Mike Isaac

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Twitter’s Head of Music Departs for Nielsen VP Gig

Cue up the Twitter exit music.

Tatiana Simonian, Twitter’s head of music for the past two years, plans to soon leave the company. She’s headed to Nielsen — one of Twitter’s important media partners — where she’ll assume the newly created role of VP of Client Solutions with the entertainment group, working with brands in the music vertical.

Prior to Twitter, Simonian worked in media relations for Disney and was a former freelance journalist.

During her time at Twitter, Simonian has been the sole person responsible for leading music partnerships on Twitter’s media team, according to her LinkedIn profile, one of the highest-profile divisions inside the company. That includes things like luring big-name artists such as Alicia Keys and Lady Gaga to use products like Twitter and Vine, and organizing Twitter-related projects around major music events like the Grammys.

That’s an important position for Twitter, considering musicians are one of the top worldwide engagement drivers for the entire platform (they’re who all the kids today want to follow). And as Simonian’s LinkedIn profile states, “[T]he Music vertical at Twitter boasts the top 5 accounts on the platform and is the number two most discussed subject on Twitter worldwide.”

The timing of Simonian’s departure is especially wonky right now, as Facebook ramps up its public-content initiative and aims to lure more high-profile celebs to using its own platform (and thus, starts to look a lot more like Twitter).

Twitter currently has a job posting up to fill Simonian’s position, and has also been searching for someone to oversee the sports, music and news vertical teams and report to VP of Media Chloe Sladden. But that position has been difficult for the company to fill, according to sources, as Twitter has been interviewing potential candidates for months without success. Twitter head of sports Omid Ashtari is currently leading the search.

Simultaneously and separately, video producer on the design and marketing team Ian Padgham will also depart Twitter.

Padgham, who is best known for his fun, creative Vine videos, plans to start his own Vine consulting agency. (Potentially a lucrative opportunity, given the increased interest from brands and marketers looking to use Vine — and certainly Instagram — in their promotions and commercials.)

Simonian will leave the company at the end of August. Padgham’s last day is today.

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I’m a giant vat of creative juices.

— David Pogue on why he’s joining Yahoo