Sony Music Publishing Signed Ghana’s Lynx Entertainment in June 2024. The Label It Signed No Longer Manages Any Artist.

Sony Music Publishing announced a signed deal with Ghana’s Lynx Entertainment in June 2024. Neither company said what kind of deal it was: not administration, not co-publishing, not a signing of individual songwriters. No territory, term or consideration was named by either side. Separately, and independently confirmed: the artist roster both trade reports of the announcement named as Lynx’s, KiDi, Kuami Eugene, Adina and DJ Vyrusky, has since substantially left the label. Kuami Eugene departed by mutual consent around January 2025. KiDi’s own Lynx contract ran out in 2025. By 18 May 2026, Lynx founder Richie Mensah announced the label manages no artists at all and is converting into a distribution and electronics company. What, if anything, the 2024 Sony Music Publishing agreement still covers has not been addressed by either company.

What was announced

Sony Music Publishing (SMP) said it had “completed a deal” with Lynx Entertainment, described by SMP as “Ghana’s premier entertainment company known for its innovation and commitment to nurturing exceptional talents.” The news was carried by 3Music.tv on 8 June 2024 and by Music In Africa on 11 June 2024, both trade outlets, both reproducing the same SMP framing: the arrangement was expected to “boost Lynx’s reach and resources” while strengthening both companies’ regional and global positions. Neither outlet attributed a quote to a named executive at either company, and no SMP or Lynx statement naming an individual could be located for this record.

The deal followed SMP’s 2022 entry into West Africa, a Lagos office opened under managing director Godwin Tom, whose roster by mid-2024 already included Wizkid, Tems, Sarkodie and M.O.G Beatz. Lynx was announced roughly a month after SMP signed Nigerian singer Ric Hassani.

What neither party said

Publishing deals take several distinct legal forms, and they carry different consequences for who collects what. An administration deal leaves copyright ownership with the original publisher and pays the administrator a collection fee. A co-publishing deal splits ownership of the copyright itself. A straight signing brings individual songwriters onto a publisher’s own roster, publishing their future work directly. None of the public language used by either company distinguishes between these. “Signed,” “deal,” and “partnership” are the only words on the record, and all three are compatible with more than one of the structures above. No specific song, writer or catalogue was named in either announcement, so it cannot be established from the public record whether the agreement covers Lynx’s in-house publishing arm as a company, individual Lynx-affiliated songwriters, or something else.

What happened to the roster the deal was announced around

By January 2025, Richie Mensah told Ghanaian radio that only three acts, KiDi, DJ Vyrusky and DSL, still held a full 360 deal with Lynx, in the same conversation confirming that Kuami Eugene had left after an eight-year relationship, ending by mutual consent. KiDi later told interviewer ZionFelix he left Lynx in 2025 when his own contract ran out, a split he described as amicable rather than a falling-out, and began releasing music independently through licensing tied to Encore in 2026. Adina, who joined Lynx in April 2022 while retaining her own management company, is not named among the label’s active artists in 2025 reporting. On 17 May 2026, his 40th birthday, Mensah announced on video that Lynx had been “phasing out” artist management and “does not manage any artiste” as of that date, converting the company into a distribution business serving other labels’ artists and launching a consumer electronics line, Lynx Electronics.

What this record establishes and what it does not

Established: Sony Music Publishing and Lynx Entertainment announced a signed deal in June 2024, reported independently by two trade outlets. Established: Lynx Entertainment’s own founder has since said, on the record, that the label manages no artists as of May 2026, following the confirmed departures of Kuami Eugene and KiDi. Not established: the legal structure, rights, territory, term or consideration of the 2024 Sony Music Publishing agreement. Not established: whether that agreement remains in force, has lapsed, or was ever tied to the specific artists who have since left, because no source reviewed for this record, including SMP’s own site, addresses the agreement’s status past its announcement week.

Analysis: what a publishing deal is worth when the label it was signed with has emptied out, and what that means for artists weighing a similar deal today.