Every deal Afrobeats Wire verified this week, with the document behind each one. Figures are as stated in the source; where no consideration was disclosed, the row says so.
| Deal | Type | Parties | Amount | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wizkid’s First Two Albums Were Re-Delivered in June 2022 Crediting Empire Mates Entertainment Alone. The Rights Registry Names Starboy Entertainment on the 2014 Ayo Release Too. | Licensing | Starboy Entertainment Limited | Not disclosed Not disclosed, and it is not established that any consideration existed. No party has announced a transaction covering these two albums. No price, advance, royalty rate or equity figure appears in any document read for this record, and this desk publishes none. | Document |
| Fourteen of Kizz Daniel’s Pre-EMPIRE Recordings Changed Stated Phonogram Owner Between 22 and 27 September 2026. The One Album He Said He Recovered in 2025 Still Reads G-Worldwide, With a Fresh 2025 Copyright Year. | Licensing | Flyboy I.N.C., G-Worldwide Entertainment, EMPIRE | Not disclosed | Document |
| Eswatini’s High Court Threw Out ICON PB’s Claim to Own Sands’ Masters. It Never Ruled Who Does, or Who Gets the Disputed E411,053.80 | Settlement | Content Connect Africa, ICON PB (Pty) Ltd, Kingdom Tales (Pty) Ltd | Emalangeni (SZL), Eswatini currency pegged 1:1 to the South African rand Not awarded. E411,053.80 is the amount ICON PB claims from Content Connect Africa in a separate 2019 South African suit; the Eswatini court made no finding on who, if anyone, is owed it. Court papers put Content Connect Africa's gross collection on the album at E483,953.80, of which E72,900 (about 15 per cent) was paid to ICON PB. | Document |
| Virgin Music Group Completed Its Downtown Music Holdings Acquisition on 20 February 2026. Neither Party’s Statement Names the $775 Million Trade Press Reported, or the Five African Deals Already Running Through Its New Subsidiaries. | Acquisition | Universal Music Group, Virgin Music Group, Downtown Music Publishing | USD (trade-press figure only, not confirmed by either party) Not disclosed by either company. Trade press (Music In Africa, Billboard, Variety) reported $775 million; one commentary piece separately cited €621 million in cash. Neither figure appears in the European Commission's decision or in Virgin Music Group's own completion announcement, and this record does not adopt either as fact. | Document |
| Apple Music Credited Davido’s Debut Album to HKN Music Until August 2024. The Entry Live Since 21 February 2025 Names Davido Music Worldwide as Owner, Under Exclusive Licence to Universal’s Virgin Music Nigeria. | Licensing | Davido Music Worldwide, Virgin Music Group | N/A Not disclosed. No announcement, release, filing or interview naming a fee, advance, royalty rate or term was found by this desk for this arrangement. Neither party has published anything about it at all. | Document |
| Afreximbank’s US$30 Million NEXIM Facility Is Counted Inside a US$118 Million Creative-Economy Total. NEXIM’s Own Statement of the Terms Names Manufacturing and Commodity Processing, Not Music. | Investment | African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank), Nigerian Export-Import Bank (NEXIM) | USD USD 30,000,000, disclosed, in two tranches: a US$20,000,000 revolving working capital facility and a US$10,000,000 medium-to-long-term loan facility. Both figures and the tranche structure come from NEXIM's own statement, quoted verbatim in three separate trade reports. NOT DISCLOSED by any source checked: tenor, pricing, interest rate, security, drawdown conditions, disbursement schedule, or the on-lending terms NEXIM will offer to the businesses that ultimately borrow it. The wider US$118,000,000 figure reported for the Lagos signings is NOT this deal's value; it is a sum of three separate arrangements, only one of which is recorded here. | Document |
| Botswana’s Regulator Stipulates a 70:30 Royalty Split. COSBOTS’s Own Signed Minutes Record 61:39, and BWP 6 Million “Pending, Sony’s Payments”. | Licensing | Copyright Society of Botswana | BWP Not a transaction amount. No consideration passed and nothing was bought or sold. The figures below are collection, distribution and balance-sheet figures for the financial year ended 30 June 2023, as recorded in COSBOTS's own signed annual general meeting minutes and in a Gaborone trade report of the same meeting. Several of them do not reconcile with each other, and the record states so rather than selecting between them.
REVENUE. BWP 18,536,734 for the year ended 30 June 2023, against BWP 12,556,034 the previous year. Chief executive Letlhogonolo Makwinja told the meeting the society "had made BWP 18.5 million, the highest that COSBOTS had ever made," and put growth at "47% revenue growth." The trade report of the same meeting gives 48 percent. COSBOTS's own finance manager, Laone Mareka, is minuted at the same meeting describing the same movement as "a 14% from the BWP 12.5 million." On the society's own two revenue figures the increase is 47.6 percent; the 14 percent in the signed minutes is not explained anywhere in them. 
REVENUE SPLIT. Music rights BWP 13,247,981 and reprography BWP 5,288,757, per the trade report. Mareka's minuted figure for reprography collection is "BWP 5 million," reprographic rights having been approved in March 2022 with 2023 the first year of collection. THE 16TH DISTRIBUTION. BWP 11,270,071 declared, against BWP 8,300,000 for the 15th Distribution the previous year, an increase of 36 percent. The minutes record Mareka giving "BWP 11.3 million" against "BWP 8.3 million" and the same 36 percent. Board chairperson Bakalanga Malikongwa is minuted describing the increase as "a commendable 35%" and an "increase of P3 million in total distributions." THE 16TH DISTRIBUTION COMPONENTS DO NOT SUM. The trade report gives BWP 9,558,290 for music rights and BWP 2,027,577 for reprographic rights. Those two add to BWP 11,585,867, which is BWP 315,796 more than the BWP 11,270,071 total stated in the same report. Malikongwa's minuted figures for the same year are "9.5 million Pula in music category and 1.7 million Pula in reprography," which add to BWP 11.2 million. The reprography component therefore appears as BWP 1.7 million in the society's own minutes and BWP 2,027,577 in the trade report, a gap of roughly BWP 328,000. No source checked reconciles the three sets of figures. OPERATING EXPENSES. BWP 11,643,447 against BWP 13,263,521 the previous year, per the trade report, which calls that a 12 percent fall. That arithmetic is correct: it is a 12.2 percent fall. The signed minutes record Mareka giving the same two figures, "previously BWP 13.3 million and currently are at BWP 11.6 million," and then describing the movement as a "36% drop due to sticking to a strict budget." 36 percent is the distribution-growth figure from the preceding minuted paragraph. DEFICIT. A loss of BWP 4.6 million for the year, which Mareka attributed to COSBOTS being "not profit-driven but committed to distributions." PROVISIONS, BWP 22.8 MILLION TOTAL, itemised in the minutes as: Distribution BWP 11.2 million; International royalties BWP 7.5 million; Local matched BWP 406,000; Local unmatched BWP 1.2 million; Social and Cultural balance BWP 981,000; undistributed mechanical rights BWP 192,000; Covid refund BWP 49,000; and a provision for other rights covering folklore, poetry and choral works of BWP 1 million. THE INTERNATIONAL ROYALTY FIGURE IS GIVEN TWICE, DIFFERENTLY, AT THE SAME MEETING. The itemised provisions list records "International royalties BWP 7.5 million." Answering a member's question about funding for a planned creative hub at the same meeting, Makwinja is minuted saying "the Provision for International Royalties is at BWP 6m pending, Sony's payments." The two figures are BWP 1.5 million apart and neither is reconciled to the other in the document. ASSETS. Right-of-use BWP 3.2 million; trade and other receivables BWP 3.6 million; short-term investments BWP 10.3 million described as "provisioned for royalties, money invested"; liquid assets BWP 11.6 million described as "operational funds and distribution." UNMATCHED AND RECYCLED MONEY. BWP 1.6 million of unmatched local royalties, and BWP 1.5 million of a BWP 3 million pool of uncollected Covid relief funds, were "written off back into the distribution pool" in the year, per Mareka. Malikongwa separately told the meeting that royalties "that exceed BWP 500,000.00" remained unmatched. MEMBERSHIP. 3,097 members, per Mareka. 203 members attended the meeting across Gaborone, Ghanzi, Maun, Francistown and Palapye; the board secretary is minuted confirming "181 Members including 8 proxies" as the quorum. PRIOR-PERIOD FIGURES, FOR CONTEXT ONLY. The 14th Distribution, reported 15 December 2021: collections of BWP 7.3 million and a payout of BWP 3,428,127, of which BWP 2,134,348.70 went to foreign rightsholders, BWP 950,965.60 to local artists (BWP 782,514.34 to local COSBOTS members and BWP 168,451.26 to unmatched local works) and BWP 342,812.70 to the Social and Cultural Fund. Those three lines reconcile exactly to BWP 3,428,127, and the Social and Cultural Fund line is exactly 10 percent of it. The government news agency reported on 31 May 2022 that BWP 8.8 million had been approved and distributed for the 2019/20 and 2020/21 financial years combined, BWP 1.5 million for 2019/20 and BWP 7.3 million for 2020/21, and that royalties had been around BWP 500,000 in 2014. |
Document |
| NASCAM Called Namibia’s N$2 Royalty Rate “Not a Set Figure” in March 2026. Four Months Later, Its Own Board Chair Put Administrative Costs at 62 Percent. | Licensing | Namibian Society of Composers and Authors of Music | NAD Not a transaction amount. Four disclosed figures exist, from four different officials and reports, none reconciled against another: (1) N$9,321,914.95 collected in total royalties over the twelve years 2010-2022, distributed to an estimated 26,562 Namibian artists registered with NASCAM, per the Business and Intellectual Property Authority's June 2025 consultation document on a proposed copyright levy, sourced there to NASCAM itself. (2) N$13,330,698 collected in the single 2023/24 financial year alone, per NASCAM chief executive Albert Nicanor, reported 11 February 2025, with distribution for that year described only as "currently underway" and no distributed total given. (3) A reported per-play royalty of N$2, said by Member of Parliament Frederick Shitana on 25 February 2026 to have been unchanged "since independence" (1990); NASCAM's then acting chief executive Ferdinand Gertze responded on 2 March 2026 that this is not a fixed tariff but an output of the total distributable pool divided by verified airplay logs through an automated system, Cosis Net. (4) An administrative-cost ratio of 62 percent of collections, stated by board chairperson Joseph Ailonga on 11 July 2026, alongside a target to cut that ratio to 30 percent and raise annual revenue to N$15 million within two years, which he said "would let Nascam distribute 70% of its collections to rights holders." No source checked states what share of collections NASCAM distributes to rights holders today. | Document |
| Universal Announced Signing Keemlyf in March 2025. His Own Label’s Name Disappeared From the Credit Line a Month Later. It Had Been There on 33 Releases Since 2021. | Distribution | Universal Music Kenya Limited, Universal Music Group East Africa, Universal Music Group | Not disclosed Not disclosed | Document |
| MASA Paid Two-Thirds of Its Mauritian Members Under Rs 500 in Its July 2026 Distribution. A Separate Rs 95 Million Has Sat in Its Accounts Since at Least 2025, Under a Forensic Audit Due Early 2027. | Licensing | Mauritius Society of Authors, Mauritius Broadcasting Corporation | MUR MUR 9,904,500.20 gross collected in the July 2026 distribution round (source: MASA's own circular, DE/002/JUL/2026), broken down as: MBC TV broadcasts 2021/2022/2024 MUR 4,064,739.00; MBC Radio (Mauritius and Rodrigues) 2021-2024 MUR 2,775,281.20; occasional local and international events 2025 MUR 1,913,000.00; Air Mauritius in-flight use 2025 MUR 1,131,300.00; mechanical rights September-December 2025 MUR 20,180.00. Deductions: administrative MUR 2,966,627.87 (29.95% of gross); social and welfare fund MUR 516,020.93 (5.21%). Net distributed MUR 6,420,836.87, split: local members MUR 4,717,857.39; foreign members (via reciprocal societies) MUR 481,401.41; public domain MUR 118,202.07; outside-society claims MUR 55,489.06; reserved MUR 9,995.39; undocumented or mis-declared works held back MUR 1,037,891.55. A further MUR 4,375,562.59 collected this period was not processed at all and is deferred to the December 2026 round: MUR 1,624,625.00 of 2023 MBC TV royalties (MBC itself had not supplied complete data) and MUR 2,750,937.59 from small commercial users whose returns came in late. Separately and not disclosed in any single source as a reconciled total: approximately MUR 95 million has accumulated in MASA's accounts over a period described only as 'over the years,' first surfaced publicly by then-president Richard Hein in 2025 and confirmed repeatedly by MASA director Gerard Louise and Arts and Culture Minister Mahen Goondeea (also rendered Gondeea in some outlets) through October 2026 reporting; no source gives a breakdown of what that sum is composed of, and no source states it has been distributed. | Document |
| Skydance’s $110bn Takeover of Warner Bros. Discovery Quietly Made It the New Top of Anghami’s Ownership Chain | Acquisition | Anghami, Warner Bros. Discovery, Inc., OSN Streaming Limited, Panther Media Group Limited, Kuwait Projects Company (Holding) K.S.C.P., Skydance Corporation | USD Not disclosed for Anghami or for the OSN Streaming Limited stake specifically. The Skydance-WBD merger itself has been widely reported in the business press at approximately $110 billion in enterprise value, but no filing reviewed for this record apportions any part of that figure to Anghami, to Dplay Entertainment Limited's 19.84 percent stake in OSN Streaming Limited, or to the Music Business Carve-Out option (contractual floor of $225,000,000 or $302,000,000 per deal record #3822) that Skydance now sits above. | Document |
| Lyta’s Masters Have Named Five Different Owners Since 2018. He Has Publicly Denied Signing With Two of Them. | Licensing | YBNL Nation, Marlian Music | Not disclosed | Document |
| Mdundo Disclosed a Non-Binding Bid for Up to 40% of the Company in April 2026. Six Months, an Annual Report and an AGM Later, No Filing Has Named the Bidder. | Investment | Mdundo, JVD Holding ApS | DKK Not disclosed | Document |
| BURIDA Called Its New Mandate “Transparent” on 7 May 2026. Three Weeks Later, Its Own Members Split Over Who Lost Them 2 Billion FCFA. | Licensing | Bureau Ivoirien du Droit d’Auteur | XOF NOT A SINGLE DISCLOSED TOTAL. Two BURIDA sociétaires (member-artists), speaking publicly three days apart in late May/early June 2026, both cited a 2 billion FCFA ("deux milliards") gap tied to the governance of former board chairman (PCA) Gadji Céli, but neither named, dated or produced the audit document either man says found it. BURIDA's own spokesman also cited a separate, broader institutional debt of "près de quatre milliards" FCFA (approximately 4 billion) at the same 29 May 2026 press conference, without stating whether that figure includes or is additional to the 2 billion. No source checked gives BURIDA's total annual collection or distribution figure for any year. Earlier press coverage of disputes involving Gadji Céli at BURIDA (a 2016 accusation reported at 5 billion FCFA, and a January 2025 radio rebuttal citing a 3 million FCFA opening balance) could not be independently fetched and read by this desk and are not relied upon here; see caveat. | Document |
| Cruel Santino’s Masters Carried Monster Boy and Interscope for Two Years. His 2026 Catalogue Names Neither. | Licensing | Interscope Records, Warner Records Inc., Warner Chappell Music, LVRN (Love Renaissance), Monster Boy, Candles Media Production Limited, Native Sounds Ltd | Not disclosed | Document |
| Bayanni’s Masters Have Named Mavin Global Holdings Since 2022. Apple’s Own Credit Line Added “Ltd” in Early 2024. | Mavin Global Holdings Limited | N/A Not disclosed. Mavin Records' unveiling, reported by Music In Africa, names no contract term, advance or royalty rate. No other source reviewed by this desk names a figure. | Document | |
| Mavin Signed Boy Spyce in April 2022. Every Dated Catalogue Credit Since, Across 24 Releases, Still Names the Same Company. | Mavin Records, Mavin Global Holdings Limited | N/A Not disclosed. Mavin's own announcement names no contract term, advance, royalty rate or exclusivity period. No trade report reviewed by this desk names a figure either. | Document | |
| Sony and Bertelsmann Named Ten South African Acts in the SEC Filing That Completed Sony BMG on 5 August 2004. The ℗ Line on Those Records Changed Twice in Eight Years. | Sony Group Corporation, Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment Africa (Pty) Ltd | Not disclosed | Document | |
| WCB-Wasafi and Mziiki: The $5 Million Distribution Deal That Left No Trace | Distribution | WCB Wasafi, Mziiki (Spice VAS Africa) | USD 5,000,000 | Document |
| Zolani Mahola’s “Global Partnership” With Virgin Music Group Named No Deal Type. Two Releases Since Carry Neither Company’s Name. | Virgin Music Group | Not disclosed | Document | |
| IPNation and Influence Media Partners Launched a $100 Million Target for MENA Music IP in August 2026. Neither Side Has Said How Much Actually Moved. | Investment | IPNation, Influence | USD Not disclosed. IPNation states a target investment size of $100,000,000 (reported as £74m by Music Week); neither IPNation nor Influence Media Partners has disclosed the size of Influence Media's actual initial commitment to the platform, and no acquisition under the platform has been announced as completed. | Document |
| Sony Music Publishing West Africa Signed Zinoleesky in November 2026. His Master Recordings Already Sit With His Own Label, Not Sony. | Sony Music Publishing West Africa | Not disclosed. No advance, royalty rate, commission, term length or exit clause appears in Sony Music Publishing West Africa's own announcement or in any report of it obtained by this desk. | Document | |
| LESCOSAA Promised Lesotho’s Musicians a 2027 Payout and Quarterly Distributions After. Three Weeks Later, the Same Official Named No Date At All. | Licensing | Lesotho Copyright Society of Authors and Artists | LSL Not disclosed. No annual collection total and no distribution total has ever been published by the Lesotho Copyright Society of Authors and Artists (LESCOSAA, also spelled LESCOSSA or LECOSAA), in any source checked, across reporting from January 2025 (when licensing began) to November 2026. The only monetary figures found are a once-off M100 artist registration fee and one DJ's M2,300 annual commercial-user licence fee; neither is a collection or distribution total, and no first payout has yet occurred for any artist. | Document |
| COSOL Cited Liberia’s Copyright Act to Threaten a Lawsuit in 2022. Its Overseeing Agency Has Twice Called the Same Payouts Welfare, Not Royalties. | Licensing | Copyright Society of Liberia | LRD Not disclosed. No collection total and no distribution total, in Liberian dollars or any other currency, has been published by the Copyright Society of Liberia (COSOL) in any source checked, for any year between COSOL's 2020 operational start and 2026. The only enforcement-related figures on record are the penalties COSOL said in November 2022 it would seek against the organisers of the Liberia Music Awards; no settlement amount, judgment or collected sum from that threat was found in any later source. | Document |
| An NCAC Official Called Gambia’s Collecting Society “Fully Operational” in February 2025. The Tourism Ministry Said in June 2026 It Still Had to Operationalize It. | Licensing | Collecting Society of The Gambia | GMD Not disclosed. No annual collection total and no distribution total has ever been published by the Collecting Society of The Gambia (CSG), under any tariff, in any source checked, across reporting spanning 2012 to 2026. The only concrete figure found for CSG's actual activity is a 2019 claim, attributed to then Creative Industry Director Sheikeh Omar Jallow, that exactly one Gambian artist (named as Hakim) had licensed his work with CSG at that point; no later membership, licensing or payout total was found in any source checked between 2020 and 2026. | Document |
| BNDA Said Niger’s Artists Would “Soon” Share a Five-Year Win Over Transport Firms. Its Own Next Public Step, Three Months Later, Was a Meeting, Not a Payment. | Licensing | Bureau Nigerien du Droit d’Auteur | XOF Not disclosed. No annual collection total and no distribution total has ever been published by the Bureau Nigerien du Droit d'Auteur (BNDA), under any tariff, in any source checked. Two concrete monetary figures surfaced and neither is a total: a penalty of close to 100,000 CFA francs for commissioning piracy, reported in 2018, and a reported flat-rate ("forfaitaire") group distribution that "peut atteindre trois a quatre millions par groupe" (can reach three to four million per group), reported in March 2020 reporting that states neither the currency nor the period covered. The transport-company agreement reported in February 2026 and the telecom, satellite and food-company payments named alongside it carry no amount in the source checked. | Document |
| Burundi Widened Its Music Royalty Net in 2023 Because “Authors Earn Nothing.” In 2025 OBDA’s Director Said She Would Tell Artists “As Soon As the Office Is Ready.” | Licensing | Office Burundais du Droit d’Auteur | BIF Not disclosed. No collection total and no distribution total has been published by OBDA for any year, under any tariff. The only published rates are those derived from the joint ministerial ordinance of 21 January 2014 and reported from OBDA's 27 June 2023 announcement: bars and restaurants 10 per cent of the average drink price multiplied by half the number of chairs, quarterly; shops 6,000 to 12,000 BIF by headcount; hotel rooms 5 per cent of the room price; banks and travel agencies 12,500 to 25,000 BIF by headcount; transport vehicles 3,000 to 10,000 BIF by number of seats; hair salons 3 per cent of the price charged per person per day. A 1 billion BIF figure attached to a 2014 workshop is a collection target, not a receipt. Registered repertoire at May 2025: 367 artists and approximately 2,495 works. | Document |
| Malagasy Artists Demanded OMDA’s Independence From the Ministry in 2022. The Ministry’s Own Culture Director Chaired Its Board for Four More Years. | Licensing | Office Malgache du Droit d’Auteur | MGA Not disclosed. OMDA's own published 2024 distribution notice set a flat 6 percent deduction on gross box-office receipts for paid shows; no aggregate collection, arrears or distribution total for any year was found in any source checked. | Document |
| Chad’s Artists Got Paid From Bar and Restaurant Fees in January 2025. The State Broadcaster That Owes Them the Most Still Hasn’t Chipped In. | Settlement | Bureau Tchadien du Droit d’Auteur, Office National des Médias Audiovisuels | XAF 190,000,000 to 195,000,000 (disputed between two named sources; see caveat) | Document |
| Rwanda Confirmed Its Only Music Royalty Collector Was Shut Down in April 2025. Fifteen Months Later, Its Own Record Shows No Successor Has Collected a Royalty. | Licensing | Rwanda Society of Authors | RWF No transaction value: this is a regulatory dissolution and a planned relaunch, not a sale or investment. Disclosed royalty totals actually distributed by RSAU across its 13-year operating history (The New Times, 25 April 2025): Rwf8 million shared among 80 artists in 2019, Rwf18 million in 2021, and Rwf24 million in 2023 (Rwandan and foreign rights holders combined). Disclosed startup funding for RSAU in 2010: Rwf15 million from the Rwandan government plus more than Rwf27.4 million already paid, and a further 300,000 Norwegian Krone (approx. Rwf41 million) promised over three years, by NORCODE, the Norwegian Copyright Development Association, for a total startup budget of more than Rwf83 million. No value has been disclosed anywhere for the 2026 Ministerial Order creating a successor CMO. | Document |
| Tunisia’s Parliament Voted 76-1 to Make Telecom Companies Fund Musicians’ Copyright. Six Months Later, No Rate Has Been Set, and the Law Does Not Name OTDAV | Investment | Organisme Tunisien des Droits d’Auteur et des Droits Voisins, Tunisie Telecom, Orange Tunisie, Ooredoo Tunisia | Not disclosed | Document |
| Cecil Hammond Called Flytime Records’ Virgin Deal Global Distribution. Three 2026 Credit Lines Name an Exclusive License to Virgin Music Nigeria Instead. | Distribution,Licensing | Flytime Group, Virgin Music Group | N/A Not disclosed. No contract, press release or filing naming a fee, advance or royalty split was found anywhere this desk could check. | Document |
| Universal Music Called Joyous Celebration’s 2021 Deal a New Recording Home. By 2024, the Group’s Own Catalogue Credit Carried Neither Universal’s Name Nor Motown’s. | Distribution | Universal Music (Pty) Ltd (ZA), Motown Records, Joyous Celebration Foundation, Joyous Records (PTY) Ltd | Not disclosed | Document |
| Kalawa Jazmee Calls DJ Tira’s Afrotainment Exit a Licensing Deal. Big Nuz’s 2008 Debut Album Still Credits Kalawa and Universal Music Together. | Licensing | Kalawa Jazmee, Afrotainment | Not disclosed Not disclosed. No source states a fee, royalty share, equity stake or term for either the original Kalawa Jazmee-to-DJ Tira licensing arrangement or Kalawa Jazmee and Universal Music's 2008 co-credit on Big Nuz's debut album. | Document |
| Tuned Global Said It Was Powering a WAW MUZIK ‘Relaunch’ for Orange in November 2021. The App’s Own Legal Registry Shows a French Company That Had Been Losing Money Since 2017. | Licence | Tuned Global, WAW MUZIK, Orange Cote d’Ivoire | Not disclosed Not disclosed. No source checked, including Tuned Global's own blog post, states a fee, licence rate, revenue share or any other financial term for either the Tuned Global/WAW MUZIK technology arrangement or the Orange Cote d'Ivoire billing partnership. | Document |
| Stay Low Announced a Label Partnership With Priddy Ugly’s GAS in March 2021. The Credit Line Carried It for Three Months, Then Dropped It. | Joint Venture | Stay Low, Global African Sounds (GAS) | Not disclosed. Neither trade report describing the partnership mentions money, equity, a royalty split or a term length. | Document |
| Black Market Records Signed Three East African Artists to Exclusive Deals. A Ugandan Court Has Voided One Contract, and Kenya’s Copyright Tribunal Has Frozen the Other Two. | Licensing | Black Market Records | Multiple (UGX, KES, USD) Not a transaction; no price or consideration was ever disclosed by any party. The Ugandan court ordered UGX 130 million in damages against the label (UGX 100m general + UGX 30m aggravated; see caveat on conflicting interest-rate reports). In Kenya, Fathermoh's unadjudicated claim is for Sh87.6 million and Harry Craze's for Sh5.79 million; neither has been awarded, only filed. | Document |
| Trace Signed an $8.4 Million DRC Royalty-Platform Contract in November 2023. Its Own Reply a Year Later Confirmed the Copyright Half Still Had Not Shipped | Licensing | Trace, Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage (Democratic Republic of the Congo) | USD Contract total disputed. Trace Global's own right-of-reply (Sven Balisson, Legal Director, published via Arts.cd, 31 October 2024) states the agreed total value is USD 8.4 million, split 50 percent funded by Trace and 50 percent by the DRC government, for two platforms plus training and communication. As of that reply, Trace said it had invested more than USD 3.5 million and the government USD 2.2 million. No independent source confirms either the 8.4 million total or the two interim figures; no document setting out per-platform cost, a government-side budget line, or a procurement record was found. | Document |
| Morocco’s Copyright Office Described a 70-Year Cutoff for Public-Domain Music in December 2025. A New Law Gives It the Opposite Eight Months Later. | Licensing | Bureau Marocain du Droit d’Auteur | Not applicable (no amount disclosed) Not disclosed in either document this desk could fetch and read. No royalty rate, flat fee or other monetary figure for the new folklore/public-domain charge appears in the government's own account of the bill or in the independently verified report on the law's entry into force. A third report, surfaced only in search-result summaries and attributed to a different outlet, appeared to describe a specific numbered provision and a cultural-industries fee; this desk could not fetch that report directly (HTTP 403 on repeated attempts, including with a browser user-agent string) and does not rely on any of its specific figures here. | Document |
| Congolese Courts Have Ruled Four Times Who Controls SOCODA. A Government Report Says $25 Million Meant for Its Artists Is Still Unaccounted For. | Licensing | Societe Congolaise des Droits d’Auteur et des Droits Voisins | USD Not disclosed by SOCODA or any party. An Inspection Générale des Finances report, as cited by Africa Intelligence and reported second-hand by Strong2KinMoov, says more than $25,000,000 earmarked for Congolese rights holders could not be accounted for, against only $35,882 confirmed paid out. This desk could not access the IGF report directly. See caveat. | Document |
| UNESCO Gave ESWACOS E1.5 Million to Fix Eswatini’s Copyright System. Weeks Earlier, the Country’s Own Minister Told the Senate No Disbursements Had Been Made. | Investment | Eswatini Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Society | Emalangeni (SZL); pegged 1:1 to the South African Rand 1,500,000 | Document |
| SAMRO Told Members in 2023 Its Royalty Pool Had Fraud In It. It Took Until 2025 for Sony, Universal and Sheer to Be Named. | Southern African Music Rights Organisation, Sheer Publishing Africa, Sony Music Publishing, Universal Music Publishing Group, Universal Music Group | ZAR Not disclosed by SAMRO. Reporting quoting the unreleased forensic report gives R61,985,176 claimed and R31,384,854 paid for GY2020-FY2022; figures vary slightly by outlet. See caveat. | Document |
Corrections to any figure or party listed here go to the newsroom and are applied to the underlying deal record, not just the roundup.
