Deal sheet
- Status
- Reported by a single Kenyan outlet on 15 April 2021, no amount, term or scope confirmed by either party in any document this desk could locate. No later statement, filing, registry entry or DSP catalogue credit found that corroborates the deal ever took effect. One month later, Warner Music Group and Ziiki Media announced a separate, independently documented distribution partnership for the same label (see afw_deal #2471); every WCB-Wasafi and Diamond Platnumz catalogue credit checked for that record, from 2021 through 2026, names Ziiki Media or Warner Music Africa. None names Mziiki or Spice VAS Africa.
- Type
- Distribution
- Parties
- WCB Wasafi, Mziiki (Spice VAS Africa)
- Amount
- USD 5,000,000
- Rights covered
- A single Kenyan news outlet, The Star, reported on 15 April 2021 that Diamond Platnumz had signed WCB Wasafi to a USD 5 million distribution deal with Mziiki, described as an African music streaming and distribution service. No press release from either party, no filing and no second independent trade account of this specific deal could be located. The figure, scope and term are not corroborated beyond that single report. No source states that copyright in WCB-Wasafi's masters or publishing transferred to Mziiki or to Spice VAS Africa, the company that operates Mziiki. This desk checked DSP catalogue credits on WCB-Wasafi and Diamond Platnumz releases spanning 2021 to 2026 (documented in afw_deal #2471, the later Warner Music Group/Ziiki Media record for the same label) and found no release, in any year, crediting Mziiki or Spice VAS Africa as phonographic rightsholder, distributor or aggregator. The credits instead consistently name Ziiki Media, and once Warner Music Africa directly.
- Territory
- Mziiki, operated by Spice VAS Africa, is described in contemporaneous and reference sources as headquartered in Nairobi, Kenya, with reach across East Africa. WCB-Wasafi is based in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. The reported deal's territorial scope was not specified in the single source located for it.
- Announced
- 2021-04-15
- Primary document
- Trade press
- Sources
- The Star (Kenya), 'Diamond signs deal with Mziiki,' published 15 April 2021: reports a USD 5 million distribution deal, said to have been signed 'over the weekend,' between Diamond Platnumz's WCB Wasafi label and Mziiki, the African music streaming and distribution service developed by Spice VAS Africa. · Music In Africa, 'Mziiki: Powered by the Rhythms of Africa,' 2014: fetched and read directly, names Arun Nagar as CEO of Spice VAS Africa, developer of Mziiki · Wikipedia, Mziiki: infobox names Arun Nagar as founder/CEO, lists Nairobi, Kenya headquarters, 2014 founding, status 'Active' (undated) · Wikipedia, WCB Wasafi: label background and roster, cross-checked against afw_deal #2471 · This desk's own record for the Warner Music Group/Ziiki Media distribution partnership with WCB-Wasafi, announced one month later (May 2021), confirmed by DSP catalogue credit through 2026; see that record for the full citation trail establishing Ziiki Media, not Mziiki, as the catalogue-credited partner
Read this before citing: This record exists to document an announced deal that this desk could not corroborate, not to confirm one. The sole source located, The Star (Kenya), published 15 April 2021, is a general-interest entertainment column, not a financial or trade-press filing; it gives no document, statement or named executive on either side beyond reporting that the deal was signed 'over the weekend.' No WebSearch or direct fetch located a second contemporaneous account, a press release from Diamond Platnumz, WCB-Wasafi, Mziiki or Spice VAS Africa, or any later confirmation.
Mziiki's founder and chief executive is named as Arun Nagar in a Music In Africa profile dated 2014 (fetched and read directly: 'says Arun Nagar, CEO of Spice VAS Africa, the developers of Mziiki') and in Wikipedia's infobox for Mziiki, which separately lists Nairobi, Kenya as headquarters and 2014 as founding year. Arun Nagar is also the founder of Ziiki Media, the Sandton, South Africa-based distributor already verified in this directory (afw_company #1010) and already documented as WCB-Wasafi's actual, catalogue-credited distribution partner from May 2021 onward in afw_deal #2471. This desk could not find any document stating that Mziiki and Ziiki Media are, or ever were, the same legal entity, share ownership beyond the individual named, or that one succeeded the other. The shared founder name, across two African music distribution companies both connected to WCB-Wasafi within one month of each other in 2021, is a documented and sourced fact; what it means, if anything, is not resolved by any source this desk located, and is reported here as an open question rather than a conclusion.
Checked directly on 9 November 2026: mziiki.com and www.mziiki.com resolve to a live nginx server (not a dead domain, not parked) but return HTTP 500 Internal Server Error with no page content, on both the bare domain and the following redirect. This is consistent with, but does not prove, an abandoned or unmaintained service; a server error is not evidence of corporate status. Wikipedia's infobox lists Mziiki's status as 'Active' without a date on that assertion, which this desk cannot corroborate against the current broken site and therefore does not rely on.
A 2014 wire report naming Diamond Platnumz as a Mziiki brand ambassador was located by search but returned an access error (HTTP 403) on direct fetch; it is not cited or relied upon in this record because this desk could not read it directly.
A single Kenyan news report said Diamond Platnumz signed his WCB Wasafi label to a USD 5 million distribution deal with Mziiki on 15 April 2021. No other outlet, no press release and no filing corroborating that figure or that deal has been located. One month later, a separate and independently documented distribution partnership for the same label, with a different company, was announced instead, and every catalogue credit checked since has gone to that company, not to Mziiki.
What was reported
The Star, a Kenyan newspaper, reported on 15 April 2021 that Diamond Platnumz had signed WCB Wasafi to Mziiki in a deal “said to have signed the deal, worth” a reported USD 5 million, over “the weekend.” Mziiki is described as an African music streaming and distribution service. No amount, term, royalty split or rights scope beyond “distribution” appears in any other document this desk could find.
What happened next
On 18 May 2021, Warner Music Group and Ziiki Media announced their own distribution partnership with WCB Wasafi, covered independently by at least five trade outlets with named executive quotes on both sides (see afw_deal #2471). DSP catalogue credits on WCB Wasafi and Diamond Platnumz releases, checked directly in page markup from 2025 through 2026, name Ziiki Media as phonographic rightsholder, and in one case Warner Music Africa directly. None names Mziiki.
The shared name
Mziiki is operated by Spice VAS Africa, whose chief executive is named as Arun Nagar in a 2014 Music In Africa profile. Arun Nagar is also the founder of Ziiki Media, the company that WCB Wasafi’s catalogue credits actually confirm. This desk could not find any document establishing that Mziiki and Ziiki Media are, or ever were, related entities beyond that one name. It is reported here as a sourced, open question.
Current state of Mziiki
Checked directly on 9 November 2026, mziiki.com resolves to a live server that returns an HTTP 500 error with no content. That is not proof the company is defunct, but it does not support Wikipedia’s undated infobox listing of the service as “Active” either.
