On almost every record Msaki has led, the small print names her as the owner of the recording. On the two albums she made with Tubatsi Mpho Moloi, it names a Paris label instead. The phonogram notice on Synthetic Hearts, released 10 March 2023, reads “℗ 2023 Nø Førmat!”. On Synthetic Hearts Part II, released 24 May 2024, it reads “℗ 2024 NO FORMAT!”. Neither carries an artist-side company, and neither carries the four words that would change its meaning: under exclusive license to.
Compare her own albums. The storefront catalogue record for both halves of her 2021 double album Platinumb Heart returns the same copyright string: “℗ 2021 Msaki”. Not a label, not a production company, not an imprint. Her name.
No consideration is disclosed anywhere, and no document read states a territory, term, royalty rate or reversion date on either arrangement.
What the two notices actually say#
Two marks sit on every commercial release and they do different jobs. The phonogram notice, ℗, identifies who owns the sound recording. The copyright notice, ©, identifies who owns the underlying work, or on an album often the compilation.
On both Synthetic Hearts records they name the same party. A user-maintained database of physical releases, whose entries transcribe the credits printed on the packaging, lists No Format in both the Phonographic Copyright and Copyright roles on the NØF.57 vinyl, and in both roles again on the NØF.61 vinyl. Its note on the second quotes the sleeve directly: “℗ & © 2024 NØ FØRMAT!”.
The storefront evidence agrees and does not wobble. The copyright string for the first album is identical on the South African, French, United States and British storefronts, and the release page carries a record label field reading No Format. The catalogue numbers check out against the label’s own product feed, NOF57 and NOF61. The counterparty is real and old: the French register carries NO FORMAT as a limited company incorporated on 20 May 2004, still active, coded for sound recording and music publishing.
A third credit matters most. The sleeve transcription for the NØF.57 vinyl places No Format in the Published By role too, and no artist-side publisher appears in that credit list at all. That is the recordings and the songs credited to the same party.
Two cautions. A Published By credit does not distinguish owning the compositions from administering them. And this desk could not resolve which it is: every collecting society register that would answer refused the request or could not be reached. The position rests on what the label printed on its own sleeve, and the equivalent credit is absent from the second album.
Who owns the rest of her catalogue#
Set the two Paris albums aside and her ownership position is unusually strong. The storefront copyright fields across her own releases read “℗ 2019 One Shushu Day Artistry” on the 2016 single Iimfama Ziyabona, “℗ 2019 One Shushu Day Publishing” on the album Zaneliza: How the Water Moves, “℗ 2020 ALTBLK (Oneshushuday)” on Blood Guns and Revolutions, and “℗ 2021 Msaki” on both halves of Platinumb Heart.
That is the right answer written four different ways. The asset is hers in every case, but the name attached to it is not stable, and royalty systems match on strings, not on intent. None of the four could be confirmed as an incorporated company: South Africa’s companies register has no public interface reachable from this server, so whether these are separate entities or trading variants of one thing is an open question here.
One label on half a double album#
Platinumb Heart was released as two halves on the same day, 19 November 2021, with barcodes from the same block. The ownership side is consistent: both read “℗ 2021 Msaki”. The label side is not. On Beating, the release page carries a record label field reading Platoon and a second storefront agrees. On Open, there is no record label field at all and the second storefront gives Oneshushuday. The only three mentions of Platoon on the Open page were checked one by one and are a playlist shelf item, not a credit.
Platoon is a label services and distribution company Apple Inc. has controlled since December 2018, a date this desk established against the UK register. Its name in a label field is a distribution relationship, not an ownership one, and the notice on the same page proves it: Platoon is the label, Msaki owns the master. Those two facts sit one scroll apart and are routinely read as one. Why only one half of the album carries the credit is unexplained by the metadata, and this desk is not picking the tidier half.
The feature economy moves the phonogram#
Msaki is one of the most featured voices in South African dance music, and the pattern is near total: the owner named is the lead artist’s party, not hers. Universal Music (Pty) Ltd South Africa on Prince Kaybee’s Fetch Your Life. El World Music on Ubomi Abumanga. Under Da Sun on Amandla. Her vocal on Black Coffee’s Wish You Were Here sits inside a recording whose notice names Soulistic Music under exclusive licence to Universal in South Africa, a release whose conflicting credits this desk has documented.
Two exceptions show the alternative exists: the notice on Sizophelelaphi with OSKIDO names both artists, and the one on Ungazilibali names all five contributors. A shared phonogram notice is not exotic, just rarer than a guest verse.
The same label, the opposite deal#
Three years after Synthetic Hearts, Nø Førmat! released Massa by Fatoumata Diawara. Its notice reads “℗ 2026 Nare Productions under exclusive license to Nø Førmat!”, and Nare Productions is a Paris company this desk tied to Diawara in that record. On that album the artist’s company owns the master and the label holds a licence, which is a narrower thing.
Same label, same manager, opposite position on the single most valuable line in the contract. The records are three years apart and no document read states the commercial terms of either, so this is not a finding about how the label negotiates. It shows the label can do it either way, which makes the structure a negotiated outcome rather than a house policy.
Note who else was in the room. Both albums credit three writers: Msaki, Tubatsi Mpho Moloi and the French cellist Clément Petit, a long-standing collaborator of the label. The label’s own manager is credited as executive producer and A&R on the first. This was a label-originated project, not a catalogue licence picked up later, and the rights ended up where such projects usually put them.
What could not be established#
No contract was read. Every rights claim here rests on notices and credits the parties published themselves, plus one company register. Notices get abbreviated constantly and they are not warranties. Critically, the absence of an artist-side name from a phonogram notice is not evidence that no artist-side contractual interest exists. Nothing read for this piece speaks to reversion, participation or royalty share on either Synthetic Hearts album, and it would be wrong to read the notices as proof the artists retained nothing.
The publishing position is a sleeve credit, not a legal characterisation. The legal status of One Shushu Day Artistry, One Shushu Day Publishing and ALTBLK is unestablished, as is their relationship to each other. No distributor is established on either side. One further anomaly, a track featuring her whose stated release year and phonogram year are seven years apart, is recorded in the deal entry rather than guessed at here.
What this means for artists#
The notice is the deal, in six words or fewer. “℗ Year Your Company under exclusive license to Label” means you own it and they rent it. “℗ Year Label” alone means they are claiming it. The second is not a worse-sounding version of the first. It is a different asset position, and on a streaming page both look like the same grey line of small type.
Owning your masters is a position you hold per release, not a status you hold. An artist can be the named owner on nine releases and not the tenth. Msaki’s catalogue demonstrates it: among the strongest ownership positions in South African alternative music on her own records, and no name at all on two albums abroad.
Keep one name and use it every time. Four owner strings across one catalogue is four things for a royalty system to match against and four answers to give a buyer during diligence. The ownership is the hard part and she won it. The naming is the cheap part.
A guest verse is a transfer. Featuring is how African artists build reach, and in almost every case here the notice names the lead artist’s company. That can be the right trade. But a performer with dozens of features and a handful of leads may own far less of their output than their streaming profile suggests, and a joint credit is available to anyone who asks before delivery.
Ask where the publishing went, in the same conversation. Recordings and songs are separate properties and they get separated by accident constantly. On the first Synthetic Hearts the sleeve credits both to the label. An artist who negotiates hard on masters and signs the publishing away without discussing it has traded half the business.
The structured record, with every source URL and the full list of what could not be established, sits in this publication’s deal database entry.
