Paul Hourican, TikTok’s global head of music partnerships and programming, is leaving the company, the executive confirmed to Business Insider.
Hourican joined TikTok around four-and-half years ago in London as an executive heading up the company’s UK music operations. From there, he jumped into a role overseeing its European music operations before expanding into a global leadership position on the music team.
In his global role, Hourican oversaw music initiatives like the company’s December “TikTok In The Mix” live concert event while also working with the product teams to roll out music features for artists, such as its artist verification tool kit.
“When we think about certain features like artist verification or certified artists, it is all in the spirit of just trying to make it easier for artists to understand their community on the platform and understand the best ways to grow it,” Hourican told BI during a December interview. “We want to maximize the amount of time artists have to do what artists do and make it as easy for them as possible.”
TikTok launched a massive push into the music business during Hourican’s tenure at the company, rolling out a creator-hosted radio station on SiriusXM, a music-streaming app in five countries, and an artist-services arm called SoundOn. Recently, the company has been flexing its influence in music as it battles with Universal Music Group over song licensing.
In a post announcing his departure on LinkedIn, Hourican said that he helped take its artist-services arm SoundOn from “a sketch on a whiteboard to full product launch” while also contributing to its name.
“After four and a half amazing years and with a lifetime’s worth of memories and achievements in the bag, I have made the decision to move on from TikTok and I’m excited about what the future holds,” Hourican wrote in his statement.
A TikTok spokesperson declined to comment for this story.
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