Deal sheet
- Status
- Partly unresolved
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited, 5 Star Entertainment Limited, 5K Records Limited, emPawa Africa Music Services Limited, Sony Music Entertainment
- Amount
- Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- NOTE ON THE QUOTED STRINGS BELOW. The separator between the territory word and the licensee name in Apple's string is a plain hyphen-minus. This site's typography filter renders a spaced hyphen as an en dash, so it appears below as "Nigeria – Sony" with an en dash. Read it as a hyphen. The "P" in the quotations stands for the circled-P phonogram symbol in the source.
Sound recordings only, and only the two own-billed recordings identified below. No publishing right is covered by this record and none could be established, see the caveat.
WHAT THE DOCUMENT STATES, VERBATIM. Apple's catalogue, read 14 November 2026, gives the phonogram line on 'Can't Tame Us (Chelsea Anthem)' (released 29 September 2026, collection ID 6816091795) as: 'P 2026 Nigeria – Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited, under exclusive license from 5 Star Entertainment Limited'. The line on 'Melody' (released 23 October 2026, collection ID 6819711986) is identical except that the licensor is rendered '5 Star Entertainment' with no corporate suffix.
That wording places Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited in the licensee position and 5 Star Entertainment in the licensor position. On the face of the document Sony's West Africa subsidiary does not own these two masters; it holds an exclusive licence to them, and the party granting that licence is 5 Star Entertainment.
WHY THIS IS A CHANGE, NOT A CONTINUATION. Afrobeats Wire's earlier record on King Promise, published 31 August 2026, established from the same catalogue that every own-billed release from 'Alright' (11 December 2020) to 'True To Self (Deluxe)' (13 December 2024) carried a different formula: 'under exclusive licence to 5K Records Limited / Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited', which named a licensee and no licensor at all. The open question in that record was who sat on the other side of that licence. The 2026 line answers the structural half of the question: a named licensor now exists, it is not 5K Records, and the Sony contracting entity has moved from Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited in London to Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited in Lagos. 5K Records Limited appears on no King Promise release dated after 13 December 2024.
WHAT THE 2020 TO 2024 CATALOGUE NOW READS. Unchanged. Re-read on 14 November 2026, 'True To Self' (14 June 2024) and 'True To Self (Deluxe)' (13 December 2024) still carry the 5K Records Limited / Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited line, and 'As Promised' (15 July 2019) still reads 'P 2019 Legacy Life Entertainment Under Exclusive License to emPawa Africa Limited'. No credit line on the back catalogue has been rewritten. This record therefore covers the two 2026 recordings and makes no claim about ownership of anything released before them.
CORROBORATION ON A SECOND REGISTRY. Deezer's API, read 14 November 2026, records 'Can't Tame Us (Chelsea Anthem)' (album 1104948172) with label 'SM Entertainment West Africa Limited', release date 2026-09-29, UPC 196874762592, and 'Melody' (album 1115018382) with label 'SM Entertainment West Africa Limited', release date 2026-10-23, UPC 196874843512. Deezer agrees with Apple on the Sony entity and on both release dates. It does not name 5 Star Entertainment at all, and its 'label' field states no direction of grant, so it corroborates who is distributing and not who is licensing to whom. The direction of the grant rests on Apple's phonogram line alone.
- Territory
- Not disclosed by any party. No source read by this desk states a territory or a term for the arrangement between 5 Star Entertainment and Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited.
The only territory signal in any document is Apple's own rendering: both 2026 phonogram lines open with the words 'Nigeria -' before the Sony licensee name. This desk has recorded the same convention elsewhere in Apple's catalogue, for example 'South Africa – Sony Music Entertainment Africa (Pty) Ltd' on Kwesta's releases, where it marks a territory-scoped phonogram line rather than a contractual territory. What Apple intends by the prefix is not stated by Apple, so no territorial scope is asserted here. The word 'exclusive' appears in the credit; the geography over which it is exclusive does not.
- Announced
- 2026-09-29
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple iTunes catalogue lookup for King Promise (Apple artist ID 973237091), Ghana storefront, entity=album, limit=200, HTTP 200, resultCount 94 comprising one artist record and 93 collections, read 14 November 2026. Primary source for every phonogram line and every release date in this record, including the thirty-one own-billed releases that trace the credit formula from YB Records (2016) through Legacy Life Entertainment (2017 to 2020) and 'under exclusive licence to 5K Records Limited / Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited' (December 2020 to December 2024) to the two 2026 releases that name Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited as exclusive licensee of recordings licensed to it by 5 Star Entertainment. · Deezer API album record for 'Can't Tame Us (Chelsea Anthem)', read 14 November 2026, HTTP 200. Label field 'SM Entertainment West Africa Limited', release_date 2026-09-29, UPC 196874762592. Second registry corroborating the Sony entity and the commercial release date. Does not name 5 Star Entertainment and states no direction of grant. · Deezer API album record for 'Melody', read 14 November 2026, HTTP 200. Label field 'SM Entertainment West Africa Limited', release_date 2026-10-23, UPC 196874843512. Same corroboration and same limits as above. · Companies House overview for 5K RECORDS LIMITED (12658751), read 14 November 2026. Company status Active; registered office 3rd Floor, Colwyn Chambers, 19 York Street, Manchester; last accounts made up to 31 July 2025; last confirmation statement dated 20 May 2026. Establishes that the label named on the 2020 to 2024 credit line is still a filing, active company, so its disappearance from the credit line is not explained by dissolution. The persons-with-significant-control register at the same company, read the same day, still names Jalloh, Mensah and Bah each above 25 and not above 50 percent of shares, with no corporate PSC. · Companies House company search for '5 Star Entertainment', read 14 November 2026, HTTP 200. Returned no active UK company of that name. Cited as the documented basis for this record's statement that the licensor named in the phonogram line could not be matched to a registry entry. · Chelsea Football Club official newsroom, read 14 November 2026, HTTP 200. Named-party source for the Chelsea arrangement: the track 'made its debut at a matchday, will feature at fixtures throughout the season, and was officially released on 12 September, as part of our London to the World approach to culture'. Quotes Scott Fenton, brand director at Chelsea Football Club: 'King Promise came to us with the idea for the track and, knowing how much Chelsea means to him, it felt like a really natural collaboration.' Names no label, no rights holder and no fee. Source of the 12 September date that contradicts the two streaming registries. · Trade report, 24 October 2026, by Peter Okhide. States 'Melody' was 'released under Sony Music Entertainment West Africa and 5 Star Entertainment'. Independent trade corroboration that both names attach to the release. Gives no release date, no term, no territory, no consideration and does not state which party holds which position. · Afrobeats Wire's own earlier record, published 31 August 2026. Established the Legacy Life Entertainment to 5K Records / Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited sequence, that the December 2020 to December 2024 credit formula named a licensee and no licensor, and that no source traced the pre-2020 masters forward. This record is the follow-up: the licensor position is now filled by a named party on two 2026 releases, the Sony contracting entity has changed, and the identity of the new licensor remains unestablished.
Read this before citing: FOUR THINGS THIS RECORD DOES NOT ESTABLISH.
1. WHAT 5 STAR ENTERTAINMENT IS. No public registry entry for an entity of this name could be located. A Companies House company search for '5 Star Entertainment', read 14 November 2026, returned no active UK match: the nearest names are 5 STAR ENTERTAINMENTS LTD (05344839, dissolved 17 May 2023), 5 STAR ENTERTAINMENT NORWAY LTD (07004802, dissolved 2013) and 5 STAR ENTERTAINMENT INTERNATIONAL LIMITED (06830242, dissolved 2011), none of them a West African music company. Nigeria's Corporate Affairs Commission has no public API and search.cac.gov.ng returned HTTP 403 to this desk. Ghana's Registrar-General's Department publishes no queryable company search. This record therefore names 5 Star Entertainment because a primary document names it, and states that the company behind the name could not be identified.
2. WHETHER KING PROMISE OWNS IT. It is tempting to read '5 Star Entertainment' as the artist's own vehicle, given that his 2022 album is titled '5 Star' and that the label field on his November 2025 single with Davido reads '5STAR INC'. This desk searched for any source stating who owns or controls the entity and found none: no trade report, no newsroom release, no statement from King Promise or his management. That inference is not made here. An artist-named imprint can be wholly artist-owned, partly owned, or a label-funded imprint in which the artist holds nothing, and nothing in the public record distinguishes between those outcomes in this case.
3. WHAT HAPPENED TO THE 2020 TO 2024 MASTERS. Nothing read by this desk states whether the recordings credited to 5K Records Limited / Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited remain with those parties, whether any reversion has occurred, or whether the new arrangement touches them at all. The credit lines on those releases are unchanged as of 14 November 2026, which is evidence that nothing has been publicly restated, not evidence that nothing has changed.
4. WHETHER A NEW DEAL WAS ANNOUNCED. No announcement was found. This desk searched for any statement by Sony Music Entertainment, Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited, 5K Records Limited, 5 Star Entertainment or King Promise recording a new recording, licensing or distribution agreement, and located none. The 29 September 2026 date filed in this record is the first date on which the new credit formula appears in Apple's catalogue, not an announced deal date, and is stated as such.
THREE RENDERINGS OF ONE NAME, AND A PLATFORM DISAGREEMENT. The licensor is rendered '5 Star Entertainment Limited' on 29 September 2026 and '5 Star Entertainment' on 23 October 2026. Deezer's label field for the 21 November 2025 single 'Bad Habits' with Davido reads '5STAR INC', and for the 6 February 2026 single 'That Way' with Mr Eazi reads '5STAR INC / emPawa Africa Music Services Limited'. Apple's phonogram line for that same 'That Way' single reads 'P 2026 emPawa Africa Music Services Limited' alone, with no 5STAR naming. The two platforms therefore disagree about whether a 5 Star entity sits on that release. Whether 'Limited', no suffix and 'INC' denote one company is not established.
A DATE CONTRADICTION ON THE CHELSEA SINGLE, STATED NOT RESOLVED. Apple and Deezer both record 'Can't Tame Us (Chelsea Anthem)' as released 29 September 2026. Chelsea Football Club's own newsroom, read 14 November 2026, says the track 'made its debut at a matchday, will feature at fixtures throughout the season, and was officially released on 12 September'. Both are first-party documents from parties in a position to know. A debut on club channels ahead of a commercial DSP release would reconcile them, but no source says so, and this desk does not assert it. Both dates are recorded. The commercial release date on the two streaming registries, 29 September 2026, is the one used as this record's announced date because it is the date the credit line itself first became readable.
5K RECORDS HAS NOT GONE ANYWHERE. Companies House, read 14 November 2026, shows 5K RECORDS LIMITED (12658751) as Active, registered at 3rd Floor, Colwyn Chambers, 19 York Street, Manchester, with total exemption full accounts to 31 July 2025 filed on 20 July 2026 and a confirmation statement dated 20 May 2026 filed on 6 July 2026. Its persons-with-significant-control register still names three individuals, Mohamed Alieu Jalloh, Jonathan Kweku Awotwe Mensah and Mohamed Magid Bah, each holding more than 25 but not more than 50 percent of shares, with no corporate person of significant control and no Sony entity on the register. The disappearance of 5K Records from King Promise's credit line is therefore not explained by the company winding up.
PUBLISHING IS OUT OF SCOPE. No publisher or administrator of the underlying compositions is named in any document read for this record, and no PRO repertory entry for either 2026 title was obtained. Nothing here should be read as a claim about who controls King Promise's songwriting.
