Deal sheet
- Status
- Partly unresolved
- Type
- Joint Venture, Licensing
- Parties
- Open Mic Productions (Pty) Ltd, Warner Music France SAS, Africori, Warner Music Group, Emazulwini Production and Projects (Pty) Ltd
- Amount
- Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- Exclusive licence of the master recordings on the Jerusalema album from Open Mic Productions (Pty) Ltd to Warner Music France SAS, released under the Elektra France label. Ownership of the phonogram did not move: the credit line on every Apple catalogue record for the album and its remixes reads "Exclusive licence Warner Music France, Label Elektra France, ℗ 2020 Open Mic Productions", and the 2021 European vinyl pressing credits Open Mic Productions as both phonographic copyright and copyright owner, licensed to Warner Music France. Separately, a settlement agreement made an order of the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria on 15 December 2022 obliges Nomcebo Zikode, through Emazulwini Production and Projects (Pty) Ltd, to enter a 50/50 joint venture with Open Mic Productions covering her next two albums, which the settlement says the joint venture would fund and co-own and release via Africori. That obligation was held valid and enforceable on 9 May 2025 and leave to appeal was refused on 24 July 2025. No consideration is stated for either arrangement.
- Territory
- Album licence: worldwide excluding Sub-Saharan Africa, where the August 2020 announcement says Warner Music Group's ADA holds the rights. Joint venture: no territory is stated in either judgment.
- Announced
- 2020-08-04
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple iTunes lookup API, Master KG catalogue (artist 1400676576): 84 release records carrying the phonogram and licence credit line for every Jerusalema release, and the Open Mic to Wanitwa Mos Entertainment transition · Nkwanyana and Another v Open Mic Productions (Pty) Ltd and Another (098393/2023) [2025] ZAGPPHC 422, Gauteng High Court Pretoria, Moshoana J, 9 May 2025: reproduces the Future Recordings clause and the accounting clause of the settlement made an order of court on 15 December 2022 · Nkwanyana and Another v Open Mic Productions (Pty) Ltd and Another (Leave to Appeal) (098393/2023) [2025] ZAGPPHC 734, 24 July 2025: leave to appeal refused, costs order varied · Warner Music Group Corp. FY2025 Form 10-K, Exhibit 21.1: lists Africori Limited, Africori SA PTY LTD, Warner Music France SAS and Alternative Distribution Alliance as subsidiaries. Open Mic Productions does not appear · Trade report, 4 August 2020: Elektra France holds the album rights worldwide excluding Sub-Saharan Africa, where they are handled by Warner Music Group's ADA, with on-record quotes from Warner Music France, Africori and Open Mic Productions · Discogs release record for the 2021 European vinyl pressing, barcode 0190295025274: phonographic copyright Open Mic Productions, copyright Open Mic Productions, licensed to Warner Music France, rights societies SCPP and GEMA/BIEM · Apple iTunes lookup API, Nomcebo Zikode catalogue (artist 1454263816): 32 release records, showing Bayethe credited to Kellerman Music, Mayonie Productions and Emazulwini under exclusive licence to Universal Music South Africa, and every solo release from October 2023 credited to Emazulwini Productions alone · Apple Music album page for Jerusalema, carrying the same exclusive licence and phonogram credit line in its public description
Read this before citing: This record separates four relationships that are routinely conflated in coverage of this song. Open Mic Productions OWNS the master recording: it is the named phonogram owner on every credit line checked, from the January 2020 album through the January 2021 Riton remix. Warner Music France LICENSES that recording on an exclusive basis and releases it under the Elektra France label; an exclusive licence is not a transfer of copyright and the credit line says so explicitly. Africori DISTRIBUTES, and in the settlement is described only as a "conduit"; it was a Warner Music Group majority-owned company by the time the court order was made and has been wholly owned since 11 February 2025. No source establishes who ADMINISTERS the publishing in the underlying composition: the MLC and ASCAP repertory endpoints did not respond to requests from this server, and no party has published a writer or publisher split, so the publishing chain is recorded here as not established. What else could not be established: the term or expiry of the Elektra France licence; any advance, royalty rate or consideration for either arrangement, neither of which is stated in the trade announcement or in either judgment; whether the 50/50 joint venture company was ever actually incorporated, since Nomcebo Zikode has released no album since the December 2022 order and every solo release of hers since October 2023 is credited to Emazulwini Productions alone with no joint-venture or Africori credit in the phonogram line; and any legal costs figure, because neither judgment states one. Note also two distinct 10-track Jerusalema album records in Apple's catalogue, ids 1522731935 and 1522899663, carrying different credit lines: the first names the Warner exclusive licence, the second names only Open Mic Productions. The lookup API does not disclose which storefronts each is sold in, so that split cannot be attributed to territory from this document alone; the territorial carve-out is sourced to the August 2020 announcement instead. Finally, the 9 May 2025 judgment records but expressly does not decide a separate dispute over whether Zikode and Master KG co-authored the song, and a further claim brought in 2022 by two other producers over the origin of the recording is not covered by this record.
Two separate arrangements sit under the most widely consumed South African recording ever released, and neither of them transferred ownership of it.
The first is a licence. On 4 August 2020, Warner Music Group’s Elektra France announced an exclusive deal for Master KG’s album Jerusalema, holding the rights worldwide excluding Sub-Saharan Africa, where the announcement said Warner Music Group’s ADA would look after them. The announcement said the signing came through Warner’s partnership with Africori and with Open Mic Productions, the label Master KG was signed to. It named no advance, no royalty rate and no term.
What Warner got was a licence, not a title. Every Apple catalogue record for the album, its edits and its remixes carries the same credit: “Exclusive licence Warner Music France, Label Elektra France, ℗ 2020 Open Mic Productions.” The 2021 European vinyl pressing is credited the same way on the product itself: phonographic copyright Open Mic Productions, copyright Open Mic Productions, “Licensed To: Warner Music France”. Open Mic Productions does not appear anywhere in Warner Music Group Corp.’s FY2025 Form 10-K Exhibit 21.1 list of subsidiaries, which does name Africori Limited, Africori SA PTY LTD and Warner Music France SAS.
The second arrangement is a joint venture, and it was settled in a courtroom rather than a boardroom. On 15 December 2022 the Gauteng High Court, Pretoria, per Tolmay J, made a settlement agreement between Nomcebo Zikode, her company Emazulwini Production and Projects (Pty) Ltd and Open Mic Productions an order of court. Its “Future Recordings” clause reads: “The Parties have agreed that Nomcebo Nkwanyana through her company Emazulwini Productions will enter into a 50/50 Joint Venture agreement within 60 (sixty) days of the Effective Date of this agreement in relation to the Future Recordings. The Future Recordings, will be released by the Joint Venture via Africori. The parties agree that Africori will act as a conduit facilitating the interaction between the two parties.”
The settlement defines “Future Recordings” as “the next two albums only, to be delivered by Nomcebo, which will be recorded by Nomcebo through her record label Emazulwini Productions in a joint venture partnership with Open Mic Productions and released by Africori”. Zikode’s own founding affidavit, quoted in the judgment, describes the framework as a joint venture that “would fund and co-own my next two albums”, and records that “at that stage, the understanding was that the albums would be released by Universal Music”.
Zikode later asked the court to declare that she was not bound to conclude that joint venture, and to order Open Mic to account more fully. On 9 May 2025 Moshoana J dismissed the application with costs, holding that the clause “is a valid, enforceable agreement to jointly deliver two albums using the JV only as a vehicle” and that “Zikode is bound by the agreed terms”. Leave to appeal was refused on 24 July 2025. No amount of money is stated in either judgment.
