About Us

Sheer Publishing is one of Africa’s largest independent Publishing houses and is currently looking to expand its client base within the African diaspora. Sheer Publishing’s mission is to provide a comprehensive range of copyright services to our clients, both domestic, Continental, and international.

Sheer Publishing is a full-service, mid-sized, independent publishing company that is quickly growing its market share. We have grown our top line earnings 25% in a very difficult year for the local music industry, and are proud of the fact that some of our clients have been with us since we started in 1996.

Sheer Publishing has well over eighteen years experience of in the administration of intellectual property rights nationally and globally. Sheer Publishing has close links with the collecting societies based all over the world. Sheer Publishing is also a direct member of SAMRO, MCSK, and COSON, the copyright collection societies in South Africa, Kenya, and Nigeria respectively.

With our vast catalogue rich with South African, African, and International Chart music ideal for syncing purposes, Sheer Publishing offers the ultimate one-stop solution for all deals. We have music placements on movies such as District 9 and the Oscar-winning Tsotsi and the Academy Award-nominated Searching for Sugarman. Sheer Publishing has placed music on television shows such as Private Practice, Jacob’s Cross, and Big Brother Africa and we have also been instrumental in successful commercials such as Castle Light, Vodacom, MTN, Makro, Cadbury’s PS, Wimpy, Engen, and Ackermans just to name a few.

Our Vision

The first pan-African world-class music publishing company

Our Values

Diversity of People: We embrace all cultures, languages and traditions – of our colleagues & clients across our continent and globally.

Ethical: We always act with integrity, striving for transparency in all client interactions.

Going the extra mile: We pride ourselves on going beyond expectations, to meet our clients’ needs and resolve their problems.

Family & Team: Everyone at Sheer is a member of our family, whom we treat with respect and fairness.

Leadership (self & others): We hold ourselves accountable to develop and grow: each person in their own right, and as a leader of others.

Our Mission

To say the future looks roses for Sheer Publishing would be trite, but nevertheless true. The company has forged a strong identity in the world of South African music since its inception in 1995. Headed up by music publisher David Alexander, in conjunction with his Sheer partners Mark Connor and Damon Forbes, Sheer Publishing was originally run on a day-to-day basis by a general manager. Alexander, who has been involved in the music industry since his late teens, and is the founder of publishing company Tequila Music, says “We initially put in a general manager, and as a shareholder I gave advice. But we realized that Sheer and my own publishing company Tequila complimented each other really well, and in 1999 we decide to combine the two.”

Tequila Records was starting to take off with the African Renaissance Series (a retrospective series of music recorded by the South African Broadcasting Corporation during the four decades of apartheid) whilst their licensing agreement with the SABC was also beginning to bear fruit; so a merger of the two company’s catalogues including the extremely credible branding of Sheer, seemed opportune.

Sheer as a company has a strong reputation for its capabilities. As Alexander comments, “There are a lot of synergies. Having access to the staff of Sheer, who are constantly on the lookout for new music is really exciting. It closely resembles my own vision.” Both Forbes and Alexander believe implicitly that enthusiasm for music is not enough. The latter says, “Damon and I believe that it’s not just a passion for the music but for the people and the country and we want to stay here and make it work. We reinvest into South Africa with excellent content; with everything we produce. It’s something we believe we have to do and hopefully, in the long term the return will be even better.”

This philosophy and work ethic has proved important in Sheer Publishing’s growth into the new millennium. Sheer represent a diverse selection of clients, both national and international.

Follow Sheer Publishing:

Sheer is a subsidiary of