labels.
Over the previous 5 years, we’ve got developed new fashions for:
- Releasing music on to followers
- Empowering artists to contextualize their music
- Reworking listeners from passive customers to engaged collaborators
- Integrating editorial content material and curation into the music discovery course of
