Chabaka Music
Dubai-based MENA distribution, marketing and publishing services company, founded 2013, acquired by Universal Music Group in 2023 and folded into Virgin Music Group.
- Based in
- Dubai, United Arab Emirates
- Founded
- 2013
- Website
- chabaka.net
Chabaka Music is a Dubai-headquartered digital distribution, marketing, publishing and label/artist-services company covering the Middle East and North Africa, including Egypt and the wider North Africa region. It was founded in 2013 by brothers Ala’a and Tarek Makki and, by 2023, had agreements with more than 150 independent artists and local labels.
Universal Music Group announced an agreement to acquire Chabaka on 30 August 2023. The company was folded into Virgin Music Group, UMG’s independent-services division, rather than into a UMG major-label unit. Ala’a Makki stayed on as CEO; Tarek Makki moved to an advisory role within CHBK Group, the wider group Chabaka sat inside alongside Con Cast, Andco and Boomerang Studios. No source read by this desk states a price or a stake percentage.
Chabaka is not named in Universal Music Group’s later announcement of Def Jam Recordings North Africa, a separate UMG major-label division launched from Casablanca in June 2026 to cover the same broader North Africa region.