Deal sheet
- Status
- MUZIKAWI'S OWN PHONOGRAM CREDIT CHANGED ON 18 FEBRUARY 2025, FROM OWNING THE MASTERS TO LICENSING THEM FROM NAMED RIGHTS HOLDERS. NEITHER MUZIKAWI NOR ANY OTHER PARTY ANNOUNCED THE CHANGE.
Muzikawi is an Ethiopian music company. Its own site states: "In 2020 Selam birthed Muzikawi," Selam being a cultural organisation its co-founder Samuel Mulugeta describes as "an organization called Selam Ethiopia, which has been active for about 20 years." It describes itself as "a record label, music publisher, studio, artist management and event organiser" with offices in Addis Ababa and Stockholm. MusicBrainz carries it as label ae63109a-3a93-4621-b4b3-b76c0d8d4fdc, country ET, type "Original Production". Its catalogue is dominated by reissues of Ethiopian recordings from the 1970s and 1980s alongside new work by living Ethiopian artists.
THE CREDIT LINES, IN ORDER. Apple Music's copyright field, read by this desk on 2 November 2026:
Ethiocolor, "Ethiocolor" and the single "Ante Gondaire", carrying a release date of 1 January 2014: "(P) 2014 Muzikawi". Muzikawi alone, no licensor named.
Dawit Yifru, "Dawit Yifru", 24 March 2023: "(P) 2023 Muzikawi". Muzikawi alone.
Jorga Mesfin, "The Kindest One", 24 May 2024: "(P) 2024 Muzikawi". Muzikawi alone.
Ibex Band, "Yezemed Yebada" single, 18 February 2025: "(P) 2025 Muzikawi under exclusive license from Giovanni Rico and Selam Woldemariam". This is the first Muzikawi release on which the credit names anyone other than Muzikawi.
Ibex Band, "Zerafewa" single, 21 March 2025, and the album "Stereo Instrumental Music", 11 April 2025: same wording, same two named licensors.
Tilaye Gebre, "Alibek'agnimi" single, 5 December 2025, "Tizi alegni yet'initu" single, 9 January 2026, and the album "Tilaye's Saxophone With The Dahlak Band", 6 February 2026: "Muzikawi under exclusive license from Tilaye Gebre", the recording artist himself.
Teodros Makonnen, "Teodros Makonnen With His Organ", 2 October 2026: "(P) 2026 Muzikawi under exclusive license from Teodros Makonnen".So every Muzikawi release from 18 February 2025 onward carries an exclusive licence credit naming an individual rights holder. Every release before it names Muzikawi alone. That is a change in the stated legal basis on which Muzikawi holds the recordings, from apparent ownership to licence, and it is visible only in the credit line. No announcement from Muzikawi, Selam, The Orchard or In Sheep's Clothing refers to it.
DEEZER CORROBORATES THE LABEL, NOT THE LICENCE. Deezer's label field reads "Muzikawi" on all of these releases: album IDs 1005961701, 414972707, 568015281, 712022161, 863545322, 862299272 and 877383852. Deezer does not expose a phonogram line, so it corroborates who the label of record is and nothing about ownership.
THE PHYSICAL LABEL COPY AND THE DIGITAL CREDIT DISAGREE ON ONE RELEASE. Discogs, which transcribes printed label copy, carries the Muzikawi catalogue as MUZLP001 to MUZLP005 under label ID 3198485. On MUZLP004, Tilaye Gebre, it records "Licensed From: Tilaye Gebre", matching Apple exactly. On MUZLP005, Teodros Makonnen, released 2 October 2026, it records "Phonographic Copyright (p): Muzikawi" and "Copyright (c): Muzikawi" with no licensor named at all, which does not match the Apple credit for the same release. On MUZLP003, Ibex Band, it records no phonographic copyright or licensor credit of any kind. Discogs entries are contributor-transcribed, and the label page's own data quality flag reads "Needs Vote", so the gap may be a transcription omission rather than a difference in the printed sleeve. This record reports the disagreement and does not resolve it.
THE 2014 PHONOGRAM YEAR PREDATES THE COMPANY. The Ethiocolor titles carry "(P) 2014 Muzikawi" while Muzikawi's own site dates the company's creation to 2020. A phonogram year records first publication of the recording, so a 2014 recording reissued later can legitimately carry a 2014 date, but the owner named alongside it is a company that, on its own account, did not exist in 2014. No party has explained the combination.
THE DISTRIBUTION CHAIN RUNS THROUGH SONY. The Orchard is not an independent distributor. Sony Corporation's Form 6-K filed with the SEC on 5 August 2015 states, at Note 6 "Orchard Acquisition": "In April 2015, Sony Music Entertainment ('SME'), a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony, increased its shareholding in Orchard Media, Inc. ('The Orchard') to 100% by acquiring Orchard Asset Holdings, LLC's 49% equity interest." The same note records that Sony consolidated The Orchard from that point using the acquisition method and recognised a fair-value remeasurement gain of 18,085 million yen (151 million US dollars) on the 51 per cent it already held. So from March 2022, on Muzikawi's own announcement, the digital pipeline for Ethiopia's most rights-focused reissue label has run through a wholly owned Sony Music subsidiary. Neither Muzikawi's announcement nor any Sony statement found by this desk frames it that way, and The Orchard's name appears on none of the credit lines above.
SONY NAMES A DIFFERENT COMPANY THAN THE ONE USUALLY CITED. The entity in Sony's filing is Orchard Media, Inc. The name "The Orchard Enterprises, Inc." belongs to a separate, deregistered SEC registrant, CIK 1339729, a Delaware company formerly called Digital Music Group, Inc. between 29 September 2005 and 20 February 2008. That registrant was taken private in 2010: Schedule 13E-3 filed 27 April 2010, definitive merger proxy 18 June 2010, delisting notice 29 July 2010, and registration terminated by Form 15-12G on 9 August 2010. Afrobeats Wire's own directory record for The Orchard carried the deregistered name as its legal name until this record was filed, and has been corrected against Sony's filing.
AN ARTIST SIGNING EXISTS, WITH NO TERMS. Muzikawi's own site states that it "signed a new record deal with the talented and amazing singer Anis Gabi" on "Friday April 15 2022". The announcement names no rights, no territory, no term and no consideration, and was published on 21 June 2023, more than a year after the stated signing date. A single credited to Anis Gabi, "Hadha Milki", appears in the Muzikawi catalogue on Discogs with catalogue number MUZ03S1 and a date of 14 October 2022.
ONE ARTIST IN MUZIKAWI'S ANNOUNCED PIPELINE ALREADY HAS A RECORD OUT UNDER ANOTHER COMPANY'S CREDIT. In the 28 May 2026 In Sheep's Clothing interview, Mulugeta said: "We're also working on releases from Wesenyeleh Mebreku, and we're preparing our first release from a female artist. We're also finalizing a release from Dur-Dur Band from Somalia, A unique album recorded in Addis Ababa in the late 80s." Twenty-seven days before that, on 1 May 2026, a Wesenyeleh Mebreku album called "Resonance of Time" was released carrying "(P) 2026 Incidental Music". Deezer's label field for it reads "Incidental Music", and MusicBrainz records the release under the labels "Incidental Music" and "tone poem", release country XW, barcode 825484335413. MusicBrainz separately carries an "Incidental Music" label disambiguated as "Portland OR based label". As of 2 November 2026 no Muzikawi release by Wesenyeleh Mebreku has appeared. This is not necessarily a conflict: Muzikawi's planned release may cover different recordings. But no party has said how the two catalogues divide, and this record does not assume.
VINYL IS CUT AND PRESSED IN EUROPE. Discogs records every Muzikawi LP from MUZLP001 to MUZLP005 as cut at Timmion Cutting, and MUZLP005 as pressed by Optimal Media GmbH, matrix BQ 58437. The records are Ethiopian repertoire, manufactured in Europe, distributed digitally by a Sony subsidiary and sold into the United States by a Los Angeles music publication's store.
- Type
- Distribution
- Parties
- Muzikawi, The Orchard, Sony Music Entertainment, In Sheep’s Clothing
- Amount
- NOT DISCLOSED, BY ANY PARTY, FOR ANY LEG OF THIS CHAIN. Muzikawi's 16 March 2022 announcement of The Orchard arrangement states no advance, no fee, no revenue share and no royalty rate. In Sheep's Clothing's 28 May 2026 announcement of United States distribution states none either. No filing, registry entry or statement found by this desk puts a figure on either arrangement, and this record does not estimate one. Sony's own filing does carry a figure, but it belongs to a different transaction: Sony Corporation's Form 6-K of 5 August 2015 records a fair-value remeasurement gain of 18,085 million yen (151 million US dollars) on the 51 per cent of The Orchard that Sony Music Entertainment already held when it went to 100 per cent. That number is about Sony buying out its own co-owner in 2015. It has nothing to do with Muzikawi.
- Rights covered
- DISTRIBUTION RIGHTS ONLY ON BOTH LEGS. NO MASTER AND NO COMPOSITION CHANGES OWNER UNDER THIS RECORD.
LEG ONE, DIGITAL. On 16 March 2022 Muzikawi announced on its own site: "We are happy to announce our partnership with the digital distributor The Orchard," describing The Orchard as "one of many partners we work with in order to spread our music to all of Ethiopia and out in the world." The announcement names The Orchard only as a "digital distributor" and the arrangement only as a "partnership". It does not say whether the grant is exclusive, which rights are licensed, what term applies, or what territory is contracted. The page lists sync licensing and performance rights services among The Orchard's general service areas but does not say those services form part of this agreement, and this record does not treat them as doing so.
LEG TWO, UNITED STATES. On 28 May 2026 In Sheep's Clothing announced on its own site: "ISC is very happy to announce that we are now distributing Muzikawi releases in the United States." The surrounding text describes limited vinyl pressings sold through the ISC online shop and wholesale orders taken from record shops, which points to physical product, but the announcement does not say the arrangement is physical-only, does not say it is exclusive, and does not state a term. The two legs are not necessarily in conflict: a digital distribution deal and a United States physical distribution deal can run side by side. Neither party has said whether that is the structure.
WHO OWNS THE RECORDINGS. Muzikawi is named as the phonogram owner on its own releases, and on releases issued from 18 February 2025 onward the credit adds a named licensor. Full credit lines, dates and the point at which the wording changed are set out in the status field.
PUBLISHING. Muzikawi calls itself "a record label, music publisher, studio, artist management and event organiser" on its own site. This record establishes nothing about its publishing side. No PRO repertory entry naming Muzikawi as a publisher was located; what this desk checked, and what blocked it, is recorded in the caveat.
- Territory
- LEG ONE: not stated. Muzikawi's 16 March 2022 announcement describes the aim as spreading its music "to all of Ethiopia and out in the world" and notes that "The Orchard reaches digital and physical retailers worldwide," but states no contracted territory. Worldwide reach described in marketing language is not a territory clause and is not recorded as one here.
LEG TWO: United States, on In Sheep's Clothing's own 28 May 2026 statement. No other territory is claimed for that leg.
CATALOGUE ORIGIN: Ethiopia. Muzikawi is based in Addis Ababa with a second office in Stockholm, Sweden. One title in its announced pipeline, an unreleased Dur-Dur Band album, is Somali repertoire recorded in Addis Ababa in the late 1980s, per Muzikawi's co-founder.
- Announced
- 2022-03-16
- Primary document
- Official newsroom
- Sources
- Muzikawi, "Muzikawi's Music Partnership with The Orchard," published on the company's own site muzikawi.com on 16 March 2022 at 17:17. Fetched and read in full by this desk on 2 November 2026. This is the announcing party's own newsroom statement and is the only document either party has published about the arrangement that this desk located. It names The Orchard as a "digital distributor" and the relationship as a "partnership", and states no territory, term, rights scope, exclusivity or consideration. · In Sheep's Clothing, "Muzikawi," 28 May 2026, by Tana Yonas, interview with Muzikawi co-founder Samuel Mulugeta. Fetched and read in full. Direct statement from a named party announcing United States distribution: "ISC is very happy to announce that we are now distributing Muzikawi releases in the United States." Also the source for Selam Ethiopia's stated 20-year history and for Muzikawi's forward release slate. · Sony Corporation, Form 6-K filed 5 August 2015, accession 0000903423-15-000476, Note 6 "Orchard Acquisition". Regulatory filing. Source for the entity name Orchard Media, Inc., for Sony Music Entertainment taking it to 100 per cent in April 2015 by acquiring Orchard Asset Holdings, LLC's 49 per cent, and for the 18,085 million yen (151 million US dollars) fair-value remeasurement gain on the 51 per cent already held. · EDGAR submissions index, Orchard Enterprises, Inc., CIK 1339729. Regulatory filing index. Delaware; former name Digital Music Group, Inc. 29 September 2005 to 20 February 2008; SC 13E3 27 April 2010; DEFM14A 18 June 2010; 25-NSE 29 July 2010; Form 15-12G 9 August 2010. · Muzikawi, "Ethiopian Record Label: Who We Are." Fetched and read. Source for "In 2020 Selam birthed Muzikawi", the Addis Ababa and Stockholm offices and the company's self-description as record label, music publisher, studio, artist management and event organiser. · Muzikawi, "Anis Gabi signed a new deal with Muzikawi," published 21 June 2023. Newsroom statement of a record deal signed "Friday April 15 2022", with no rights, territory, term or consideration stated. Image caption identifies Samuel Mulugeta as COO. · MusicBrainz label entry for Muzikawi. Rights registry. Country ET, type "Original Production". Releases include catalogue number MUZLP001 on the 2023 Dawit Yifru reissue. · Discogs label 3198485, Muzikawi, release list. Rights registry. Source for catalogue numbers MUZLP001 to MUZLP005, the earlier digital-only MUZ03S1 (Anis Gabi), MUZ03EP (Balkew Alemu), MUZ04EP (Sintayehu Belay) and MUZ04A (Ethiocolor), and for the printed label copy credits, pressing plant and lacquer cutting credits cited in the status field. · Apple Music catalogue record, Teodros Makonnen "Teodros Makonnen With His Organ", 2 October 2026. Copyright field: "(P) 2026 Muzikawi under exclusive license from Teodros Makonnen". Retrieved 2 November 2026. Equivalent lookups were run and recorded for Apple collection IDs 1676072679 (Dawit Yifru), 1739037864 (Jorga Mesfin), 1795961285, 1800534493 and 1794417738 (Ibex Band), 1855253507, 1855778560 and 1861401538 (Tilaye Gebre), 1619100063 and 1619098295 (Ethiocolor) and 1894415565 (Wesenyeleh Mebreku, "Resonance of Time", "(P) 2026 Incidental Music"). · Deezer album metadata, label field "Muzikawi". Equivalent records checked for album IDs 414972707, 568015281, 712022161, 863545322, 862299272, 877383852 (all "Muzikawi") and 961854951 (Wesenyeleh Mebreku, "Resonance of Time", label field "Incidental Music"). · Muzikawi's own Bandcamp storefront. Fetched and read. Lists the six-album catalogue (Teodros Makonnen, Tilaye Gebre, Ibex Band, Jorga Mesfin, Dawit Yifru, Ethiocolor) and the self-description "Record label, music publisher and promotor based in Addis Ababa, dedicated to preserving and legalizing Ethiopian music." Carries no phonogram or copyright line, which is why the credit lines in this record come from Apple, Deezer and Discogs rather than from the label's own shop.
Read this before citing: ESTABLISHED FROM PRIMARY DOCUMENTS THIS DESK FETCHED AND READ IN FULL ON 2 NOVEMBER 2026:
1. Muzikawi, "Muzikawi's Music Partnership with The Orchard," published on muzikawi.com 16 March 2022, 17:17. The company's own announcement, and this record's citing source for leg one. Carries the verbatim wording "We are happy to announce our partnership with the digital distributor The Orchard" and "one of many partners we work with in order to spread our music to all of Ethiopia and out in the world."
2. In Sheep's Clothing, "Muzikawi," 28 May 2026, an announcement and interview by Tana Yonas with Muzikawi co-founder Samuel Mulugeta. Carries the verbatim wording "ISC is very happy to announce that we are now distributing Muzikawi releases in the United States," Mulugeta's account of Selam Ethiopia, and the forward release slate including Teodros Makonnen, Wesenyeleh Mebreku, an unnamed female artist and Dur-Dur Band.
3. Sony Corporation, Form 6-K, filed with the SEC 5 August 2015, accession 0000903423-15-000476, document sony-6k_0805.htm, Note 6 "Orchard Acquisition". Fetched from sec.gov and read. Source of the Orchard Media, Inc. name, the April 2015 move to 100 per cent, the 49 per cent acquired from Orchard Asset Holdings, LLC, and the 18,085 million yen (151 million US dollars) remeasurement gain.
4. EDGAR submissions index for Orchard Enterprises, Inc., CIK 1339729. Source of the Delaware incorporation, the former name Digital Music Group, Inc. (29 September 2005 to 20 February 2008), and the 2010 going-private and deregistration filing dates.
5. Muzikawi, "Ethiopian Record Label: Who We Are," muzikawi.com. Source of "In 2020 Selam birthed Muzikawi," the Addis Ababa and Stockholm offices, and the self-description as "a record label, music publisher, studio, artist management and event organiser."
6. Muzikawi, "Anis Gabi signed a new deal with Muzikawi," published 21 June 2023, stating a signing date of "Friday April 15 2022".
7. Apple Music catalogue copyright fields for every Muzikawi release listed in the status field, retrieved programmatically and recorded verbatim.
8. Deezer album metadata, label field, for seven Muzikawi releases and for the Wesenyeleh Mebreku release on Incidental Music.
9. MusicBrainz: Muzikawi label ae63109a-3a93-4621-b4b3-b76c0d8d4fdc (country ET, type Original Production); its releases including catalogue number MUZLP001; and the Wesenyeleh Mebreku "Resonance of Time" release records.
10. Discogs label 3198485 and release records 26607197, 30739234, 33174063, 36316099, 37783140, 38337861 and 27730515, for printed label copy, catalogue numbers, pressing plant and lacquer cutting credits.
CONTRADICTIONS LEFT STANDING, NOT SMOOTHED OVER: (a) Apple's credit for Teodros Makonnen's "Teodros Makonnen With His Organ" names an exclusive licence from the artist; Discogs's transcription of the same release's printed label copy names Muzikawi as phonographic copyright owner with no licensor. (b) In Sheep's Clothing calls Samuel Mulugeta a "co-founder" of Muzikawi; the caption on Muzikawi's own Anis Gabi announcement identifies him as the company's COO. (c) Discogs records no phonographic copyright credit at all on MUZLP003, Ibex Band, where Apple records an exclusive licence from two named individuals. All three are reported, none is resolved.
NOT ESTABLISHED, AND NOT GUESSED AT IN THIS RECORD:
(1) Any consideration, on either distribution leg. No figure exists in any source checked.
(2) Whether The Orchard arrangement is exclusive, what rights it grants, what term it runs for, what territory it contracts, or whether it is still in force in November 2026. The 16 March 2022 announcement is the only statement either party has made about it that this desk found. This desk searched for a later Muzikawi or Orchard statement and found none.
(3) Whether In Sheep's Clothing's United States distribution is exclusive, physical-only, or time-limited, and whether it displaces or sits alongside the digital arrangement.
(4) Muzikawi's publishing side. It calls itself a music publisher. This desk attempted ASCAP's ACE repertory search for Muzikawi as a publisher on 2 November 2026 and the endpoint returned HTTP 403 to this desk, twice, including with a browser user agent. MusicBrainz carries Muzikawi only as a label of type "Original Production" and holds no publisher entity for it. No PRO repertory entry naming Muzikawi as a publisher was therefore located, which is a failure to check rather than a finding of absence, and is recorded as such.
(5) Any corporate registration for Muzikawi. Ethiopia operates no public company search reachable from here, and this desk located no Swedish or Ethiopian registration record for a Muzikawi entity despite the company's stated Stockholm office. No legal entity name is asserted.
(6) Who Giovanni Rico and Selam Woldemariam are, beyond being the two individuals named as licensors on the Ibex Band credit. This desk did not establish their relationship to the recordings. Note specifically that "Selam Woldemariam" is an individual named in a credit line and is NOT the organisation "Selam" that Muzikawi's own site credits with creating the company in 2020. This record draws no link between the two, and readers should not either.
(7) Any legal entity, city of incorporation or founding date for In Sheep's Clothing. Its own About page states none.
(8) What "Incidental Music" is, beyond the name on the Wesenyeleh Mebreku phonogram line and a MusicBrainz label disambiguated as Portland, Oregon based. Whether that MusicBrainz label is the same company named on the credit was not established.
A LINE OF INQUIRY CHECKED AND DISCARDED, RECORDED SO IT IS NOT REPEATED: the digital UPC on Teodros Makonnen's October 2026 release, 820233730792, sits in a different barcode prefix family from the 197, 198 and 199 prefixes on Muzikawi's earlier digital releases, which looked at first like a sign that a different company had registered the product after In Sheep's Clothing came in. It is not usable. A MusicBrainz query on the 820233 prefix returns 1,786 releases across many unrelated labels, so the prefix cannot be attributed to any one distributor. No claim is made from barcode prefixes anywhere in this record.
EDGAR COVERAGE NOTE: full-text search on "The Orchard Enterprises" restricted to Form 20-F returned zero results. The Orchard Media, Inc. is not an SEC registrant in its own right; its ownership is documented only through Sony's consolidated filings. African independent labels including Muzikawi are not SEC registrants, so no filing exists for the Muzikawi side of either arrangement, by design rather than by omission.
