Firebird’s Nathan Hubbard and Nat Zilkha. Courtesy of Firebird Firebird, the music and artist management company, is entering the IP acquisition acquisition space, the company confirmed on Tuesday, announcing a $750 million acquisition fund with investment firm Ares and advisory fund the Raine Group.
Ares is directly investing in Firebird as part of the new partnership as well, the companies confirmed, with Ares managing director Jeevan Sagoo joining Firebird’s board of directors.
“This is an exciting chapter for Firebird,” Firebird CEO Nathan Hubbard said in a statement. “With the invaluable partnership of Ares and expansion of our longstanding relationship with Raine, we can evolve the level of support we provide artists and are in a position to deepen partnerships both within and beyond our ecosystem.”
Firebird’s executive chairman Nat Zilkha added: “We created this platform to expand the ways in which we partner with artists, building on the trust Firebird has earned as stewards of their creative work. With this investment, Firebird will help artists receive value for their recorded music and publishing catalogues while leveraging the power of the Firebird ecosystem to drive new growth and discovery of their music.” Firebird has grown quickly since it was founded back in 2022. Among the companies in its portfolio are major music management firms including Red Light Management and Mick Management, record labels like Transgressive Records and Defective Records and the music festival All Things Go.
Firebird joins a competitive market in acquiring music rights. All three of the major music companies established ventures in tandem with venture capital firms over the past several years; UMG acquired a minority stake in Chord Music Partners back in 2024, while Warner Music Group announced a $1.2 billion partnership with Bain Capital last year. (The WMG/Bain venture spent over $300 million to acquire the masters rights to the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ catalog.) Sony Music, meanwhile, announced a deal with Singapore’s GIC earlier this year as well.
In a statement, Ares’s Sagoo said that “we believe Firebird’s innovative platform is helping artists build longer lasting, more impactful, and more profitable careers by investing in IP.”
“We are excited to join alongside Raine to provide scaled capital and deep music and entertainment investing experience to support their work with artists and their long-term growth,” he said.
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