Deal sheet
- Status
- Partly established. The identity of the credited rights holder in each period is documented release by release from Apple's catalogue and corroborated independently by Deezer and, for three releases, by MusicBrainz. The legal character of the Epic relationship is established by the credit wording itself: an exclusive licence, not an assignment. What is not established: the corporate identity and jurisdiction of Black Cinderella, Inc., the date the Epic licence commenced or terminated, its term, its territory, any consideration, the distributor in any period, and publishing, which no document reviewed touches at all. No party has announced any of these arrangements.
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- Black Cinderella, Inc., Epic Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Flourish and Multiply, Black Major, Muthaland Entertainment
- Amount
- Not disclosed Not disclosed
- Rights covered
- Master recordings. The phonogram credit on Sho Madjozi's releases of 27 November 2020, 18 November 2022 and 3 February 2023 reads "Black Cinderella, Inc. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment", which places ownership of those masters with Black Cinderella, Inc. and exclusive exploitation rights with Epic Records. Earlier recordings carry Muthaland Entertainment (2017) and Flourish and Multiply (2018 to 2019). Later recordings carry Black Major (4 October 2024) and Sho Madjozi in her own name (22 November 2024 onward). Publishing is not covered by any document reviewed and is entirely unestablished.
- Territory
- Not stated on any release credit. The credit line is identical on the United States and South African Apple storefronts, checked 30 September 2026, so no territorial carve-out is visible in the metadata. Epic Records is a United States label division of Sony Music Entertainment; Sho Madjozi is South African. No document states a contractual territory.
- Announced
- 2020-11-27
- Primary document
- Rights registry
- Sources
- Apple iTunes Lookup API, Sho Madjozi artist catalogue (artist ID 1188607542), full set of 37 collections read 30 September 2026, returning the phonogram credit string for every release. Re-read against the South African storefront (country=za) the same day with identical credits, and cross-checked release by release against Deezer's independent label and UPC fields and against MusicBrainz label-info. · Apple iTunes Lookup API, South African storefront, six key Sho Madjozi releases read 30 September 2026: credit strings identical to the United States storefront, confirming no territory-specific credit. · Deezer album record for "Kadigong", read 30 September 2026: label "Black Major", UPC 724997576798, release date 2024-10-04. Independent corroboration of the Black Major phonogram credit. · Deezer album record for "Kadigong (Remix)", read 30 September 2026: label "Sho Madjozi", UPC 644401745353, release date 2025-02-27. Same song family, different rights holder and different UPC block four months later. · Deezer album record for "Ndi Rine", read 30 September 2026: label "Sho Madjozi", UPC 766214672753, release date 2024-11-22. · MusicBrainz release "Limpopo Champions League", label Flourish and Multiply, read 30 September 2026. · MusicBrainz release "John Cena", label Flourish and Multiply, read 30 September 2026. · MusicBrainz release "What a Life", label Epic, read 30 September 2026. Records the label of release, not the owner of the master. · Black Major Artists page, read 30 September 2026: lists The Joy, Bongeziwe Mabandla, DJ LAG, Radio Sechaba, Bokani Dyer, Dear Ribane, Manthe Ribane, KDOLLAHZ and BCUC. Sho Madjozi is not listed. · Black Major About page, read 30 September 2026: self-described as a "music agency", founder and CEO Sevi Spanoudi. · UK Companies House name search, run 30 September 2026: no entity named Black Cinderella. Negative check recorded so the absence is on the file. · New York State active corporations open dataset, queried 30 September 2026: empty result set for "BLACK CINDERELLA". Negative check.
Read this before citing: THE PHONOGRAM CREDIT IS EVIDENCE OF OWNERSHIP, NOT A CONTRACT. The credit line "Black Cinderella, Inc. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment" is the parties' own statement of their positions, delivered with the recording and published on the storefront. It is the strongest routinely available evidence of who owns a master, and it is not the agreement. It does not state a term, a territory, a royalty rate, an advance, an option or a reversion. Nothing here should be read as a description of the contract between the parties.
DATE RANGES ARE RELEASE WINDOWS, NOT DEAL DATES. The announced date recorded on this sheet, 27 November 2020, is the release date of the first record carrying the Epic credit. No announcement of the licence was located from any party, so the commencement date of the agreement is unknown and is certainly earlier than the first release. Equally, the last release carrying the credit is 3 February 2023, which does not establish that the licence ended then or has ended at all.
BLACK CINDERELLA, INC. IS UNRESOLVED. The entity appears in no register the desk was able to search. UK Companies House and the New York State active corporations dataset both returned nothing. California's register returned HTTP 429 and Delaware's has no queryable endpoint. Do not attribute a jurisdiction, an officer or a shareholder to this company on the strength of this record, and do not assume the artist controls it.
A CHANGE OF CREDIT IS NOT PROOF OF A TRANSFER. The move from Flourish and Multiply to Black Cinderella, from Black Cinderella to Black Major, and from Black Major to the artist's own name each show a change in who is credited on newly issued recordings. None of them establishes that ownership of the earlier recordings moved. Catalogue can remain with a former rights holder indefinitely while new releases go out under a new credit.
EPIC'S CURRENT POSITION IS NOT ESTABLISHED BY ITS WEBSITE. Epic Records' site carries a roster listing that does not include Sho Madjozi, but its page sitemap contains one URL and its public search endpoint returns zero results for every query tested, including for artists it demonstrably represents. The site is not a usable index and absence from it proves nothing.
BLACK MAJOR IS NOT BLACKMAJOR.ORG LIMITED. A dissolved UK company, BLACKMAJOR.ORG LIMITED, company number 11798052, exists in the UK register. There is no evidence connecting it to the South African company at blackmajor.co.za and the two must not be conflated.
Sho Madjozi’s recordings have carried five different phonogram credits in nine years, and the one that matters most is the most precisely worded. Between 2020 and 2023 her releases through Epic Records read “Black Cinderella, Inc. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment”. That is a licence, not an assignment: the master sat with Black Cinderella and Epic held the right to exploit it. From October 2024 the credit names Black Major, and from November 2024 it names Sho Madjozi herself. No party has announced the start or the end of any of these arrangements, and no consideration, term or territory has been disclosed anywhere.
The credit line, release by release
Phonogram credits were read directly from Apple’s catalogue on 30 September 2026, for the full set of 37 collections attached to the artist, on both the United States and South African storefronts. The credits are identical on both, so there is no territory split visible in the metadata.
| Period | Phonogram credit | Releases |
|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Muthaland Entertainment | “Dumi Hi Phone” with PS DJz |
| 2018 to 2019 | Flourish and Multiply | “Huku” (16 March 2018), “Wakanda Forever” featuring Ycee (30 November 2018), “Limpopo Champions League” (14 December 2018, 13 tracks), “John Cena” (27 September 2019) |
| 2020 to 2023 | Black Cinderella, Inc. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment | “What A Life” (27 November 2020, 9 tracks), “Toro” featuring DDG (18 November 2022), “Chale” (3 February 2023) |
| October 2024 | Black Major | “Kadigong” featuring Gemini Major and Ntando Yamahlubi (4 October 2024) |
| November 2024 onward | Sho Madjozi | “Ndi Rine” with Makhadzi and Ugatsheni (22 November 2024), “Ndi Mary” (6 December 2024), “Kadigong (Remix)” with Tiwa Savage and Zeze Kingston (27 February 2025) |
What “under exclusive license” means here
The phonogram symbol marks the owner of the sound recording. When a credit reads “A under exclusive license to B”, the convention across the recorded music industry is that A owns the recording and B has been granted exclusive rights to exploit it for a period. That is a materially different position from an assignment, where the ownership itself moves. On the documents available, Epic Records was a licensee of Sho Madjozi’s masters for the 2020 to 2023 releases. It is not recorded anywhere as the owner.
The same wording appears elsewhere in Epic’s dealings with African artists, and the desk has recorded the structure before. It is a standard way for a major label division to take global exploitation rights without buying the asset.
Independent corroboration of the labels
| Release | Apple phonogram credit | Deezer label field | UPC | MusicBrainz label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Limpopo Champions League | Flourish and Multiply | Flourish & Multiply | 757572837281 | Flourish and Multiply |
| John Cena | Flourish and Multiply | Flourish & Multiply | 757572847273 | Flourish and Multiply |
| What A Life | Black Cinderella, Inc. / Epic Records | Epic | 886448908067 | Epic |
| Toro | Black Cinderella, Inc. / Epic Records | Epic | 196589540164 | Not present |
| Chale | Black Cinderella, Inc. / Epic Records | Epic | 196589852731 | Not present |
| Kadigong | Black Major | Black Major | 724997576798 | Not present |
| Kadigong (Remix) | Sho Madjozi | Sho Madjozi | 644401745353 | Not present |
| Ndi Rine | Sho Madjozi | Sho Madjozi | 766214672753 | Not present |
Deezer’s label field is populated from delivery metadata independently of Apple’s phonogram line, and it agrees at every point checked. Where Deezer records “Epic” it is recording the label of release, not the owner of the master: the two are different, and Apple’s fuller credit line is the more informative of the two.
The same song, two different rights holders, four months apart
“Kadigong” was issued on 4 October 2024 credited to Black Major. The remix of the same song, issued 27 February 2025 with Tiwa Savage and Zeze Kingston added, carries a 2024 phonogram year and the credit “Sho Madjozi”. The barcodes are in different blocks, 724997 for the original and 644401 for the remix, which is consistent with a change of delivery route. Black Major’s own Artists page, read on 30 September 2026, does not list Sho Madjozi. What the Black Major credit represented, and why it does not carry through to the remix, is not established by any document.
What is not established
- What Black Cinderella, Inc. is. A search of the UK company register returned no entity of that name. A search of the New York State active corporations dataset returned no entity containing “Black Cinderella”. California’s register returned HTTP 429 on repeated attempts and Delaware’s is a form-only interface with no queryable endpoint. The jurisdiction, officers and shareholders are unknown, and whether Sho Madjozi holds any interest in it is not stated anywhere.
- When the Epic licence began or ended. No announcement from Epic Records, Sony Music Entertainment, Black Cinderella or the artist was located. The 2020 to 2023 window is inferred from release dates alone, which bound the period during which recordings were issued under the credit and nothing more.
- The term and territory of the licence. Not stated on any release. An exclusive licence may be perpetual or time-limited, worldwide or carved by territory, and the credit line says neither.
- Consideration. No advance, royalty rate, ownership split or option structure has been disclosed by any party for any of the five arrangements.
- Publishing. Entirely unestablished. Nothing reviewed identifies the publisher or administrator of Sho Madjozi’s compositions, and masters and publishing are separate assets.
- Distribution. No document names the distributor for any period. The 757572 UPC block shared by the 2018 and 2019 releases with releases by other South African labels points to a common barcode-issuing intermediary, but the licensee of that block could not be identified from a GS1 record, so no distributor can be named.
- What Flourish and Multiply is, and what happened to its interest. No register entry located. Whether its rights were assigned, reverted or simply not used after 2019 is not documented.
- Whether Epic Records currently has any relationship with the artist. Epic’s own site carries a roster module that does not list her, but that site’s page sitemap contains a single URL and its search API returns zero results for every query tested, including for artists it plainly does represent. Absence there is not evidence.
