Deal sheet
- Status
- Completed. Sewasew Multimedia stated that the contract was terminated by mutual agreement due to disagreements during the work process. The artist's management confirmed the 33m birr repayment and Sewasew confirmed receipt. Etorika debuted on the artist's YouTube channel and on global streaming services on 16 April 2026, self-released.
- Type
- Settlement
- Parties
- Sewasew Multimedia, 2F Capital
- Amount
- 33,000,000 ETB returned by the artist to Sewasew Multimedia, comprising a 25,000,000 ETB advance received roughly four years earlier plus accumulated bank interest. The original partnership was valued at 50,000,000 ETB. One outlet puts the interest component at exactly 8,000,000 ETB, but attributes that figure to unnamed sources and is not relied on here.
- Rights covered
- Termination of a recording and platform agreement by mutual consent, with repayment of the advance. No transfer, assignment or licence of rights is established in either direction. No source establishes that Sewasew Multimedia ever owned, administered or held an exclusive licence in Teddy Afro masters or publishing: no phonogram credit naming Sewasew was found on any of 32 Teddy Afro releases indexed via the iTunes Search API between 2001 and 2026, all of which read '(P) [year] Teddy Afro'. Two rejected proposals are on the record: an exclusive catalogue hosting arrangement in exchange for annual prepayments, rejected by the artist; and a revision to caller ring back tone revenue sharing, rejected by Sewasew. The album Etorika, released 16 April 2026, carries the phonogram credit '(P) 2026 Teddy Afro' on Apple Music and was described by the artist's side as released independently without a publishing partner.
- Territory
- Ethiopia
- Announced
- 2026-04-15
- Primary document
- Trade press
- Sources
- Ethiopian business publication report, 15 April 2026, carrying both the artist management attribution and a direct on-record statement from Sewasew Multimedia · Ethiopian news site, 15 April 2026: contract value 50m ETB, initial advance 25m ETB, interest accrued over four years 8m ETB, final exit payment 33m ETB. The figures table is attributed to sources close to the negotiations and is treated as unconfirmed. · Apple Music release page for Etorika: phonogram credit (P) 2026 Teddy Afro · iTunes Search API: copyright field for all 32 indexed Teddy Afro releases 2001-2026, every one crediting the artist, none crediting Sewasew Multimedia · MusicBrainz artist entry: Teddy Afro, legal name Tewodros Kassahun, Ethiopia. Tikur Sew (2012) label-info lists Adika Communication and Events PLC and Belema Entertainment PLC · Apple App Store: Sewasew Music seller 2F Capital . LLC, (c) 2022 2F Capital · Apple App Store: CMO Ethiopia app, bundle com.cncmethiopia.app, same seller 2F Capital . LLC, (c) 2023 2F Capital · 2F Capital corporate history: TWOF Capital PLC established June 2020, Sewasew Multimedia named as its registered brand · UMG announcement, 16 November 2023: Sewasew to license and market UMG catalogue in Ethiopia, UMG's first Ethiopian agreement · CNCM Ethiopia: registered with the Ethiopian Intellectual Property Authority 18 June 2017, licence categories include streaming platform, board membership listed, Partners page empty · Interview with Habtu Negash, head of music at Sewasew, May 2023: Sewasew is a streaming platform and a recording label that acquires content by purchasing albums, over a hundred artists signed. Returns HTTP 403 to automated verification but resolves to a research user agent.
Read this before citing: Ethiopia has no public company registry API, so none of the corporate relationships here could be confirmed against a filing. The contract term is given as four years by the artist's management and confirmed by Sewasew; unsourced social media claims of three years exist and are not relied on. The 8m birr interest figure appears in one outlet only, attributed to unnamed sources. Wikipedia's infobox for Etorika names a label, Addis Zema, that appears on no phonogram credit and whose rights role, if any, could not be established. Whether Sewasew held any rights at all, as opposed to a services or prepayment arrangement, could not be established from any document located.
Teddy Afro (Tewodros Kassahun) exited his contract with Sewasew Multimedia in April 2026 by returning 33 million Ethiopian birr to the company. The artist’s management and Sewasew both confirmed the termination. The 33 million birr comprised a 25 million birr advance received roughly four years earlier plus accumulated bank interest. The original partnership was valued at 50 million birr.
This is a buy-out and mutual termination, not a sale or transfer of rights. Sewasew has issued a direct statement that “the contract was terminated by mutual agreement due to disagreements during the work process”. Two sticking points are on the record via the artist’s management: Sewasew proposed hosting Teddy Afro’s previous catalogue exclusively in exchange for annual prepayments, which the artist rejected; and the artist requested revisions to caller ring back tone revenue sharing, which Sewasew did not accept.
No source establishes that Sewasew ever owned or administered masters or publishing in any Teddy Afro recording. Phonogram credits on 32 Teddy Afro releases indexed through the iTunes Search API, spanning 2001 to 2026, all read “(P) [year] Teddy Afro”, with one reading “(P) 2017 Teddyafro”. Sewasew appears on none of them, before, during or after the contract period. The sole exception is the 2022 single “Na’et”, credited “(P) 2022 4054233 Records DK”, a DistroKid auto-assigned placeholder label which DistroKid’s own documentation states carries no ownership in the music.
The ninth album, Etorika, was released on 16 April 2026 with the phonogram credit “(P) 2026 Teddy Afro” on Apple Music. Teddy Afro’s back catalogue, including the 2001 release Abugida, was re-delivered in 2026 under new collection identifiers, again credited to the artist.
