Padmanabhan (Paddy) heads Artist and Label Partnerships for Spotify in India and is also Head of Music for Spotify BNS (Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka). With over 25 years of experience in the A&R and music business, he is currently responsible for the music content led strategy for music labels and artists on Spotify. His role also includes partner education, key release marketing plans, live music and artist engagement. He has been instrumental in onboarding all the major Indian labels and artists on the platform and providing necessary tools and services such as Spotify for Artists. Paddy and his team have spearheaded some path-breaking projects at Spotify like Radar, Fresh Finds, Wrapped and Equal to name a few.
Paddy started his career as a software engineer, and after a decade, his love for music made him cross over to the music business. He has then worked with various music labels as A&R and Digital Head including Times Music, EMI Music, and Universal Music, and then as National Music Head for Radio City. He is also a 2-time Grammy-winning associate producer, and a guitarist and has played with some leading Indian acts like Shankar Ehsaan Loy, and on weekends, you may find him jamming with his Classic Rock covers band One Night Stand, or his Hindi setup called Vox & Baaja