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Following the news that Charlotte Stahl<\/strong> is leaving her position as TikTok\u2019s Head of Music Partnerships for Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), Ollie Wards has announced he\u2019s leaving the role of Director of Music for Australia and New Zealand.<\/p>\n \u201cAfter an awesome 5.5 years, soon I\u2019m hanging up my headphones at TikTok!\u201d Wards wrote in a post on LinkedIn. He noted in the post that he is \u201copen for business\u201d in 2026. TikTok has not announced a successor to Wards.<\/p>\n Wards joined TikTok<\/a> in 2020, having come over from triple j<\/strong>, Australia\u2019s state-funded broadcaster aimed at a youth music audience \u2013 where he served in numerous roles, including producer, program director and network lead.<\/p>\n In his LinkedIn post, Wards listed off some of the accomplishments of his time at TikTok, including building a digital radio station<\/a> in partnership with iHeart<\/a><\/strong>; creating the first TikTok x TV simulcasts; producing TikTok Awards performances; and producing the first TikTok stadium livestream with Six60<\/strong> when New Zealand was one of the few places where concerts could be held during pandemic lockdowns.<\/p>\n \u201cBut rather than \u2018what\u2019 I was part of, it\u2019s the \u2018how\u2019 I\u2019m most proud of,\u201d Wards wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cOne of the first things I did at TikTok was create \u2018liner notes\u2019. A list of 11 guiding principles\u2026 to work by. A set of stated values we\u2019d aim to live up to in service of our artists, music industry and TikTok audience.<\/p>\n \u201cIn a world of increasingly opaque pathways for artists, pitch portals, helpdesks and bots \u2013 hopefully that approach of being a human amongst it all helped.\u201d<\/p>\n Ollie Wards, TikTok<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cFor example, #3 liner note is: \u2018We aim to be contactable, while being effective at scale and as transparent as possible with our artists and industry partners \u2013 the most \u2018human\u2019 team at a music platform.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIn a world of increasingly opaque pathways for artists, pitch portals, helpdesks and bots \u2013 hopefully that approach of being a human amongst it all helped. Though maybe being \u2018human\u2019 is the minimum.\u201d<\/p>\n Wards\u2019 announcement on Thursday (December 11) came a day after Charlotte Stahl announced<\/a> on her own LinkedIn page that she is departing the role of Head of Music Partnerships for the EMEA region after a year-and-a-half in the position. TikTok hasn\u2019t announced a replacement for Stahl\u2019s role.<\/p>\n And both those departures take place in the shadow of Ole Obermann<\/a><\/strong> leaving his role<\/a> as Global Head of Music Business Development at TikTok parent ByteDance<\/a><\/strong>, with Tracy Gardner<\/strong> taking on the role as of March of this year.<\/p>\n In April, Obermann joined<\/a> Apple Music<\/a><\/strong> as Co-Head of the platform with Rachel Newman<\/strong>.Music Business Worldwide<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n