Tips Music's digital pivot under an ex-ByteDance CEO lifted revenue 29% in FY2025

Tips Music, a Mumbai-listed record label built on a legacy Bollywood catalogue, hired Hari Nair, a former ByteDance executive, as chief executive in 2023 to modernise the label's distribution. It was an aggressive digital pivot for a company whose core value sat in decades-old film songs.

Under Nair the label completed high-profile licensing renewals with TikTok and Warner Music and signed a significant publishing deal with Sony Music, centred on monetising its 1990s-era evergreen hits on short-form video platforms. In fiscal 2025 revenue rose 29% year on year, driven largely by that short-form video monetisation.

In March 2026 the company announced Nair would step down on 30 April 2026 after a three-year tenure. Leadership splits between executive director Girish Taurani and CFO Sushant Dalmia while the board searches for a permanent successor — an interim co-leadership model the report reads as a desire for continuity and fiscal discipline over further structural upheaval.

Revenue rose 29% year on year in fiscal 2025, driven largely by monetising 1990s-era evergreen hits on short-form video platforms.

The pivot has a measurable result: a 29% year-on-year revenue increase in fiscal 2025, attributed largely to short-form video monetisation of old hits.

It re-priced an existing asset rather than building a new one — the same evergreen songs sold into a new consumption format.

The change was led by an operator hired from inside the new ecosystem (ByteDance), not by an external consultancy.

The switch back to an internal joint-leadership model after three years signals consolidation once the structural work is done.

An old catalogue is a re-priceable asset: every new distribution wave is another chance to sell it, and an operator hired from inside the new platform speeds the pivot.

Nair leaves on 30 April 2026 with the company targeting 30% revenue growth for fiscal 2026 despite industry headwinds, including the closure of several domestic streaming platforms. Content spending is guided at 25-28% of revenue under a zero-debt mandate, and analysts expect scrutiny of the co-CEO arrangement over content acquisition strategy. Chairman Kumar Taurani credited Nair with building a "digital-first powerhouse", though the brevity of the tenure suggests the board now prioritises operational consolidation over further structural change.