Spinall did not sell Epic Records his masters. The trade headlines on 30 June 2023 read like a straight label signing, the kind where the label ends up owning what the artist records. The phonographic credit line on every Spinall release checked since says something more specific, and it has said the same thing, word for word, for more than two years: his own imprint, TheCAPMusic, owns the masters. Epic Records holds an exclusive licence to distribute them. Those are different legal relationships, and this desk’s full deal record, with every source, is here.
What was actually announced#
On 30 June 2023, Epic Records announced that it had signed Spinall, the Lagos DJ and producer born Oluseye Desmond Sodamola, alongside the release of his Epic debut single “Loju” featuring Wizkid. Epic president Ezekiel “Zeke” Lewis called him “one of the continent’s best musical exports.” Spinall, for his part, credited the label’s two most senior executives directly: “Sylvia and Zeke convinced me in the first meeting that I’m home,” referring to Sylvia Rhone, chairperson and CEO of Epic Records, and Lewis. A second trade publication’s same-day report carried the identical quotes, corroborating the announcement independently rather than simply repeating a wire release.
Neither report specified a contract length, a royalty rate, an advance or any other financial term. That is common for an artist-level signing of this kind, and it is recorded here as “not disclosed” rather than estimated.
What the credit line actually says#
Checking the underlying release pages, rather than trusting a summary of what they say, is the only way to settle what kind of deal this was. The phonographic, or ℗, line on a release is a legal copyright notice naming whoever owns the sound recording. On “Loju,” released the same day as the Epic announcement, that line reads, verbatim: “℗ 2023 TheCAPMusic, Inc. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.”
That is not ownership language. It is licensing language, and it is precise about which party is which. TheCAPMusic, Inc. is named as the owner. Epic Records is named as the licensee, operating under an exclusive licence, which means Epic can distribute and market the recording and no one else can, without that making Epic the owner of the copyright underneath it.
This desk checked a second release two years into the arrangement to see whether the structure held or quietly shifted, as these things sometimes do once the press cycle ends. Spinall’s most recent album, ÈKÓ GROOVE, released 29 August 2025, carries the identical wording: “℗ 2025 TheCAPMusic, Inc. under exclusive license to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment.” Two releases, two years apart, one unchanged legal relationship.
The four months that prove it#
The clearest evidence that TheCAPMusic held these masters outright, independent of Epic, sits in the four months immediately before the deal. Spinall’s sixth studio album, Top Boy, came out on 17 February 2023, with its own phonographic credit reading simply: “℗ 2023 TheCAPMusic.” No Epic. No Sony Music Entertainment. No licensing language at all, because there was no licensee yet.
That is the baseline. TheCAPMusic owned Spinall’s masters outright before Epic entered the picture, and the credit line format changed the moment the licence began, in exactly the way a licence, rather than a sale, would change it: by adding a second name in a specific legal role, not by replacing the first name.
A pattern that predates this deal by five years#
This is not Spinall’s first reported major-label arrangement, and checking the earlier one adds useful context. On 11 September 2018, he reportedly signed an international record deal with Atlantic Records UK and a worldwide publishing deal with Warner Chappell Music UK, described at the time as a first for a Nigerian DJ. This desk checked “Nowo,” his February 2018 single with Wizkid, and found only “℗ 2018 TheCAPMusic,” no Atlantic credit at all. No release in the catalogue checked for this record, across the period that Atlantic deal was supposedly active, carries an Atlantic Records or Warner Chappell credit of any kind.
This desk has documented that same pattern elsewhere on the continent: an announced international deal that generates coverage and never once surfaces in the metadata that actually governs the recording. It happened with Eddy Kenzo’s reported Warner Music approach. It happened with Khaligraph Jones’s reported ONErpm relationship, where the wording shifted release to release. This record does not claim the 2018 Atlantic deal never happened. It states only that no phonographic credit checked for this record reflects it, which is a materially different and more limited claim.
What could not be established#
TheCAPMusic’s exact legal registration could not be confirmed against a public company register. Nigeria’s Corporate Affairs Commission publishes no public company-name search this desk could run, and that gap applies to most Nigerian-founded labels this desk covers, not to this one specifically. The label’s own site, thecapmusic.live, states it “was founded in 2019.” A contemporaneous trade report and several artist biographies put the founding at 2014. Both figures are recorded here; neither is resolved by any document this desk could fetch.
One smaller detail is also unexplained: releases before the Epic deal carry the bare name “TheCAPMusic” in the credit line, while releases from the Epic deal onward carry “TheCAPMusic, Inc.” No source checked for this record explains that change, and this record does not guess at one.
What this means for artists#
“Signed with” is not a legal description, it’s a headline. Trade press needs a verb, and “signed” is the one that fits a headline. It does not tell you whether the signing artist kept their masters, sold them, or licensed them for a fixed term. Only the credit line, or the actual contract, tells you that.
An exclusive licence is a real, valuable deal, not a consolation prize. Spinall gets Sony Music Entertainment’s global distribution, marketing and A&R muscle behind his catalogue. TheCAPMusic keeps the asset. That is a materially better structure for an African artist’s long-term equity than a straight signing that assigns the copyright to the major, and it is worth knowing which one you are actually being offered before you sign anything.
Check the ℗ line yourself, on your own releases, before you repeat anyone else’s description of your deal. It is public, free, and sits on every DSP page for every release you have out. If your label’s story and your own credit line disagree, the credit line is the one a court will look at first.
A deal’s structure can be checked years after the press cycle ends, and it should be. This record checked the relationship twice, four months before the deal and again two years into it. Both checks agreed with each other. If you signed something and were told it was “just like” another artist’s deal, check that artist’s current releases, not just the announcement from whenever they signed.
How this was verified#
Primary sources: Epic Records’ own confirmation of the signing, carried in a trade report read in full by this desk on 2 October 2026, and a second same-day trade publication carrying independently sourced matching quotes; and four Apple Music release pages, checked in their own published credit lines rather than in any summarised version, also on 2 October 2026: Top Boy (17 February 2023, pre-deal), “Loju” (30 June 2023, deal announcement day), ÈKÓ GROOVE (29 August 2025, two years into the deal), and “Nowo” (26 February 2018, predating the separately reported Atlantic Records UK deal). TheCAPMusic’s own website was read directly for its founding-date claim. Nigeria’s company register was not checked, because no public search tool for it exists; that gap is stated above rather than filled with an estimate.
Did Spinall sell his masters to Epic Records or Sony Music Entertainment?#
No source checked for this record supports that. The phonographic credit on every release since the June 2023 deal names his own label, TheCAPMusic, Inc., as owner, and Epic Records as exclusive licensee only.
What kind of deal is this?#
An exclusive licence of recorded masters from TheCAPMusic, Inc. to Epic Records, a division of Sony Music Entertainment, announced 30 June 2023. It is not a label acquisition, an equity investment, or a transfer of copyright ownership.
How much was the deal worth?#
Not disclosed. No fee, advance, royalty rate or revenue split appears in any source checked for this record.
What happened to his earlier reported deal with Atlantic Records UK?#
Reported as signed on 11 September 2018, alongside a Warner Chappell Music UK publishing deal. No release checked for this record, including one from within that period, carries an Atlantic Records or Warner Chappell credit.
