Rockstar Put a 1984 Ghanaian Highlife Record on GTA VI. The Rights Credit Names a London Label That a Montreal Company Has Majority-Owned Since 2021.

October 11, 2026 8 min read

Deal sheet

Status

ESTABLISHED: that Rockstar Games has placed Pat Thomas's "Gye Wani" (feat. Ebo Taylor) on the Grand Theft Auto VI in-game station AfroBank FM, from Rockstar's own site; that the commercially released version of that recording carries the phonogram credit "℗ 2024 Soundway Records Ltd", from Apple's album-level lookup endpoint and corroborated by MusicBrainz against the label Soundway, catalogue SNDWCD148; and that since 1 July 2021 the sole person with significant control of both SOUNDWAY RECORDS LTD and SOUNDWAY PUBLISHING LIMITED has been Third Side Music. Inc. of Montreal, holding more than 50 per cent but less than 75 per cent of the shares, with founder Miles Georges Cleret ceasing as a controlling person of both on the same date and leaving both boards on 20 November 2025. All of that is from statutory filings and registry records read on 11 October 2026.

A FINDING ON CHARACTERISATION, PUBLISHED RATHER THAN RESOLVED: Third Side Music's own announcement of 7 December 2021 called the transaction a "new partnership", and a trade report of 8 December 2021 called it acquiring "a stake". Neither disclosed a shareholding level or any financial terms. The PSC register records majority shareholding effective 1 July 2021, five months before the announcement, with the founder's 75-per-cent-plus holding ceasing on that date. The register filings themselves lagged: the director appointments were filed 15 December 2021 and the share-control filings on 28 March 2022 (publishing) and 4 May 2022 (label), all with a 1 July 2021 effective date. Both characterisations are recorded here. They are not the same statement and this desk is not choosing between them.

NOT ESTABLISHED: any consideration for either transaction; the territory, term or counterparty structure of the Grand Theft Auto VI sync grant; whether the master used in the game is the 2024 Soundway reissue master; whether Soundway owns, was assigned, or licensed in the 1984 recording; the publishing and composition chain; whether Pat Thomas or Ebo Taylor's estate receives anything from this use; who holds the minority of either company; and whose shares Soundway Publishing purchased and cancelled on 20 November 2025. No statement from Soundway Records Ltd, Soundway Publishing Limited, Third Side Music or Rockstar Games about this placement specifically has been located.

Type

Acquisition, Licensing

Parties

Soundway Records Ltd, Soundway Publishing Limited, Rockstar Games, Third Side Music

Amount

Not disclosed Not disclosed

Rights covered

Two linked rights questions, one record.

(1) SOUND RECORDING RIGHTS IN THE RECORDING PLACED IN THE GAME. The commercially available version of Pat Thomas's "Gye Wani" (feat. Ebo Taylor) sits at track 2 of 18 on the compilation "Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In the Diaspora (1980-93)", released 10 May 2024. Apple's album-level iTunes Lookup endpoint for collection 1720461164, read 11 October 2026, returns the copyright field "℗ 2024 Soundway Records Ltd". Apple's track-level record for 1720461371, read the same day, confirms the track title, artist, track position and a duration of 323,969 ms. MusicBrainz independently returns the same release against label "Soundway", catalogue number SNDWCD148, 2024, GB. The phonogram credit is Soundway Records Ltd's own published claim to the sound recording rights in that released master. It does not establish whether Soundway owns the 1984 master outright, took an assignment of it, or holds an inbound reissue licence from a Ghanaian rights holder: all three produce an identical ℗ line and no document reviewed distinguishes them. Rockstar Games' own Grand Theft Auto VI music page, read 11 October 2026, names the recording on the in-game station AfroBank FM but publishes no rights credit at all; the strings "Soundway", "Take-Two", "copyright" and "licen" do not appear on it in any rights context.

(2) CORPORATE CONTROL OF THE CREDITED COMPANY AND ITS SISTER PUBLISHER. The UK Companies House PSC register for SOUNDWAY RECORDS LTD (04756543), read 11 October 2026, records one active person with significant control: Third Side Music. Inc., correspondence address 1334 Notre-Dame West, Suite 2, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, governing law the Canada Business Corporations Act, registration number 1168759695, notified with effect from 1 July 2021, nature of control "Ownership of shares – More than 50% but less than 75%". The PSC register for SOUNDWAY PUBLISHING LIMITED (08121896) records the identical entry, same entity, same effective date, same nature of control. Miles Georges Cleret, the label's founder, is recorded as ceased as PSC of Soundway Records on 1 July 2021, having previously held "Ownership of shares – 75% or more" and "Ownership of voting rights – 75% or more"; at Soundway Publishing he is recorded as ceased on the same date from a "More than 25% but not more than 50%" holding of shares and voting rights. Patrick Curley and Jeff/Jeffrey Waye, both Canadian nationals resident in Canada, were appointed directors of both companies with effect from 1 July 2021 (AP01 filings). Paula Duran Ardila is a director of Soundway Publishing from 29 January 2018 and its secretary from 20 February 2023, and a director of Soundway Records from 24 April 2025.

This is majority shareholding, which is ownership of the company that holds or licenses the masters. It is not itself an assignment of any individual master, and nothing reviewed states that any specific recording copyright was transferred to Third Side Music. Inc.

PUBLISHING AND COMPOSITION: not established. Third Side Music's own 7 December 2021 announcement states that Soundway Publishing "is also home for the majority of the label's compositions, artists, songwriters, and composers", but no document reviewed identifies who administers the composition in "Gye Wani" or on what terms. A streaming metadata field reportedly naming a publisher called "Shine" could not be corroborated from any source this desk was able to fetch and is recorded as an uncorroborated single data point only.

SYNC GRANT: the existence of a licence is inferred from Rockstar Games publishing the recording as in-game radio content on its own site. No licence document, term, territory, fee or counterparty is disclosed, and whether the grant ran directly from Soundway Records Ltd to Rockstar Games or through an intermediary (including Third Side Music's sync operation) is not established.

Territory

MIXED AND PARTLY UNSTATED. The corporate control element is not territorial: Third Side Music. Inc. is a Canadian federal company holding shares in two companies incorporated in England and Wales (SOUNDWAY RECORDS LTD, registered office 66 Paul Street, London EC2A 4NA; SOUNDWAY PUBLISHING LIMITED, registered office The Quant Building 6 Churchill, Apt 1, London E17 3AG). The underlying recording was made in Ghana by Ghanaian musicians. The phonogram credit "℗ 2024 Soundway Records Ltd" was read on the United States Apple storefront and states no territory; MusicBrainz records the 2024 release as GB. No territory or term is stated anywhere for the Grand Theft Auto VI sync grant, and Rockstar Games' own music page publishes no licensing information. Grand Theft Auto VI is a globally distributed title, but that is a commercial fact about the game, not a documented statement of the licence's territorial scope, and it is not asserted here as one.

Announced

2021-12-07

Primary document

Regulatory filing

Sources

Read this before citing: A PHONOGRAM CREDIT IS A CLAIM, NOT A CONTRACT, AND NOT A STATEMENT OF OUTRIGHT OWNERSHIP. "℗ 2024 Soundway Records Ltd" is Soundway Records Ltd's own published assertion that it holds the sound recording rights in the released master of "Gye Wani". Outright ownership, a prior assignment, and an inbound reissue licence from a Ghanaian rights holder would all produce exactly that line. No document reviewed distinguishes between them. Nothing in this record should be read as a finding that Soundway Records Ltd owns the 1984 recording.

MAJORITY SHAREHOLDING IS OWNERSHIP OF A COMPANY, NOT ASSIGNMENT OF A COPYRIGHT. Third Side Music. Inc. is recorded as holding more than 50 per cent and less than 75 per cent of the shares in both Soundway companies. That is control of the companies. It is not a transfer of any individual master or composition to Third Side Music. Inc., and no document reviewed states that any specific recording copyright changed hands.

"PARTNERSHIP", "STAKE" AND "MORE THAN 50% BUT LESS THAN 75%" ARE THREE DIFFERENT STATEMENTS. The first is the acquiring party's own December 2021 wording, the second is the trade's, the third is the statutory register's. This desk is publishing the discrepancy as a finding and not smoothing it into a single formulation.

NO LICENCE DOCUMENT FOR THE GAME USE WAS SEEN. The existence of a sync licence is inferred from Rockstar Games publishing the recording as in-game radio content on its own website. No licence, fee, term, territory, option or chain-of-title document was located. Rockstar's own music page carries no rights credit whatsoever.

THE HEAVEN 17 FIGURES ARE CONTEXT ABOUT THE BUYER, NOT EVIDENCE ABOUT THIS RECORD. Martyn Ware's September 2024 account of a roughly USD 7,500-per-songwriter buyout offer, a USD 75,000 counter and a refusal concerns a different song and a different negotiation that did not complete. It is included only to describe how this buyer has been shown to structure game syncs. It implies nothing about what was offered, paid or accepted for "Gye Wani", and the amount field on this record is "Not disclosed" for exactly that reason.

THE ORIGINAL RELEASE DETAILS ARE REPORTED, NOT VERIFIED HERE. A review dated 20 May 1985 confirms the "Mpaebo" album, a catalogue number beginning "NAK 00" and Ebo Taylor's playing on it. The commonly cited 1984 release year, the full catalogue number Nakasi NAK 004, and a reported earlier 1983 Ivory Coast pressing on Star (SHA 039) could not be re-confirmed: MusicBrainz holds no entry for the album and the principal discography site returned HTTP 403 to this desk. Those details are not asserted.

THE "SHINE" PUBLISHER FIELD IS UNCORROBORATED AND IS NOT A FINDING. A streaming metadata field was reported to name a publisher called "Shine" against this recording. This desk could not fetch and read any source confirming it. It is recorded as a single uncorroborated data point so the gap is on the file, and it must not be cited as the publisher.

THE SHARE BUYBACK FILINGS DO NOT NAME A SELLER. Soundway Publishing Limited's SH03 purchase of own shares and SH06 cancellation of shares both relate to 20 November 2025, the same date Miles Georges Cleret left both boards. The register does not state whose shares were bought or cancelled, and no inference about that is drawn here.

ROCKSTAR'S PAGE USES CHARACTER NAMES, NOT ARTIST NAMES. The official page says "Hosted by Burna and Palmsy" and does not print "Burna Boy" or "Palms Trax" anywhere. The real-artist identification is trade reporting, not official disclosure.

TAKE-TWO INTERACTIVE IS NOT TAGGED AS A PARTY. Rockstar Games is widely described as a Take-Two Interactive label, but no document this desk fetched states that relationship or names Take-Two in this rights chain, so the entity is deliberately absent from the party list.

THE ANNOUNCED DATE ON THIS RECORD IS 7 DECEMBER 2021. That is the date the only publicly announced transaction in this chain, the Third Side Music and Soundway arrangement, was announced. The register records its effective date as 1 July 2021. The Grand Theft Auto VI placement was published by Rockstar Games on 8 October 2026 and was never announced as a transaction by anyone.

The recording Rockstar Games put on Grand Theft Auto VI’s African music station is credited to a company in London, not to anyone in Ghana. “Gye Wani”, cut by Pat Thomas with Ebo Taylor on lead guitar and reviewed in print in May 1985, plays on the in-game station AfroBank FM. The commercially available version of that recording carries the phonogram credit “℗ 2024 Soundway Records Ltd”. And the UK statutory register shows that since 1 July 2021, the only person with significant control over Soundway Records Ltd has been a Canadian company, Third Side Music. Inc. of Montreal, holding more than 50 per cent but less than 75 per cent of the shares. The same entry appears on the register of its sister company, Soundway Publishing Limited. When the change was announced, five months later, it was called a partnership and a stake. The register calls it majority shareholding.

What Rockstar published, and what it did not

Rockstar’s own Grand Theft Auto VI music site, read on 11 October 2026, carries the AfroBank FM page and its promotional line: “Amapiano, African classics, 3-step, and more from Burna and Palmsy. Turn up the gbedu.” Three of the station’s listed segments are music: “Joha” by Asake, “Gye Wani” by “Pat Thomas ft. Ebo Taylor”, and “Shay’sana” by “DJ Lag & Robot Boii ft. Kamo Mphela”.

Two precision points. The page says “Hosted by Burna and Palmsy” and never prints the names Burna Boy or Palms Trax; that identification is trade reporting, not official disclosure. More importantly, the page carries no rights credit of any kind. The strings “Soundway”, “Take-Two” and “copyright” do not appear on it. Rockstar discloses that it is using the recording, and nothing about who licensed it, on what terms or where.

The phonogram line points to London

Apple’s album-level lookup endpoint for collection 1720461164, read 11 October 2026, returns the compilation Ghana Special 2: Electronic Highlife & Afro Sounds In the Diaspora (1980-93), 18 tracks, released 10 May 2024, with the copyright field “℗ 2024 Soundway Records Ltd”. The track record for 1720461371 puts “Gye Wani (feat. Ebo Taylor)” at track two, 5 minutes 24 seconds. MusicBrainz independently returns the same release against the label Soundway, catalogue SNDWCD148, 2024, GB.

A phonogram credit is a claim, not a contract. That line is Soundway’s own published assertion that it holds the sound recording rights in the released master. It does not say whether Soundway owns the 1984 recording outright, took an assignment of it, or licensed it in from a Ghanaian rights holder for the reissue. All three produce an identical credit, and nothing this desk read separates them.

Date	Document	What it establishes
20 May 1985	Contemporaneous album review	Pat Thomas’s Mpaebo, catalogue prefix NAK 00, carries “Gye Wani”; Ebo Taylor’s guitar is named.
1 July 2021	Companies House PSC register, both companies	Third Side Music. Inc. becomes the only person with significant control of both: “Ownership of shares – More than 50% but less than 75%”. Miles Georges Cleret ceases as PSC of both the same day.
7 December 2021	Third Side Music’s own announcement	Called a “new partnership”. No financial terms. Cleret titled “Founder”.
20 November 2025	Companies House TM01, TM02, SH03, SH06	Cleret off both boards; Soundway Publishing buys in and cancels own shares.
8 October 2026	Rockstar’s own GTA VI music site	“Gye Wani” named on AfroBank FM. No rights credit published.

The register says majority shareholding. The announcement said partnership.

On 7 December 2021 Third Side Music announced its “new partnership with UK independent label Soundway Records and Soundway Publishing”. Its own text says “Soundway’s catalog, staff, and ownership group” would join the company, that the arrangement took it into “the master rights business”, and that Soundway Publishing “is also home for the majority of the label’s compositions, artists, songwriters, and composers”. It titled Miles Cleret “Founder”. It disclosed no financial terms. A trade report the next day described a “stake”, also with no terms.

The statutory register is more specific, and earlier. Both PSC registers record Third Side Music. Inc., of 1334 Notre-Dame West, Suite 2, Montreal, governed by the Canada Business Corporations Act, registration 1168759695, notified with effect from 1 July 2021, nature of control “Ownership of shares – More than 50% but less than 75%”. Cleret’s entry at the label, previously “Ownership of shares – 75% or more” and “Ownership of voting rights – 75% or more”, is recorded as ceased on 1 July 2021. At the publishing company he went from a 25 to 50 per cent holding to ceased on the same date. Patrick Curley and Jeff Waye, both Canadian and resident in Canada, became directors of both companies that day.

The paperwork arrived late and in stages. The director appointments were filed on 15 December 2021, a week after the announcement. The share-control filings, same 1 July 2021 effective date, were filed on 28 March 2022 at the publisher and 4 May 2022 at the label. For roughly ten months the register did not show that control of the label had moved.

Both framings are published here rather than reconciled. “Partnership” and “stake” are the acquirer’s and the trade’s. “More than 50% but less than 75%”, with the founder ceasing to be a controlling person the same day, is the register’s. Companies House does not disclose who holds the remaining minority of either company.

The founder’s exit is in the filings, not in any announcement

On 20 November 2025 Cleret’s directorship was terminated at both companies, and his appointment as secretary of Soundway Records, held since 27 October 2003, ended the same day. No announcement from any party has been located.

Two share filings at Soundway Publishing carry that date. An SH03, purchase of own shares, was filed on 10 February 2026, annotated to record that HMRC had confirmed the appropriate stamp duty was paid. An SH06, cancellation of shares, was filed on 11 May 2026 and records a statement of capital on 20 November 2025 of GBP 755. The register does not say whose shares were bought and cancelled, and no inference is drawn here. What it establishes is that on the day the founder left both boards, the publishing company bought in and cancelled some of its own equity. Both companies had come within a week of compulsory strike-off earlier that year: first Gazette notices on 4 March 2025, discontinued 11 March.

Ebo Taylor, whose guitar is on the record, is not alive for any of this. The Musicians Union of Ghana confirmed he died on 7 February 2026 at Saltpond Hospital, aged 90, a day after the launch of a festival in his name.

What this means for artists

The credit line is a disclosure document, and it is free to read. You do not need a lawyer to find out who is publicly claiming the rights in your own recording. Pull the album-level record from Apple’s lookup endpoint, or read the ℗ line on the release page, and you will see the company asserting the sound recording rights. If that name surprises you, that is something you can act on. Here, the credit on a recording made in Accra resolves to a company registered in London.

Label equity deals move control of your masters without anyone announcing your name. Nothing in the December 2021 announcement mentioned Pat Thomas or Ebo Taylor. It did not have to. When the shares in a label change hands, everything that label controls goes with them, and the artists on the catalogue are not parties and are generally not told. If a reissue label holds or licenses your master, watch who owns the label, not just your royalty statement.

A game sync is usually a buyout, and the master and the song are paid separately. How this buyer structures these deals is on the record from a counterparty who refused one: Martyn Ware of Heaven 17 said publicly in September 2024 that he was offered roughly 7,500 US dollars per songwriter to buy out all future royalties from the game for “Temptation”, that his publisher countered at 75,000, that Rockstar did not move, and that he declined. That is context about the buyer. It is not evidence about “Gye Wani” and nobody should attach the figure to this placement. The structural point is what matters: a one-off master fee goes to whoever holds the recording, a separate publishing fee goes to whoever controls the composition, and if you control neither, neither cheque reaches you. Ask your administrator in writing which side you are on.

What is not established

Any consideration for the placement. No fee, advance, royalty rate or buyout figure for this sync use is disclosed anywhere this desk checked, including Rockstar’s own page. Nor is its territory or term.
Who licensed to whom. Whether Soundway Records licensed directly to Rockstar Games or through an intermediary, including its majority owner’s sync operation, is not established. Take-Two Interactive is not named as a party because no document fetched names it in this chain.
Whether the master used in the game is the 2024 Soundway reissue. The placement is confirmed; the master source is not.
The publishing and composition chain. Who administers the song is not established. A streaming metadata field was reported to name a publisher called “Shine”; nothing this desk could fetch corroborates it, so it is recorded as an uncorroborated data point and must not be cited as the publisher.
Whether Pat Thomas or Ebo Taylor’s estate receives anything from this use. Not established. No statement from Soundway Records Ltd, Soundway Publishing Limited, Third Side Music or Rockstar Games about this placement has been located either.
The original release details. The 1985 review confirms the Mpaebo album, a catalogue number beginning NAK 00 and Ebo Taylor’s playing. The commonly cited 1984 year, the full number NAK 004 and a reported earlier 1983 Ivory Coast pressing could not be re-confirmed: MusicBrainz holds no entry for the album and the main discography site returned HTTP 403. Those details are reported, not verified here.

Full sourcing, with every URL fetched and the date each was read, is in the structured deal record above.