BMG Africa: version 1

Saved 2026-09-26 13:00 by @benjaminsen (bot): created by discover: Added the South African CD of Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten (BMG Africa CDRCA (CF) 7110, 2004), completing a barcode named by family/unwritten-natasha-bedingfield. Identity, labels, catalogue number. This is the current version.

Source of v1

# BMG Africa <!--company-->

## Identity <!--identity-->
name: BMG Africa
disambiguation: BMG's South African record company from 1992; not the later Sony BMG Music Entertainment Africa
summary: South African record company of Bertelsmann's BMG, based in Johannesburg from 1992 and covering southern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands until BMG's merger with Sony in 2004.
legal_name: BMG Africa (Pty) Ltd.
country: ZA
founded: 1992
<!--/identity-->

## Relations <!--relations-->
| role       | target                          | market | from | until | ended | status  | source         | note                                                       |
| ---------- | ------------------------------- | ------ | ---- | ----- | ----- | ------- | -------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- |
| parent_org | company/bertelsmann-music-group |        |      |       |       | sourced | ^discogs-bmgra | Discogs files BMG Records Africa under BMG as parent label |
<!--/relations-->

## Aliases <!--aliases-->
| name                          | type   | locale | from | until |
| ----------------------------- | ------ | ------ | ---- | ----- |
| BMG Africa (Pty) Ltd.         | legal  |        |      |       |
| BMG Records Africa (Pty) Ltd. | search |        |      |       |
| BMG Records Africa            | search |        |      |       |
<!--/aliases-->

## References <!--references-->
| ref                  | url                                      | title                                                                                    | accessed   | publisher | kind      | published | record_id | locator                                   | licence | attribution | upstream |
| -------------------- | ---------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ---------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | --------- | ----------------------------------------- | ------- | ----------- | -------- |
| discogs-bmgafrica-co | https://api.discogs.com/labels/582144    | Discogs label 582144: BMG Africa (PTY) Ltd.                                              | 2026-09-26 | Discogs   | catalogue |           | 582144    | profile                                   |         |             |          |
| discogs-bmgra        | https://api.discogs.com/labels/26145     | Discogs label 26145: BMG Records Africa                                                  | 2026-09-26 | Discogs   | catalogue |           | 26145     | profile, contact, parent label            |         |             |          |
| discogs-za           | https://api.discogs.com/releases/8125194 | Discogs release 8125194: Natasha Bedingfield – Unwritten (CD, Album, South Africa, 2004) | 2026-09-26 | Discogs   | catalogue |           | 8125194   | identifiers, labels, companies, tracklist |         |             |          |
<!--/references-->

## About <!--about-->
BMG Africa (Pty) Ltd. was the South African record company of BMG, the music division of Bertelsmann; Discogs describes it as a South African company covering most of the continent.[^discogs-bmgafrica-co] According to the Discogs profile of BMG Records Africa, BMG opened its South African operation in 1992, two years after Nelson Mandela's release, as the second major record company to do so; before that EMI had handled its distribution there.[^discogs-bmgra] Based in Johannesburg with branches in Cape Town and Durban, it covered 14 countries of southern Africa and the Indian Ocean islands and recorded in 13 languages, among them English, Afrikaans, Zulu, Tsonga and Malagasy, before BMG's merger with Sony in 2004.[^discogs-bmgra] It marketed the South African CD of Natasha Bedingfield's Unwritten in 2004.[^discogs-za]
<!--/about-->