Deal sheet
- Status
- CONFIRMED BY DIRECT PHONOGRAM CREDIT, CONTRADICTING THE PRESS TIMELINE. Since '93 co-president Riki Bleau called Solana "a new signing" in a statement first carried by trade press on 11 November 2026. This desk fetched Apple Music's own album pages directly on 12 November 2026 and found the credit "(P) 2026 Since 93, a division of Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited under exclusive licence from Solana" already live on her single "Okunkun," dated 19 June 2026, almost five months before the announcement, and unchanged on "O ri mi" (16 October 2026) and the "Girl From The West" EP (13 November 2026). Her two prior releases, in February and June 2024, carried different, unrelated credits ("Uncle Shaba" and "Kidding Aside"), establishing that the Since '93 credit is a real change from what preceded it, not a credit that has always read this way. No source resolves exactly when within the 2024-2026 gap the Since '93 relationship began; this record states only what is confirmed and when.
- Type
- Licensing
- Parties
- Since ’93
- Amount
- Not disclosed. No source checked, including statements from Since '93, Sony Music Entertainment UK or Solana herself, names an advance, royalty rate, minimum guarantee or any other financial term.
- Rights covered
- Master recordings. Exclusive licence, not a signing in the ownership sense trade press used. Apple Music's phonogram credit line, fetched and read directly by this desk on 12 November 2026, reads identically across every Since '93-era release checked: "(P) 2026 Since 93, a division of Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited under exclusive licence from Solana." That phrasing names Solana personally, not a company, as the licensor, and Since 93 (Sony Music Entertainment UK, operating inside the RCA Label Group) as the licensee. The earliest release carrying this credit is the single "Okunkun," released 19 June 2026; the credit holds unchanged on "O ri mi," released 16 October 2026, and on the "Girl From The West" EP, due 13 November 2026. Since '93 co-president Riki Bleau's own statement, published 11 November 2026, calls Solana "a new signing," language that describes an artist joining a label's roster but does not itself state who owns the resulting masters. The phonogram credit is the only source checked that answers the ownership question, and it names Solana as the rights holder of record, with Since 93 holding an exclusive licence to her recordings. Publishing rights are not addressed by this record and could not be established from any source checked.
Prior to the Since '93 relationship, Solana's releases carried two different, apparently independent credits with no company name resembling Since '93, Sony or RCA: "(P) 2024 Uncle Shaba" on the single "Most High" (1 February 2024) and "(P) 2024 Kidding Aside" on the EP "OMG" (5 June 2024). Neither "Uncle Shaba" nor "Kidding Aside" could be matched to a registered company on the UK Companies House register by name search conducted 12 November 2026; Nigeria's CAC has no public search tool, so whether either is a registered Nigerian entity could not be checked. No release by Solana is listed in MusicBrainz's database as of this desk's query on 12 November 2026, so the comparison rests on Apple Music's own catalogue credit, not a third-party rights registry.
- Territory
- Not stated by any source checked. Every Since '93-credited release checked carries a single worldwide-format phonogram credit rather than a territorial split.
- Announced
- 2026-06-19
- Primary document
- Trade press
- Sources
- Trade report, published 11 November 2026, citing a Billboard U.K. exclusive, carrying Since '93 co-president Riki Bleau's statement describing Solana as "a new signing" and Solana's own statement that she is "excited to partner with Since '93 and the Sony Music team for this next chapter." Names her single "Okunkun" as her earlier breakthrough release without naming a label for it. Fetched and read directly 12 November 2026 (HTTP 200). · Apple Music, "Okunkun" single, fetched and read directly (raw page source) 12 November 2026: release date 19 June 2026, phonogram credit "(P) 2026 Since 93, a division of Sony Music Entertainment UK Limited under exclusive licence from Solana." Earliest confirmed appearance of the Since '93 credit on Solana's catalogue. HTTP 200. · Apple Music, "O ri mi" single, fetched and read directly (raw page source) 12 November 2026: release date 16 October 2026, identical Since '93/exclusive-licence-from-Solana credit, confirming the credit held across four months. HTTP 200. · Apple Music, "Girl From The West" EP listing (includes the track "Dide"), fetched and read directly 12 November 2026: release date 13 November 2026, identical Since '93/exclusive-licence-from-Solana credit. HTTP 200. · Apple Music, "Most High" single, fetched and read directly (raw page source) 12 November 2026: release date 1 February 2024, phonogram credit "(P) 2024 Uncle Shaba," no reference to Since 93 or Sony. Pre-dates the Since '93 relationship. HTTP 200. · Apple Music, "OMG" EP (track "Liquor"), fetched and read directly (raw page source) 12 November 2026: release date 5 June 2024, phonogram credit "(P) 2024 Kidding Aside," no reference to Since 93 or Sony. Last release before the roughly two-year gap preceding "Okunkun." HTTP 200. · Apple iTunes Lookup API for Solana's full discography (artist ID 1474607476), queried directly 12 November 2026, used to confirm release dates and establish that no release exists between 5 June 2024 and 19 June 2026. HTTP 200. · MusicBrainz release search for "Solana," queried directly 12 November 2026: zero results, so no rights-registry record exists for this artist independent of Apple's own catalogue metadata. HTTP 200. · Syndicated trade report, 11 November 2026, independently carrying the same Riki Bleau quote ("We are excited to announce the Queen of YoruPop, Solana, as a new signing to Since '93") and the same Solana quote, corroborating the wording attributed to both named parties. Fetched and read directly. · NME feature, published 4 November 2026, profiling Solana ahead of "Girl From The West." Names "Okunkun," "Dide" and "O Ri Mi" as recent releases without naming a label for any of them, and names Mr Eazi's emPawa Africa as a prior supporter since 2020. Does not mention Since '93 or Sony. Fetched and read directly, HTTP 200. · UK Companies House name search for "Kidding Aside," run 12 November 2026: no exact match among results. Checked to see whether Solana's pre-2026 credit names a registered UK company; it does not appear to. · UK Companies House name search for "Uncle Shaba," run 12 November 2026: no exact match among results, for the same reason as above.
Read this before citing: THE "SIGNING" LANGUAGE AND THE CREDIT LINE ANSWER DIFFERENT QUESTIONS. Riki Bleau's statement that Solana is "a new signing" describes roster membership, announced 11 November 2026. The Apple Music phonogram credit answers who owns the masters and who merely licenses them, and that credit named Since 93 as licensee under exclusive licence from Solana as early as 19 June 2026, about five months before the roster announcement. Both things can be true at once: she may be new to the label's public roster in November while the underlying recording relationship, as declared in the only rights-bearing document checked, predates it. This record does not claim Bleau's statement is false. It records that the catalogue credit and the announcement describe two different moments and does not resolve which one marks the actual contract date, because no contract is public.
NO CONTRACT, NO TERM SHEET, NO ADVANCE IS PUBLIC. No source checked, including Since 93's own statement, Solana's own statement, or the Apple Music credit, discloses an advance, royalty rate, contract length, option structure or territory for the arrangement. "Not disclosed" is the accurate answer to all of these, not an estimate.
PUBLISHING IS NOT ADDRESSED. The phonogram credit covers master recordings only. No source checked names a publisher, administrator or society for Solana's songwriting, and this record does not claim one.
HER PRE-SINCE '93 IMPRINTS COULD NOT BE VERIFIED EITHER WAY. "Uncle Shaba" (credited February 2024) and "Kidding Aside" (credited June 2024) do not match any company on the UK Companies House register by name search. Nigeria's CAC register has no public search tool available to this desk, so neither name's status as a registered entity, in any jurisdiction, could be confirmed or ruled out.
ONE GAP IN THE RELEASE HISTORY IS UNEXPLAINED. Solana's public Apple Music discography shows no release between the "OMG" EP (5 June 2024) and the single "Okunkun" (19 June 2026), a gap of just over two years, which is also the exact window in which the credit line changed from "Kidding Aside" to "Since 93 … under exclusive licence from Solana." No source checked states when within that two-year gap the Since 93 relationship actually began; 19 June 2026 is the earliest date this desk can confirm from a document it fetched directly, not necessarily the date the deal was made.
SINCE '93 IS NOT A DIRECTORY-LISTED AFRICAN MUSIC COMPANY. It is recorded on this site as a UK Sony Music Entertainment joint venture that signs individual diaspora artists; it has no African office or African ownership and is marked accordingly on its own company record, created earlier for the Tems/RCA Records deal (afrobeatswire.com company profile, ID 2506).
