Syaheed MSBI takes a vice president job at Virgin Music Group

Virgin Music Group has named Syaheed MSBI vice president of its AMEA region, covering Africa, the Middle East and Asia, Music Business Worldwide reported on August 13. He joins from Believe, where he spent more than 13 years, most recently as global artist success and international director.

At Believe, Syaheed built the company's artist-services business across Southeast Asia and Australia, working with artists including Hindia, Yura Yunita, Sal Priadi and Cub Sport, and helped establish Believe's offices in Singapore and Malaysia. He got his start in 2002, founding his own independent company, Bedsty, where he signed and developed artists including Sezairi, the first Singaporean artist to pass 100 million streams on Spotify.

"Syaheed has built his reputation as a fierce advocate for artists," said Michael Roe, Virgin Music Group's managing director of AMEA, in a statement to the outlet.

The appointment follows Virgin Music Group's acquisition of Downtown Music Holdings, first announced in 2024, which brought FUGA, Downtown Artist & Label Services, CD Baby, Songtrust and Downtown Music Publishing into the company's regional structure. Virgin Music Group, led by co-CEOs Nat Pastor and JT Myers, organized its worldwide operations into six regions in June, with Roe overseeing AMEA.

Syaheed will lead a team Virgin Music Group has already built out across the region, including Haluk Cerahaman in Turkey, Amit Sharma in India, Cindy Gu in Southeast Asia, Marcus Rowland in China, Kay Ikazobo in Nigeria, Nicole Thomas in South Africa and Anita Zagar in South Korea. He said he is looking forward to working with that team, adding that "when artists, labels, and partners win together, the whole industry moves forward."