Deal sheet
- Status
- NO DEAL WAS ANNOUNCED. WHAT EXISTS IS A RIGHTS POSITION READ OFF THE RELEASES THEMSELVES.
Eleven distinct releases carrying Next Afrobeats Star contestant recordings were read on Apple Music's United States storefront on 18 October 2026 and corroborated on Deezer against eleven distinct UPCs. On every one of them, the party named in the phonographic copyright position, which is the position in which ownership of a sound recording is asserted, is the competition or its promoter's label. No contestant is named in that position on any of the eleven.
The notice changes name once. On the seven releases dated 11 October 2025 to 13 April 2026 the owner is given as "Next Afrobeats Star". On the four releases dated 26 June 2026 to 14 October 2026 the owner is given as "U-Records & Entertainment" or "U-Records & Entertainment Ltd", which this desk's directory records, sourced to the competition's own news page on 12 September 2026, as the in-house label of Ultima Studios, the production company that makes the programme.
On nine of the eleven the notice continues "under exclusive license to ONErpm". The two that do not carry that clause are the earliest: the competition's own single "Take My Sound Global" of 11 October 2025 and the eighteen-track compilation "Next Afrobeats Star S1 (The Pick Me Collection)" of 9 November 2025, both of which read simply as the property of Next Afrobeats Star.
The full sequence, by release date, owner, and licensee:
11 Oct 2025, Next Afrobeats Star, "Take My Sound Global", (P) 2025 Next Afrobeats Star, no licensee named.
9 Nov 2025, Various Artists, "Next Afrobeats Star S1 (The Pick Me Collection)", eighteen tracks by eighteen distinct contestant acts, (P) 2025 Next Afrobeats Star, no licensee named.
13 Dec 2025, Davecash, "Omo Ologo (EP)", (P) 2025 Next Afrobeats Star, under exclusive license to ONErpm.
13 Dec 2025, kaeko!, "Oba Ade (EP)", (P) 2025 Next Afrobeats Star, under exclusive license to ONErpm.
13 Dec 2025, Tunexz, "You Can Call Me Tunexz", (P) 2025 Next Afrobeats Star, under exclusive license to ONErpm.
8 Apr 2026, Ayo Benzi, "Heat & Heart (EP)", (P) 2026 Next Afrobeats Star, under exclusive license to ONErpm.
13 Apr 2026, Somto O'laker, "Chapter 1 (EP)", (P) 2025 Next Afrobeats Star, under exclusive license to ONErpm.
26 Jun 2026, Lucky Yay!, "Wizmel Is Lucky", (P) 2026 U-Records & Entertainment Ltd, under exclusive license to ONErpm.
24 Jul 2026, Ayo Benzi, "Melo / Mgbeke", (P) 2026 U-Records & Entertainment, under exclusive license to ONErpm.
31 Jul 2026, Davecash, "Sare / Sade", (P) 2026 U-Records & Entertainment, under exclusive license to ONErpm.
14 Oct 2026, Lucky Yay!, "Danciya", (P) 2026 U-Records & Entertainment, under exclusive license to ONErpm.THIS CONTRADICTS AN ON-RECORD STATEMENT BY MTN NIGERIA. Emamoke Ogoro, general manager for brands and communication at MTN Nigeria, said at the Season 2 launch in July 2026: "They left the competition owning their intellectual property, with industry credentials and meaningful relationships in a music industry that now knows their names." Season 2 coverage separately recorded that Season 1 contestants "retained full ownership of their intellectual property". The phonogram notice is the only published claim of record about these specific sound recordings, and on all eleven it names somebody other than the contestant.
THE SAME ARTISTS CREDITED THEMSELVES BEFORE THE SHOW. Ayo Benzi's pre-competition singles "Oyin" (25 May 2021) and "Self Care" (13 August 2021) read (P) 2021 2419380 Records DK, and "Yaro" (22 November 2023) reads (P) 2023 2419380 Records DK, the numbered artist-account credit a self-distribution service issues. Davecash's own releases read (P) 2023 and (P) 2024 Davecash global music. Somto O'laker's read (P) 2022 and (P) 2024 Somto O'laker/JUNGLE. Lucky Yay!'s read (P) 2025 Stonebird Incorporated. Every one of those four named the artist or the artist's own imprint. After the competition, none of them do.
- Type
- Distribution, Licensing
- Parties
- MTN Nigeria Communications Plc, Ultima Studios, U-Records & Entertainment, ONErpm
- Amount
- Not disclosed Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- MASTER RECORDINGS. The phonographic copyright notice asserts ownership of the sound recording, and on all eleven releases it names the competition or U-Records & Entertainment, not the performer.
ONErpm'S POSITION IS A LICENCE, NOT OWNERSHIP. On nine of the eleven the notice reads "under exclusive license to ONErpm". An exclusive licence is a grant of specified rights for a term from an owner to a licensee. It is a stronger grant than the "distributed by" credit that appears on ordinary distribution deals, because it excludes the owner from licensing the same rights to anyone else for the duration, but it is not an assignment and it does not make ONErpm the owner. Neither the scope, the term, nor the territory of that licence has been published by any party. MTN's own competition page describes the Season 1 prize, in its frequently asked questions, as "a $100,000 OneRPM record deal", and that figure is dealt with in this desk's record on the Season 1 prize.
PUBLISHING AND COMPOSITION OWNERSHIP IS NOT ESTABLISHED. Nothing located names a publisher or administrator for any of the underlying songs. See the caveat field for the registry searches attempted.
- Territory
- NOT STATED IN ANY DOCUMENT. No release carries a territorial grant, and no party has published one.
OBSERVED REACH ONLY. All eleven releases were read on Apple Music's United States storefront and all eleven were found on Deezer, which establishes availability in those catalogues and nothing about the contractual territory of the licence to ONErpm. MTN Nigeria's statement at the Season 2 launch was that contestants "released original music now available on major global streaming platforms". The competition, the promoter and the label are Nigerian; the licensee, ONErpm, is headquartered in the United States.
IDENTIFIER NOTE. Every ISRC on the eleven releases begins QZ, a registrant allocation issued through the United States, with registrant elements varying by release (GLM, GLS, HZ5, NJY, MZ9, TVM, W9K, TLA, QAY). None carries an NG country element. That is consistent with codes issued through an international distributor rather than through the Nigerian national agency, and it is not by itself evidence of who owns anything.
- Announced
- 2025-10-11
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple Music catalogue metadata via the public iTunes Lookup API: phonographic copyright notices on eleven Next Afrobeats Star releases, read 18 October 2026 · Season 2 launch report, fetched 18 October 2026 (HTTP 200). Carries the verbatim statement by Emamoke Ogoro, general manager for brands and communication at MTN Nigeria: "Season 1 was our proof. Our contestants did not simply gain exposure; they released original music now available on major global streaming platforms. They left the competition owning their intellectual property, with industry credentials and meaningful relationships in a music industry that now knows their names." Also carries Femi Ayeni, chief executive of Ultima Studios: "Next Afrobeats Star is more than a television programme; it is a real pipeline into the music business." Names ONErpm and Ultima Studios as partners and lists the Season 2 prize tiers as 225, 150, 100, 75 and 50 million naira. · MTN Nigeria's own Next Afrobeats Star page, fetched 18 October 2026 (HTTP 200). States the competition is "Powered by MTN Nigeria and produced by Ultima Studios". Gives the top prize as "A 225 million naira recording deal" plus a car and a new home in body copy, and as "A $100,000 OneRPM record deal" in the frequently asked questions. States that each entry text to 13013 costs 300 naira. Contains no statement about ownership of master recordings or of compositions; the terms and conditions link in the footer resolves to the operator's site-general terms. · Deezer album record for Ayo Benzi, "Heat & Heart", fetched 18 October 2026. Label field "Next Afrobeats Star". Used with ten further Deezer album records, UPCs 747971907050, 724523754393, 724523715738, 724523715264, 742121595712, 742040043240, 736084736114, 703589115362, 742123950465 and 736084605533, to confirm that the eleven releases are eleven distinct products. The Deezer record for "Wizmel Is Lucky", UPC 742121595712, carries the label string "U-Records & Entertainment Ltd, under exclusive license to ONErpm". · Apple Music catalogue record for Ayo Benzi, "Joy is Coming", fetched 18 October 2026. Release date 23 January 2025, copyright "(P) 2026 Ayo Benzi". Compared against Deezer albums 764865321 (label "OCK Distribution", UPC 764656114534, dated 24 January 2025) and 928800371 (label "Ayo Benzi", UPC 822299141918, dated 7 March 2026), which share five identical ISRCs with each other.
Read this before citing: WHAT IS ESTABLISHED. Eleven releases by Next Afrobeats Star contestants name the competition, and from 26 June 2026 onward Ultima Studios' in-house label U-Records & Entertainment, in the phonographic copyright position. Nine of the eleven name ONErpm as exclusive licensee. No contestant is named as owner on any of them. The same four artists for whom pre-competition releases could be located named themselves or their own imprints in that position before the show. Each of the eleven was corroborated on a second service against a distinct UPC. These readings directly contradict MTN Nigeria's on-record statement that Season 1 contestants left the competition owning their intellectual property.
WHAT IS NOT ESTABLISHED, AND WHAT WAS CHECKED.
1. WHETHER A CONTRACT TRANSFERRED OR LICENSED ANYTHING, AND ON WHAT TERMS. No agreement between any contestant and the competition, Ultima Studios, U-Records & Entertainment or ONErpm has been published. A phonogram notice is an assertion of ownership by the party that files the release, not an instrument of transfer. It is possible for a notice to be wrong or stale, and it is possible for an artist to own a master that someone else has credited to themselves in error. No party was found to have published anything that resolves this either way. MTN Nigeria's competition page at mtn.ng/nas was fetched on 18 October 2026 (HTTP 200) and says nothing at all about ownership of recordings; the terms and conditions link in its footer resolves to the operator's site-general terms, not to competition rules.
2. CONSIDERATION FOR THE RECORDINGS. Not disclosed by any party. The only figures in the public record are prize values, and no document states that a prize value is the price of a master. MTN's live page gives the Season 1 prize as a 225 million naira recording deal plus a car and a new home in its body copy, and as "a $100,000 OneRPM record deal" in its frequently asked questions, two different figures on one page. This desk's existing record on the Season 1 prize deals with that discrepancy, and the winner's announced award of 150 million naira, separately.
3. WHO OWNS THE COMPOSITIONS. ASCAP's repertory search returned HTTP 403 to this host on 18 October 2026. BMI's returned HTTP 302 to /Main/NotFound. The Nigerian collecting society's domain mcsn.ng did not resolve from this host. No publisher or administrator is named on any of the eleven releases. Composition ownership is therefore unestablished, and it does not follow from the recording ownership read here.
4. THE CORPORATE STATUS OF "NEXT AFROBEATS STAR". The name in the ownership position on seven of the eleven releases is the title of a television programme. Nothing located establishes it as a registered legal entity. Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission has no public search interface available to this host, so no company search could be run. For that reason no company record has been created for it on this site, and it is named here exactly as it appears on the releases.
5. THE U-RECORDS TO ULTIMA RELATIONSHIP, RE-VERIFIED TODAY. The competition's own site, nextafrobeatsstar.com, was unreachable from this host on 18 October 2026: connection refused on port 443 and on port 80, with DNS returning only an IPv6 address. Archived snapshots exist but could not be fetched. The statement that U-Records is the in-house music label of Ultima Studios therefore rests on this desk's own records, where it was captured from nextafrobeatsstar.com/news/nas-partners-onerpm on 12 September 2026, and on Ultima Studios' directory entry. It could not be re-confirmed at source today.
6. MUSICBRAINZ HOLDS NOTHING. A release search for Ayo Benzi returned zero results. A label search for "U-Records & Entertainment" first returned HTTP 503, and on retry a broader query for "U-Records" returned twelve fuzzy matches, none of them Nigerian and none of them this label. The registry's coverage of new Nigerian releases is poor and its silence is not evidence either way.
7. AN UNEXPLAINED SECOND DELIVERY. Ayo Benzi's pre-competition project "Joy is Coming" appears once on Apple Music, dated 23 January 2025, reading (P) 2026 Ayo Benzi. On Deezer it appears twice, with five identical ISRCs across both: once dated 24 January 2025 under a label field of "OCK Distribution" with UPC 764656114534, and once dated 7 March 2026 under a label field of "Ayo Benzi" with UPC 822299141918. The same recordings were therefore delivered a second time in March 2026, in the artist's own name, one month before his post-prize EP appeared under the competition's. No party has explained the second delivery and this desk does not claim to know why it happened.
8. WHETHER THIS PATTERN WILL CONTINUE INTO SEASON 2. Season 2 entries ran from 18 July to 17 August 2026. No Season 2 contestant release was found on either service, so nothing can be said about the rights position on recordings that do not yet exist.
A FURTHER DISCREPANCY, RECORDED FOR COMPLETENESS. MTN's live competition page states that each entry text to 13013 costs 300 naira. Season 2 trade coverage reported a 600 naira registration fee. The two figures may describe different things, per-text versus total registration, and no party has reconciled them.
METHOD. The eleven Apple Music collection identifiers were resolved in a single call to the public iTunes Lookup API, the source URL on this record, which returns each collection's copyright string as published by the party that delivered the release. Each release was then located on Deezer by title and artist, and its UPC recorded, to confirm that the eleven are distinct products and not storefront duplicates. Pre-competition releases for each named artist were pulled from the same two services to establish what the ownership position looked like before the competition. Every fetch is dated 18 October 2026 unless otherwise stated. Where a check failed, the failure is recorded above rather than omitted.
The master recordings changed hands, and not to the artists. On eleven releases read on Apple Music’s United States storefront and corroborated on Deezer, the company named in the phonographic copyright position on recordings made by Next Afrobeats Star contestants is the competition itself, and from June 2026 onward U-Records & Entertainment, described on the competition’s own site as the in-house label of Ultima Studios. On nine of the eleven, ONErpm is named as exclusive licensee. On none of the eleven is a contestant named as owner.
MTN Nigeria’s general manager for brands and communication, Emamoke Ogoro, said in July 2026 that Season 1 contestants “left the competition owning their intellectual property.” The phonogram notice is the only published claim of record about the sound recordings, and it says someone else owns them.
No consideration for the recordings has been disclosed by any party. The only figures in the public record are prize values, and no document states that a prize value is the price of a master.
