On 6 December 2018, control of a small London company called Platoon Ltd passed to Apple Inc. The founder, Denzyl Feigelson, stopped being a person with significant control that day. Apple was entered on the register in his place, holding 75% or more of the shares, 75% or more of the voting rights, and the right to appoint or remove directors. Within eight days both of the company’s directors had resigned and an Apple executive in Cupertino had been appointed in their place.
That company’s name is the label credit on records by Pheelz, Amaarae, Kwesi Arthur, Mr Eazi, Nonso Amadi, Bongeziwe Mabandla and Dope Saint Jude. The rights registry counts 408 releases carrying it. The most recent African one is dated June 2026.
The short version#
- Apple Inc. is the only active person with significant control of Platoon Ltd, company number 09782527, notified on 6 December 2018.
- The level of control on the register is 75% or more of shares, 75% or more of voting rights, and the right to appoint or remove directors.
- No price was recorded. The register never records consideration, and no filed or announced figure was located anywhere else.
- Every director appointed since December 2018 gives a corporate service address: One Apple Park Way in Cupertino, Hollyhill Industrial Estate in Cork, or 1 Battersea Power Station in London.
- Platoon’s accounting reference dates now match Apple’s fiscal year ends exactly, 28 September 2024 and 27 September 2025.
- This is corporate control of a company, not a transfer of music rights. Nothing on the register says who owns any master or any song.
What the register actually says#
Platoon Ltd was incorporated in England and Wales on 17 September 2015. Its register of persons with significant control today shows one active controller and zero active statements.
The active entry is Apple Inc., correspondence address One Apple Park Way, Cupertino, California 95014. Governing law California. Legal form Public Corporation. Registration number C0806592. Notified on 6 December 2018.
Directly beneath it sits a ceased entry for Denzyl Feigelson, notified on 30 June 2016, ceased on 6 December 2018, with control recorded as more than 25% but not more than 50% of both shares and voting rights. So the register describes a founder holding a large minority stake being replaced by a corporation holding a supermajority. It does not describe what Apple paid him, or whether it bought his shares at all rather than subscribing for new ones. That distinction matters and the register does not resolve it.
The filing history dates the mechanics precisely. On 14 December 2018 the company filed three officer forms, all effective 6 December: terminations for Denzyl Feigelson and Saul Charles Klein as directors, and an appointment for Peter Ronald Denwood, whose service address is One Apple Park Way. On the same day it filed a change of registered office, from 41 Tileyard Road in north London to 100 New Bridge Street in the City. On 18 December it filed the two control forms, notifying Apple and recording Feigelson’s cessation.
The board has stayed corporate ever since. Michael Joseph Boyd of Apple Park served from June 2020 to January 2023. Eamonn Clancy, at Hollyhill Industrial Estate in Cork, was appointed in January 2023. Alia Azmi and Jamie Wonji Wong, both at 1 Battersea Power Station, were appointed in November 2023 and December 2024. A nominee company has been secretary since June 2020.
The fiscal calendar tells the same story#
There is a quieter corroboration in the accounts. Before the change of control, Platoon made its accounts up to 30 September, in 2017 and again in 2018. Its recent accounts are made up to 28 September 2024 and 27 September 2025.
Apple Inc.’s own filing index at the US securities regulator gives a fiscal year end of 26 September and annual report periods ending 28 September 2024 and 27 September 2025. Those are the same dates. A subsidiary that has been pulled onto its parent’s consolidation calendar looks exactly like this. It is not independent proof, because the register already states the control relationship outright, but it is hard to arrange by coincidence.
How we know the label is the company#
This is the step where music reporting usually goes wrong. A record label name and a registered company name are not automatically the same legal person, and assuming they are is how false ownership claims get printed.
Here the link is made by the rights registry itself, not by us. The MusicBrainz label entry for Platoon, typed as an Original Production label with area London and label code 56253, carries an official site relationship that points at the Companies House record for company 09782527. The registry ties the label to that exact company number.
What the label is actually on#
MusicBrainz records 408 releases with the Platoon label credit. The African releases among them span a decade and several scenes.
Mr Eazi’s Leg Over is dated 2 December 2016, before the change of control. Nonso Amadi has four, from Radio in 2016 through Emergency, Comfortable and Free across 2019. Dope Saint Jude has three, from Grrrl Like in September 2018 to I Said What I Said in February 2026. Bongeziwe Mabandla has four across 2019 and 2020. Then Darkie Fiction’s Endaweni, Kanyi Mavi’s IGUBU LAM, Kwesi Arthur’s Baajo, two from Moonga K., two from Karen Zoid, two from Derek Gripper, and Amaarae’s Butterfly. The most recent is Pheelz and Rii’s eight-track A Rii Set, dated 5 June 2026, released worldwide.
One entry needs care. Amaarae’s SAD GIRLZ LUV MONEY (remix) is recorded with three labels, not one: 0207 Def Jam, Golden Child Entertainment and Platoon. Platoon is one named party on that release. Reporting it as a Platoon record alone would be wrong.
The same label credit also appears on Apple Original soundtracks, including SILO Season 3 and Outcome, both dated 2026. A label servicing African independent artists and a label servicing a streaming platform’s own television scores are, on this evidence, the same corporate entity.
What this means for artists#
The practical point is not that Apple is involved. It is that many artists sign to a services company without ever reading up the ownership chain, and the chain is public and free to read.
If your release carries a label credit, that label is usually a registered company somewhere. In the UK you can pull its incorporation date, its registered office, every director with their service address, its filing history and, critically, its register of persons with significant control, which names anyone holding more than 25%. It takes minutes and costs nothing. It tells you who is actually behind the counterparty on your contract.
Second, and this is the harder discipline: none of this tells you who owns your masters. Corporate control of a label company and ownership of a specific sound recording are different questions with different answers. A services deal, a distribution deal, a licence and an assignment can all produce an identical label credit on a streaming page. The only document that settles it is your own agreement. Read the clause that says who owns the copyright in the recordings, for how long, and what happens at the end of the term. A registry credit will never answer that for you.
Third, a label credit is not exclusive. As the Amaarae remix shows, several companies can sit on one release, each with a different role and a different claim. If your record has more than one name on it, find out which of them is doing what.
Questions this raises#
Does Apple own Platoon?#
Apple Inc. is recorded on the UK register as holding 75% or more of the shares and voting rights in Platoon Ltd, plus the right to appoint or remove directors, notified on 6 December 2018.
Does that mean Apple owns the masters to Pheelz or Amaarae records?#
No. Controlling the company named as the label is a separate question from owning a specific sound recording, and no document fetched here establishes master ownership on any release.
How much did Apple pay for Platoon?#
No figure has been established. The register of persons with significant control never records consideration, no securities filing names the company, and Apple has published no announcement about it.
What could not be established#
No price. The persons with significant control register records the fact, date and level of control, and never records consideration. A full-text search of the US securities regulator’s filing system for the phrase “Platoon Ltd” returned zero results, and Apple’s published newsroom does not mention Platoon.
No rights position. Nothing fetched establishes who owns the master recordings or the publishing on any release named above, or whether Platoon owns, licenses, administers or only distributes any of them. Those are four different legal relationships and the documents do not distinguish between them here.
Platoon’s own terms could not be read. Requests to the company’s web addresses did not resolve, so its own published description of what it offers artists was unavailable.
One loose thread stays loose. A second company, Platoon SA Ltd, was incorporated on 13 March 2018, was 75% or more controlled by Platoon Ltd, went through the same director swap on 6 December 2018, and was dissolved on 4 May 2021. What the letters SA stood for is not stated anywhere in the register. It is tempting to read them as South Africa given the label’s roster. The register does not say so, and we are not going to pretend otherwise.
