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The Orchard

Sony-owned distribution and label-services company with offices in Johannesburg, Lagos and Nairobi.

Based in
New York, United States
Founded
1997

The Orchard is a music distribution and label-services company founded in 1997 and headquartered in New York. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sony Music Entertainment and operates from more than 45 cities worldwide.

It qualifies here on a material, named African operation: The Orchard runs offices in Johannesburg under Mpumi Phillips as Director of Distribution, in Lagos under Ikechukwu Onuorah as Director for Nigeria, and in Nairobi with Beth Achitsa as Artist and Label Relations Manager, alongside Lanre Masha as Director for West Africa. Its African client roster has included Busiswa, Naira Marley, the producer Juls and the labels Ambitiouz Entertainment and Ghetto Ruff.

It matters as the distribution arm through which Sony reaches African independents without signing them to the label, and is a separate operation from Sony Music Entertainment’s own African label business.

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Distributor

Downtown Music Holdings LLC

New York publishing and distribution group, parent of FUGA, CD Baby and Songtrust, wholly owned by Virgin Music Group (UMG) since February 2026; its Johannesburg unit, formerly Sheer Publishing, is one of South Africa's oldest independent music publishers.

New York, NY, United States downtownmusic.com

Distributor

EMPIRE

Independent US record label, distributor and publisher that entered Africa in 2022 through EMPIRE Africa, with offices in Lagos and Johannesburg.

San Francisco, United States empi.re

Technology

Orfium

Rights-management technology company founded in Los Angeles in 2016. Licenses the PRS for Music repertoire to music users across Africa under a partnership announced in April 2023.

Los Angeles, United States orfium.com

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