MUMBAI: After a five year stint, NS Padmanabhan has put in his papers as senior manager – new media marketing at EMI Music India. Padmanabhan will be heading A&R department of Universal Music Publishing India (UMP).

Padmanabhan, who is currently serving his notice period will join UMP on 1 April. He will report to Universal Music Publishing MD Achille Forler.

In his new role, Padmanabhan will take the charge of A&R activities and also look after digital and other marketing platforms. He will help in creating avenues and different platforms for musicians to sell their music and to promote content in various new ways. Apart from producing content with artistes, he will also conduct talent hunts and promote new artistes across platforms.

Forler said, "He has been a musician for many years and has experience of working with many artistes. He will join us on 1 April and we will make a further announcement regarding his role and more. We are looking to have him on-board."

Confirming the news with Radioandmusic.com, Padmanabhan said, “I am currently serving my notice period till 31 March, after which I will be heading Universal Music Publishing. I was in talks with them from the past eight months as being a musician; I mainly wanted to focus on A&R and not marketing. I had a great journey in EMI and I am really looking forward to my new role.”

With over 10 years of experience, Padmanabhan has also worked at Times Music.

“The non-film musicians do not have a platform to present their work, so I aim to develop newer avenues for them to help market their music. We will also be producing a lot of music content with new and established artistes. Selling music on digital or physical will be 10-20 per cent of our role, while 80 per cent will feature placing the content correctly on platforms. It will be very exciting now as publishing is the new thing in India with new laws coming in and musicians getting their due,” he added.