Mdundo and Davido Music Worldwide: the May 2021 catalogue licence announced to Nasdaq, confirmed in one audited report, and never named again

On 3 May 2021 at 09:25 CEST, Mdundo.com A/S filed Company Announcement No. 5-2021 with Nasdaq First North Growth Market Denmark. The headline calls it a distribution agreement. The body calls it something else: “Mdundo has entered into a licensing agreement with Davido Music Worldwide (DMW) to distribute the catalogue on the platform.”

Those are two different legal relationships in one document, and the distinction matters. A licence grants a permission to use recordings that someone else continues to own. A distribution agreement is a service arrangement for getting a catalogue to market. The announcement’s operative sentence describes the first and uses the second as shorthand. Nothing in the filing transfers ownership of any master or any composition. DMW remains the named rights holder throughout.

No consideration is disclosed. No territory is specified. No term, no advance, no royalty rate, no minimum guarantee and no revenue split appear anywhere in the text.

What the filing says

The announcement runs to roughly 300 words. It names two artists as the draw: Mayorkun, and “Perruzzi,” spelled with a doubled r in the original against the artist’s own single-r styling. It places the agreement in a set: Mdundo states it also holds rights arrangements with Warner Music Group, Believe Digital, Tunecore and Africori. It identifies Nigeria as a focus market, cites more than 100,000 African musicians signed directly to the platform, and sets out a monthly active user ambition moving from roughly 7 million toward 18 million.

Francis Muchina, Mdundo’s Head of A&R, is quoted on the signing. Kapital Partner ApS is named as Certified Adviser.

The agreement is confirmed a second time in an audited document. Mdundo’s annual report for the 2020/21 financial year, audited by Grant Thornton, states: “During the financial year, Mdundo entered into agreements with three of Africa’s leading record companies; Davido Music Worldwide (DMW), Jungle Entertainment and Keygaard.” The same report adds a commercial rationale: “DMW is expected to have 20% of Top 50 music hits in Nigeria currently.” It separately describes “license agreements with Warner Music Group and Believe Digital, which together delivers 1,7 million songs.”

What happened to the two named artists

Both artists named in the announcement had left the DMW recording relationship within roughly six months of it, on the evidence of phonogram credit lines.

Mayorkun’s last release checked carrying a DMW phonogram credit is “Betty Butter,” issued 3 July 2020, which reads “℗ Davido Music Worldwide.” His release “Let Me Know,” issued 20 August 2021, reads “℗ Nigeria – SM Entertainment West Africa Limited, under exclusive licence from Avante Digital concepts limited,” naming his own company as licensor. Later releases carry Sony Music Entertainment West Africa Limited in the same position.

Peruzzi’s last release checked carrying a DMW credit is “Isolova,” issued 9 November 2020. “Sweetah,” issued 10 November 2021, reads “℗ 2021 Peruzzi.” His 2023 single “Pressure” reads “℗ 2023 Peruzzi, with exclusive license to ONErpm.”

Mayorkun described the position himself in an April 2025 interview: “My contract with DMW has been done for about 3 to 4 years, but I’m still with them.” In the same interview he confirms three years with Sony Music.

This record draws no inference from that timing about the licence itself. A catalogue licence covers recordings already made. An artist leaving a label does not retract recordings the label already owns.

What came after

DMW is not named again in any Mdundo document checked for this record. Across all 93 Mdundo company announcements filed between 17 August 2020 and 2 July 2026, exactly one headline mentions Davido Music Worldwide, and it is this one. Only one other announcement in that set is a rights-holder signing: the Universal Music Group agreement of 2022.

The annual reports follow the same pattern. The 2021/22 report names Universal, Warner and Believe. The 2022/23 report names Mavin only as market colour, not as a counterparty. The 2023/24 and 2024/25 reports name no rights holder at all.

The 2024/25 report describes a change in posture. Kenya headcount fell from 18 to 12, “redirecting the focus from licensing operations and marketing activities towards product development and sales execution.” It reports “839k directly from artists, complemented by 3.9 million licensed global tracks,” and states that royalty distributions to artists exceeded DKK 4.8m.

Mdundo’s own accounting treats the cost of licences as a direct cost: every annual report checked defines direct costs as “royalties, licenses and other costs directly related to revenue.” On a group basis those lines run: 2020/21 revenue DKK 2,299,740 against direct costs DKK 1,155,855; 2021/22 DKK 7,257,986 against DKK 3,735,745; 2022/23 DKK 12,590,290 against DKK 6,318,226; 2023/24 DKK 11,928,573 against DKK 5,836,917; 2024/25 DKK 10,965,458 against DKK 5,844,702. None of those figures is broken out by counterparty, so no part of them can be attributed to the DMW licence.

What is on the platform today

Checked on 16 September 2026, Mdundo’s service still returns DMW-era recordings. A search for Mayorkun returns “Betty Butter ft Davido,” “Mama,” “True ft Kizz Daniel” and “Bobo feat. Davido.” A search for Peruzzi returns “Majesty” and “Somebody Baby.”

That is an observation, not a proof of contract. Mdundo carries recordings from direct artist uploads as well as from label licences, and the platform does not display which route any given track arrived by. The presence of these tracks does not establish that the 2021 licence is still in force.

What could not be established

The term of the licence could not be established. Neither could its territory, its consideration, its royalty basis, whether it has been renewed, or whether it has lapsed. None of these appear in the filing, in any subsequent announcement, or in any annual report.

Whether Mdundo had any obligation to announce a lapse could not be established either. A company on a growth market announces material events; the expiry of one unpriced catalogue licence among several may not meet that bar. This record therefore states the factual position, which is that no later Mdundo document names DMW again, and infers nothing from it.

Davido Music Worldwide Limited is not traceable to a public register. UK Companies House returns no company of that name and Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission has no public search API. Its jurisdiction of incorporation is unconfirmed.