SYDNEY, Australia — Ollie Wards will soon depart from TikTok, where he has served as director of music for Australia and NZ since August 2020.
“After an awesome 5.5 years, soon I’m hanging up my headphones at TikTok,” he writes on LinkedIn.
A triple j stalwart, Wards joined TikTok as its first director of music for ANZ, based in Sydney, with responsibilities for driving its music strategy, and overseeing emerging and established artists and their role within the short–video streamer’s creator community.
Prior to that, he served in several positions with triple j, the state-funded national youth broadcaster, including breakfast show producer, program director and, later as network head.
Despite the recording industry‘s well-reported issues with TikTok, Wards is well-liked in the music business and community, and respected for his artist-first approach, and determination for taking domestic talent to the world.
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As he departs, Wards reflects on some of his proudest achievements. Among them, building the world’s first TikTok radio station with iHeart, now Australia’s leading digital station for under-30s; creating the first TikTok x TV simulcast concerts; overseeing dozens of high-quality live music productions, including the first TikTok stadium livestream with Six60 when NZ was the only place enjoying concerts during lockdown; producing TikTok Awards performances; and the creation of “liner notes” — a list of 11 guiding principles to work by, he explains.
NZ-born Wards presents No. 3 liner note as an example, one that reads: “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.”
On that note, he remarks, “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 is keeping his options open. “In 2026, I’m open for business,” he writes.
