UnitedMasters and Davido’s Nine+ Records: the April 2024 announcement named no rights, and is no longer on the UnitedMasters newsroom

On 18 April 2024, UnitedMasters published a press release announcing a deal with Davido covering Nine+ Records, the label the Nigerian artist had recently launched. The release runs to roughly 900 words. It describes what the two sides will do together: artist development, A&R, “behind-the-scenes curation,” and brand and sync opportunities. It does not describe what either side gets.

No master rights are named. No publishing rights are named. There is no distribution obligation, no territory, no term, no advance, no royalty rate, no equity split, and no cash figure anywhere in the text. The word “distribution” does not appear. Neither does “masters,” “catalogue,” “ownership,” “rights,” “publishing,” “equity” or “investment.”

That absence is the finding this record establishes, alongside a second one: the release is no longer on UnitedMasters’ newsroom.

What the announcement actually says

The dateline reads “Los Angeles, CA – April 18, 2024.” The operative sentence is that Davido “has inked a deal with UnitedMasters for his recently launched label Nine+ Records.” The release then sets out the division of labour: “Davido will spearhead artist development, A&R, and behind-the-scenes curation, nurturing a pioneering lineup of artists across the continent under Nine+ Records.”

Steve Stoute, founder and chief executive of UnitedMasters, is quoted describing the arrangement as “this new venture with Davido,” and says what his company brings: “Together we’ll identify & develop new artists while supporting them with brand and synch opportunities.” Davido’s quote is a statement of pride, not of structure: “I couldn’t be more proud to partner with Steve and the team at United Masters.”

The document uses three words for the relationship: “partnership,” “collaboration” and “venture.” It does not use the phrase “joint venture.” Several trade reports at the time did, including one headline that put the words “joint venture” above the story. A joint venture is a specific thing, a jointly owned entity with an agreed split of costs and returns. Nothing in the announcement establishes that one was formed. The release also promised that “Nine+ Records will be announcing more artists and partners in the future.” No such announcement was found on the UnitedMasters newsroom.

Where the announcement went

The original URL, news.unitedmasters.com/blog/davido-partnership, returned HTTP 404 when checked on 1 September 2026. The newsroom itself is live: its index page and other posts from the same period, including a December 2023 item on the company’s NBA Africa collaboration, return HTTP 200 on the same request.

The Internet Archive holds 13 captures of the Davido page between 3 May 2024 and 4 January 2026, every one of them returning a 200 status with the full release text. The newsroom’s own current index, read through its JSON feed, runs from 1 April 2024 straight to 5 June 2024 with nothing in between. The archived page’s forward link points to the 1 April 2024 post, which is where it would sit in that sequence. On the evidence checked, the release was live for at least 20 months and has been removed from the newsroom since. UnitedMasters has not published a statement explaining the removal, and none was found. This record does not infer a reason.

What the credit lines show

Two years and four months after the announcement, no release checked for this record carries a Nine+ Records phonogram credit, and none carries a UnitedMasters credit.

Davido’s own releases since the announcement all name the same rights holder. “Awuke,” released 25 October 2024, carries “℗ 2024 Davido Music Worldwide Limited under exclusive licence to Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited.” His album 5ive, released 18 April 2025, carries the identical line for 2025. Oriadé, released 31 July 2026, carries it for 2026. Deezer lists the label on Oriadé as Columbia, and its UPC, 196874507544, sits in a Sony prefix range.

Morravey, named across coverage of the launch as one of the Davido Music Worldwide artists moving to Nine+ Records, has released under a DMW licence throughout. “Ifineme X Upstandin” (27 September 2024), “You” (19 September 2025) and “My Lover” (17 April 2026) all read “℗ Nigeria – Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited, under exclusive license from Davido Music Worldwide (Ltd).” One release breaks the pattern in a different direction: “Galorizzy,” released 26 November 2025, reads “℗ 2025 Davido Music Worldwide Limited, Under Exclusive License to Virgin Music Nigeria,” naming Universal’s distribution arm rather than Sony.

Logos Olori, also named as moving, released “Porom Po” on 22 August 2025 under the same DMW to Virgin Music Nigeria line. His 2026 releases carry no DMW credit at all and are distributed through ONErpm under other imprints.

Read together, the credits establish that Davido Music Worldwide Limited remained the named phonogram owner across Davido’s own catalogue and Morravey’s through at least July 2026, and that it licensed exclusively to two different major distributors in the same period. They do not show a rights holder called Nine+ Records.

What could not be established

Whether Nine+ Records is an incorporated company anywhere could not be established. A UK Companies House search returns no company under that name. Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission has no public search API and was not available for this record. MusicBrainz holds no label entity for Nine+ Records.

Nor is Davido Music Worldwide Limited traceable to a register. Its credit line uses the “Limited” suffix, but Companies House returns no company of that name. Its jurisdiction of incorporation is therefore unconfirmed.

Nigerian entertainment press reported in April 2024 that Davido posted on X that all Davido Music Worldwide artists would move to Nine+ Records. The original post could not be retrieved, and this record does not treat the claim as established. If it was made, the credit lines above are inconsistent with it having taken effect.

Finally, this record makes no claim that the UnitedMasters agreement lapsed, was terminated or was never executed. An A&R and services agreement can run for years without ever appearing on a copyright line, because it does not need to. What the documents establish is narrower and firmer: the announcement named no rights, the announcement is gone from the newsroom that published it, and the rights that can be checked sit where they sat before.