- TikTok’s top music executive, Ole Obermann, is leaving the company next month.
- Obermann helped transform TikTok into a force in the music industry.
- The exec’s departure comes at a challenging moment for TikTok as it faces a US ban.
Ole Obermann, the top music executive at TikTok, is leaving the company in March, a person familiar with the departure told Business Insider.
Since joining the company in 2019, Obermann has helped TikTok expand from its roots as a lip-syncing app into a music industry power player.
Obermann is the global head of music business development at TikTok and its owner, ByteDance. He oversees the company’s long-term strategy for music, including rights negotiations. Obermann’s team works on relationships with labels and independent artists, hosting live sessions with creators and working on licensing contracts. The news of Obermann’s departure was first reported by Music Business Worldwide.
Over the past few years, as TikTok has grown into a social media titan, the company has also left its mark on the music business, transforming music marketing and helping a wave of new artists get discovered.
During Obermann’s tenure, the company launched a variety of products and programs around music, including a dedicated music streaming app, an artist distribution platform called SoundOn, a SiriusXM channel, and a live music concert, TikTok in the Mix.
Last year, Obermann also guided TikTok through a contract dispute with the major label Universal Music Group.
The music exec previously served as the chief digital officer at Warner Music Group, where he helped the company close its first deal with Facebook. Before that, Obermann was the executive vice president of global digital partner development at Sony Music, where he worked on the company’s first deal with Spotify and helped the team improve its digital analytics strategy.
His departure comes at a tenuous moment for TikTok. The company has until April 5 to find a new owner for its US assets to comply with a law that requires its parent company, ByteDance, to divest or effectively cease operating in the country.
Obermann did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
