Deal sheet
- Status
- Naira Marley founded Marlian Records to sign other artists on 30 December 2019, announcing it from the stage of his Marlian Fest concert at Eko Hotel and Suites in Lagos: "I want to use the platform to announce my new record label called Marlian Records and it's for you all." No equivalent announcement exists for his own recordings. Reading his full Apple Music catalogue directly via the iTunes Lookup API (artist ID 847413160, 109 entries, 35 carrying his name alone or as lead credit) shows the sound-recording (phonogram, P) credit on those 35 releases moving through three distinct names over nine years, none of the moves themselves ever announced by any party.
From "Flying Away" (17 November 2017) through "Anywhere" (feat. Ms Banks, 30 January 2020), 14 releases carry the credit "MOVES Recordings." MOVES is an imprint of Marathon Artists Limited, a UK company (Companies House number 08024700) incorporated 11 April 2012 and still active today; trade press (Discogs, and a 2025 YMB Awards nomination bio) describes MOVES, launched in 2017 under A&R Ian McQuaid, as the imprint behind Naira Marley's early catalogue, alongside artists including Afro B and BOJ. No primary document from Marathon Artists or MOVES naming Naira Marley, or announcing his signing or his departure, was located.
The MOVES credit stops permanently after January 2020. One single, "Aye" (19 March 2020), carries "Marlian Music," the label Naira Marley had announced three months earlier. Then, from "As E Dey Go" (27 June 2020) onward, the credit changes again, to "My Type Of Music," and stays there, with one further variation, for the rest of his catalogue through "Moti High" (8 May 2026): 18 releases in total. Deezer's separate catalogue API independently corroborates all three transitions on the same dates: "moves recordings" on "Anywhere" (30 January 2020, UPC 3616403467462), "Marlian Music" on "Aye" (19 March 2020, UPC 859737877238), and "My Type Of Music" on "As E Dey Go" (27 June 2020, UPC 195081886664).
From "Body" (10 May 2023) the credit is sometimes rendered with a corporate suffix, "My Type Of Music LTD," and sometimes without. The suffixed and unsuffixed forms are not a clean before-and-after split: "Body," "Modafoka" (16 May 2025), "Cartoon" (28 August 2025) and "Mmmn" (19 December 2025) all carry "LTD"; "Wahala" and "Omo (On My Own)" (both 29 December 2023), "Giddem" (21 June 2024) and "Moti High" (8 May 2026) do not, despite being released after "Body" first introduced the suffix. Both forms are in current use on his catalogue as of this record's publication.
Neither form, suffixed or not, corresponds to any company on the UK Companies House register: a direct name search for "my type of music," run on 16 October 2026, returned no results. MusicBrainz's label registry, searched the same day for the exact phrase "My Type Of Music," also returned zero results. Nigeria's company register, the Corporate Affairs Commission (CAC), has no public search tool this desk could access, so a Nigerian incorporation could not be checked, confirmed, or ruled out.
One release breaks the My Type Of Music run entirely. "Pxy Drip" (13 December 2024) carries the credit "Marlian Music under exclusive license to NWS Music Group," the only release in nine years of catalogue to name a licensing arrangement to an outside company. NWS Music Group's recordings arm, North West Sound Recordings Limited, is a UK company (Companies House number 13985763) incorporated 18 March 2022 and confirmed active as of 16 October 2026; this desk's own directory file on NWS Music Group, built independently for a separate record, already noted that the label's Instagram account has promoted content by Naira Marley without a formal signing being independently verified. No document naming the terms, duration or scope of the "Pxy Drip" license was located.
Two further names sit at the edges of this catalogue. The earliest entry, "Gotta Dance EP" (12 February 2015), predates both MOVES and Marlian Music and carries the credit "Cash Ellz Entz," a name with no trace in the UK companies register or MusicBrainz. And Marlian Music, unlike My Type Of Music, is at least listed as a label entity in MusicBrainz's community registry (searched 16 October 2026, exact match, entity ID ecf8cbe8-2154-4e77-81ba-96350d3364a5), though that entry carries no country, founding date or other registry detail beyond the name, and no UK or Nigerian company filing under that name has been located in any check run for this record or for this desk's existing company file on Marlian Music.
- Parties
- Marathon Artists Limited, Marlian Music, My Type Of Music, NWS Music Group
- Amount
- Not disclosed Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- Sound-recording (phonogram, P) credit only, as printed on commercial release metadata. This record does not address, and no source checked speaks to, music publishing, songwriter splits, or Nigeria's Musical Copyright Society (MCSN) registration for any of these releases. A printed P credit is evidence of what Apple Music and Deezer were told to display; it is not, by itself, proof of beneficial master ownership, and this record does not treat it as one.
- Territory
- Not stated by any source as a contractual rights territory. The recordings themselves distribute worldwide on Apple Music and Deezer. Marathon Artists Limited (MOVES Recordings' parent) and North West Sound Recordings Limited (NWS Music Group) are both UK-registered companies, London-based. My Type Of Music and Marlian Music, as printed, do not correspond to any UK-registered company; Nigeria's CAC register has no public search this desk could access, so no territory could be confirmed or ruled out for either name.
- Announced
- 2019-12-30
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple Music catalogue metadata for Naira Marley (artist ID 847413160), read directly via the iTunes Lookup API on 16 October 2026 · Pulse Nigeria, direct quote from Naira Marley announcing Marlian Records at Marlian Fest, Eko Hotel and Suites, 30 December 2019 · Deezer API, "Anywhere" (feat. Ms Banks), label field "moves recordings", released 2020-01-30, UPC 3616403467462 · Deezer API, "Aye", label field "Marlian Music", released 2020-03-19, UPC 859737877238 · Deezer API, "As E Dey Go", label field "My Type Of Music", released 2020-06-27, UPC 195081886664 · Deezer API, "Kowope" (collaborative single with Zinoleesky and Vusic), label field "Marlian Music", released 2024-10-18, UPC 859795591275 · UK Companies House, Marathon Artists Limited, company 08024700, checked directly 16 October 2026: incorporated 11 April 2012, status Active, registered office Elsley Court, 20-22 Great Titchfield Street, London W1W 8BE · UK Companies House company-name search, read directly 16 October 2026: "No results found" for "my type of music" · UK Companies House, North West Sound Recordings Limited (NWS Music Group), company 13985763, checked directly 16 October 2026: status Active, incorporated 18 March 2022 · MusicBrainz label registry, exact-phrase query, read directly 16 October 2026: zero results · MusicBrainz label registry, exact-phrase query, read directly 16 October 2026: one result, entity ID ecf8cbe8-2154-4e77-81ba-96350d3364a5, no country or founding date recorded · MusicBrainz label registry, read directly 16 October 2026: top match (score 100) is MOVES Recordings, entity ID 25d6ff85-f68f-4d0f-85fe-32f6e142bf43 · Discogs label page for MOVES Recordings, trade/reference source describing it as a Marathon Artists group imprint launched 2017 under A&R Ian McQuaid
Read this before citing: WHAT IS ESTABLISHED: Naira Marley publicly announced the founding of Marlian Records on 30 December 2019, in his own words, at a named venue, reported directly. Commercial release metadata for his own-artist catalogue, read directly from Apple's iTunes Lookup API and independently corroborated on Deezer, shows the sound-recording credit moving through three names in sequence: MOVES Recordings (14 releases, 17 November 2017 to 30 January 2020), Marlian Music (1 release, 19 March 2020, plus a licensed-exception 2024 release), and My Type Of Music / My Type Of Music LTD (18 releases, 27 June 2020 to 8 May 2026, both forms still in current use). MOVES Recordings is documented in trade press as an imprint of Marathon Artists Limited, an active UK company (Companies House 08024700) since 2012.
WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED: No announcement of Naira Marley signing to or exiting MOVES Recordings, by any party, was located in any source checked. Neither "My Type Of Music" nor "My Type Of Music LTD" corresponds to any company on the UK Companies House register (searched directly, zero results) or in MusicBrainz's label registry (searched directly, zero results for the exact phrase). Nigeria's CAC has no public search tool this desk could access, so a Nigerian incorporation for either My Type Of Music or Marlian Music could not be checked, confirmed, or ruled out. The terms, duration, and scope of the "exclusive license to NWS Music Group" credited on the single 2024 "Pxy Drip" release were not located in any document. Whether "My Type Of Music" is Naira Marley's own company, a distributor's administrative label, or neither, could not be established from any document obtained.
NO PARTY NAMED IN THIS RECORD WAS REACHED FOR COMMENT before publication.
