We're an independent record label born in Pretoria, built on a simple idea: the people who make the music should keep most of what it earns.
Our story
Money Back Records started where so much South African music does — in a Pretoria bedroom studio, late at night, with more talent than budget. We watched gifted artists pour their lives into a record, only to hand the lion's share of it to platforms and middlemen.
So we built something different. A label where fans buy music directly from the people who made it, and where the value flows back to the artist instead of away from them.
New-age doesn't just mean a new sound. It means a new deal.
Three principles behind every release, every deal, every decision.
Transparent splits and direct sales mean artists keep the majority of what their music earns. No hidden cuts, no recoupable advances, no fine print you need a lawyer for.
Rooted in Pretoria and the wider Tshwane scene — championing the sounds of the new South Africa, from Mamelodi to Ga-Rankuwa and out.
Own your music forever. We back ownership over rental — no expiry, no lock-in, just the record you paid for and the masters staying with the artist.
The whole deal, in four lines.
A fan buys a single or an album and the artist's share is worked out on the sale price — not on what's left after a chain of intermediaries has taken a turn.
We licence a release for a fixed term. Nothing is signed over in perpetuity, and the recording goes back to the artist at the end of it.
Where the label covers studio time, artwork or mastering, it's agreed up front and capped. Nobody starts a release already in debt to us.
Paid out at the end of each month into a local account, with the raw sales and streaming figures sent alongside it. Ask any question, get the spreadsheet.
Two years in, building in public.
Founded in Pretoria with a mission to flip the record-label model and put more money back in the artists' pockets.
The first artists join the roster across hip-hop, amapiano, afro-soul and R&B — the full spectrum of the new Tshwane sound.
Eight singles out across the roster, and the buy-direct platform going live so listeners can back artists without the middlemen.
Our first full-length record is in the studio — no date announced yet. After that: the first live night, a merch store, and growing the model across South Africa and the continent.
Singles are out; the album is still in the studio with no date announced. There's no tour page, no merch store, no radio show and no press office. We'd rather say that plainly than build pages with nothing behind them — everything on this site is something the label actually does today, and the rest lands here as it happens.
New releases, first show dates and the day the store opens — straight to your inbox.
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