Ollie Wards Announces His Departure As TikTok's Director Of Music

After more than five years in the role, Ollie Wards has announced that he is "hanging up my headphones" as TikTok's Director Of Music for Australia and New Zealand.

Wards shared the news via LinkedIn today, looking back on the myriad achievements he's clocked up since taking over the role in August of 2020.

Some of these achievements included the likes of designing content best practices for musicians to make short form content part of their creative process, leading campaigns for the platform including launching their Sounds Of Summer in the local market, building the world’s first TikTok radio station partnership with iHeart which has since become Australia's top digital station for those under 30, and helping to produce the TikTok Awards alongside promoting local music on a global scale.

"But rather than ‘what’ I was part of, it’s the ‘how’ that I’m most proud of," Wards continued. "One of the first things I did at TikTok was create ‘liner notes’. A list of 11 guiding principles (turn it up to 11!) to work by. 

“A set of stated values we’d aim to live up to in service of our artists, music industry and TikTok audience."

He continued:

For example, #3 liner note is: 

“We aim to be contactable, while being effective at scale and as transparent as possible with our artists and industry partners - the most ‘human’ team at a music platform.”

In a world of increasingly opaque pathways for artists, pitch portals, helpdesks and bots - hopefully that approach of being a human amongst it all helped. Though maybe being ‘human’ is the minimum.

Wards took on the role of Director Of Music in mid-2020, just a week after announcing his departure from triple j, where he had served as Content Director since 2010, having begun as producer for Tom Ballard and Alex Dyson's breakfast show earlier that same year.

"It’s been an absolute honour to work with the best in the biz at triple j, as one of the caretakers of an institution that means so much to our audience and the music industry," Wards said at the time.

In closing his post, Wards noted that as he goes into 2026, he's "open for business," adding that he is "all about creative processes and connecting content with audiences, whatever the format."

With a focus on leading creative teams, crafting content partnerships, building digital products to meet audience needs, and shining a light on music and creative industry promotion across platforms, Wards is looking to bring an authentic, genuine approach to his future endeavours.

"Call me," he closed. "I’m a human."