India-based entertainment company Tips Industries has hired a veteran of Sony Music India and ByteDance as its new CEO.
The company announced on Monday (September 25) that Hari Nair will be its new chief executive.
Nair was most recently ByteDance’s head of TikTok Artist Services (SoundOn) for the Middle East, Africa and South Asia. SoundOn is a DIY music distribution service that ByteDance launched in 2022.
Nair joined ByteDance in 2019, leading music partnerships and licensing in the South Asia region for all of ByteDance’s apps, including TikTok, music streaming service Resso, Helo, Capcut and others.
His two decades-plus of experience in the music industry began with the online music store Soundbuzz, which was acquired by Motorola. He also worked as Director of Digital Business/Products at Sony Music India from 2013 to 2018.
“We are extremely delighted to appoint Hari as our Chief Executive Officer,” Tips Managing Director Kamar Taurani said in a statement.
“Hari has 360-degree experience of music ecosystem: starting from music distribution companies like Soundbuzz & Mauj Mobile, to heading digital business for a global music company Sony Music India, and then leading performance rights organization PPL India’s digital transformation.
“His last global multi-regional exposure in [the] ByteDance ecosystem, launching their music streaming service Resso first in India, and the overall TikTok experience is a great value addition for Tips. With this experience[d] hand being added into our core teams, combined with our strength in music content creation and acquisition, we aim [for] higher revenues and continue to deliver value for our shareholders”.
Founded in 1988 by Kumar Taurani and Ramesh Taurani, Tips has released music for some of the biggest Bollywood blockbusters of the 1990s and 2000s. It is home to many popular Bollywood artists including Alka Yagnik, Udit Narayan, Kumar Sanu, and Sonu Nigam.
The company’s music catalog covers Bollywood films including Race, Taal, Pardes, Raja Hindustani, Dil Hai Tumhara, Genius, Entertainment, Phata Poster Nikla Hero, Ramaiya Vastaviaya, Prince, Khalnayak, Kismat Konnection, and many more.
Tips reports that its catalog now features 30,000 songs “across genres, languages and decades”.
“Tips continues to deftly navigate through India’s ever-evolving digital landscape, thanks to the promoters’ experience, and a clear vision. The company’s brilliant track record of profitable growth speaks volumes about its management’s endeavor to maximize shareholder returns.”
Hari Nair, Tips Industries
“I am absolutely delighted to become a part of the TIPS team. It is an honor for me to lead an organization with quality music catalog, focused content acquisition strategy, and a stable-plus-steadily-growing-market-share music company,” Nair said in a statement.
“Tips continues to deftly navigate through India’s ever-evolving digital landscape, thanks to the promoters’ experience, and a clear vision. The company’s brilliant track record of profitable growth speaks volumes about its management’s endeavor to maximize shareholder returns.
“As the company stands at a pivotal juncture in its journey, I am humbled and equally excited to be a part of this aggressive journey. I would like to extend my utmost gratitude to Kumar Taurani – CMD and the Board members, for showing faith in my candidature to lead this company.”
Tips last month reported its best-ever quarterly earnings, generating revenues of 52.6 crore (526 million Rupees). That revenue figure converts to approximately USD $6.4 million (at the exchange rate at the time of the earnings report) and, and was up 54% YoY.
The company says that it released 259 new songs in calendar Q2 (Tips’ fiscal Q1 2024) and that out of those 259 tracks, 56 were new film songs and 203 were non-film songs.
The company also reported that its YouTube subscriber base grew to 85.5 million, while YouTube views reached 48.3 billion, up 132% YoY.Music Business Worldwide
