Gyakie Signed to RCA Records UK in 2021. Her Copyright Line Has Always Named a Different Sony Entity, and Her Newest Single Drops It Too

In March 2021, trade press across Ghana and Nigeria reported that Gyakie and her label, Flip The Music, had signed an international deal with RCA Records UK and Sony Music Entertainment, described at the time as a “worldwide” partnership. RCA’s own name has never once appeared on her music since. Every phonogram credit on her lead-artist releases from 2022 through 2025, checked directly on Apple Music, names a different entity: Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited, holding an exclusive licence from Flip The Music, Gyakie’s own Ghanaian company. Her masters were never sold or signed away in the ownership sense; they were licensed, on a rolling basis, by her own label to a Sony regional subsidiary. Her most recent single, released in June 2026, drops that Sony credit entirely and reverts to a Flip The Music line identical to the one she carried before the 2021 deal was ever announced.

What was announced in 2021

The announcement broke in Ghanaian and Nigerian entertainment press on 23 and 24 March 2021, days after the release of the Omah Lay-assisted remix of her breakout single “Forever.” Trade outlet Music In Africa reported that Flip The Music, the label founded a year earlier by artist manager Emmanuel “Electro Mirror” Sedo, had partnered with RCA Records UK, a Sony Music Entertainment label. RCA UK’s own Instagram account posted “Incoming! Gyakie is now part of the RCA UK family!” Gyakie, born Jackline Acheampong, told Ghanaian broadcaster 4SYTE TV: “I am excited to join RCA/Sony Music International with my label Flip the Music on my journey to become a global superstar.” Sedo added that the label was “thrilled to join the Sony Music family.”

The coverage described the deal as worldwide and named Sony Music Africa, with Sony Music West Africa as the home office, alongside RCA Records UK and Sony Music Entertainment. No outlet reviewed for this record, and no statement from any of the named parties, specified whether the arrangement covered masters, publishing or both, disclosed a term, a territory split, or any financial consideration. The word most consistently used across coverage was “partnership,” and Gyakie’s own quote frames it as something added to her existing label relationship, not a departure from it: she remained, and remains, signed to Flip The Music.

What the copyright line actually says

Apple Music’s phonogram (℗) declaration is a label’s legal statement of who holds the sound-recording copyright on a given release, and it is checkable independently of anything a press release claims. Gyakie’s pre-deal catalogue carries a simple credit: “Sor Mi Mu” (feat. Bisa Kdei), released 7 February 2020, a year before the RCA announcement, reads “℗ 2020 FLIP THE MUSIC.” No Sony, no RCA.

From her first release after the announcement onward, the credit changes, but not to RCA. Her sophomore EP, MY DIARY, released 22 July 2022, carries the line “℗ 2022 Ghana – Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited, under exclusive licence from Jackline Acheampong (Flip The Music).” That exact formulation, Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited as licensee, Flip The Music and Gyakie personally as licensor, recurs on every lead-artist release checked for this record across four years: the single “December” (5 April 2024), “Sankofa” (23 May 2025), “unconditional” (11 July 2025), and her 2025 album After Midnight. Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited is the Lagos-headquartered regional subsidiary Sony opened in 2016, not RCA Records UK, and not Sony Music Entertainment as a global parent. RCA’s name does not appear on a single phonogram credit checked for this record, on any release, at any point.

An exclusive licence and a signing are not the same transaction. Under a licence, the licensor, here Flip The Music and Gyakie herself, keeps the underlying copyright; the licensee gets time-limited rights to exploit the recording, typically in exchange for marketing, distribution and an advance or royalty split that neither side has disclosed. A “worldwide deal” announced through a UK label’s Instagram account resolved, on the actual legal paperwork a label is required to file with every release, into a licence to a West Africa-specific Sony entity. That is a narrower and more reversible arrangement than “signed to RCA Records UK” suggests, and it is worth being precise about the difference: Flip The Music never stopped being the rights-holder of record.

Sony’s own account of how these deals work

In an August 2022 interview with Music In Africa, Oluwaseun “Banko” Lloyd, general manager of Sony Music West Africa since 2019, named Gyakie directly as one of the office’s signing successes, saying she was flagged to the label by streaming platform Boomplay: “Gyakie is a superstar and one that has good charisma. She’s the one that shines through wherever she is.” In the same interview, Lloyd described the label’s general approach to independent artists in terms that match exactly what Gyakie’s copyright line shows: “The best deals, I’d say, are with the majors because the major is not looking for a 360 from an artist, but an independent for 360 deals, and now they license the music to us.” That is Sony’s own regional head, on the record, describing a licence from an independent label as the normal shape of these West Africa deals, not an acquisition or a full-catalogue signing.

The relationship stayed active for years after the announcement. In January 2023, Ghanaian broadcaster GBC reported that Sedo received a multi-platinum plaque directly from Sony Music recognising “Forever” and its remix, corroborating that the arrangement was still functioning nearly two years after the initial press coverage.

What changed on the newest single

Gyakie’s most recent lead-artist release, “TREASURE,” released 26 June 2026, carries the phonogram line “℗ 2026 FLIP THE MUSIC.” No Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited credit appears. It is the first lead-artist release checked for this record, going back to the 2022 EP, to drop the Sony licensee line, and it matches, credit for credit, the format her music carried before the 2021 deal was ever announced.

This record does not claim the Sony licence has ended, lapsed or been renegotiated. No press release, statement or trade report describing any change to the arrangement was found in the sources checked, and Gyakie’s other 2025 and 2026 output that could be checked, singles featuring KJ Spio and Mavo, Kuami Eugene, KiDi and Swayvee, are all credited to those artists’ own labels rather than to Gyakie’s, so they cannot confirm or contradict her own deal status. One single dropping a credit is a fact worth recording plainly and not a trend; it is also the only 2026 data point available for her own lead releases as of this record, and readers should treat it as exactly that, a single verified fact, not a confirmed departure.

What this means for artists

A press announcement naming a famous label is not the same document as the phonogram credit that later governs the recording, and the two can describe different things without either side lying. If you are negotiating a deal with a major’s regional or independent-facing arm, ask directly whether the structure is a licence, where you keep the copyright and grant time-limited exploitation rights, or a signing that moves ownership. “Worldwide,” “partnership” and “family” are marketing words, not legal terms, and none of them appear on an actual copyright line.

If you already have a deal like this, the phonogram credit on each new release is a free, public record of whether the arrangement is still in force, and it is worth checking your own catalogue on Apple Music or Deezer periodically rather than assuming a 2021 press cycle still describes your 2026 paperwork. And if a credit changes, on your catalogue or someone else’s, the honest response is to ask the label directly what changed, not to assume the biggest possible story. A dropped credit can mean a licence lapsed, a term ended on schedule, a renegotiation in progress, or nothing more than how a single release was routed. Only the parties involved know which, and as of this record, neither has said.

Limits of this record. The 2021 announcement is sourced to trade press (Music In Africa, BellaNaija, Ghana’s B&FT Online, GhanaWeb and DailyGuide Network) and a quote attributed to RCA Records UK’s own Instagram account, reproduced consistently across those outlets; no press release hosted on a Sony Music or RCA corporate newsroom describing this specific deal could be found. No source discloses financial terms, a contract length or a defined territory split. The phonogram-credit evidence for 2022 to 2025 comes directly from Apple Music’s own release pages for MY DIARY (2022), December (2024), Sankofa (2025), unconditional (2025) and After Midnight (2025), all reading Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited under exclusive licence from Flip The Music. The August 2022 Oluwaseun Lloyd interview and the January 2023 plaque report corroborate that the Sony relationship remained active into 2023; no source checked establishes its status after that date beyond what the phonogram credits themselves show. The absence of a Sony credit on “TREASURE” (26 June 2026) is reported as an observed, verified fact; no source explains it, and this record does not conclude that the licence has ended. Flip The Music’s corporate registration could not be verified: Ghana’s copyright and companies registries offer no public search API, and UK Companies House was not checked because no source indicates the company is UK-registered. Publishing rights are not covered by this record.