Firebird has entered into a strategic partnership with UK-based artist management company Goodlife Management, the home of Fred again.., The Blessed Madonna, Ki/Ki, and ¥ØU$UK€ ¥UK1MAT$U, among others.
MBW understands that Firebird has acquired a majority stake in the company.
The deal brings Goodlife founders Oliver Sasse, Lucy Sasse, Ellie Shaw, and David Watters — along with their “dynamic team” and talent roster — into Firebird’s expanding ecosystem of management companies, which already includes Mick Management (US/UK), Red Light Management (US/UK), JET Management (US), Hills Artists (US), and Special Projects (UK).
Firebird said the new partnership “significantly bolsters” its presence in the electronic music landscape.
As part of the deal, Oliver Sasse will take on a Senior Adviser role at Firebird, tasked with identifying acquisition opportunities across the dance and electronic music space — spanning catalogs, labels, managers, live events, and what the company describes as “comprehensive Artist Inc. relationships.”
Firebird CEO Nathan Hubbard told MBW that the company plans to deploy “upwards of half a billion dollars in capital over the coming 24 months into artist partnerships,” having already deployed over $300 million to date.
“Oliver Sasse and the Goodlife team have been at the forefront of the global popularity for electronic music for the last decade, fostering unique artists and delivering innovative approaches to building longer lasting, more impactful global careers.”
Nathan Hubbard, Firebird
“Oliver Sasse and the Goodlife team have been at the forefront of the global popularity for electronic music for the last decade, fostering unique artists and delivering innovative approaches to building longer lasting, more impactful global careers,” said Hubbard.
He described the deal as a natural extension of Firebird’s strategy to build “centers of gravity” around specific genres, pointing to the company’s existing electronic music footprint through Defected Records and JET Management.
“We are thrilled to partner with Oliver on developing creative and business opportunities for his artists, as well as collaborating with him on impactfully expanding our own footprint across the genre.”
Nat Zilkha, Firebird
Nat Zilkha, Executive Chairman of Firebird, said in a press release on Tuesday (March 24): “We are thrilled to partner with Oliver on developing creative and business opportunities for his artists, as well as collaborating with him on impactfully expanding our own footprint across the genre.”
The deal covers Goodlife Management only. Alex Gibson, who co-manages Fred again.. alongside Sasse, is not part of the Firebird ecosystem through this transaction, though the pair will continue to co-manage the artist.
“We are close with and huge admirers of Alex,” said Hubbard. “I think we’re going to be supportive of the many ways in which Alex is having impact on the music ecosystem going forward.”
(Alex Gibson & Oliver Sasse won Artist Manager of the Year honors at the 2024 Music Business UK Awards)
Speaking about the partnership, Oliver Sasse highlighted a long-standing personal connection with Firebird’s leadership as a foundation for the deal.
“Nat Zilkha and Nathan Hubbard and the Firebird team are exceptional leaders in moving the metrics that matter most for artists, and are innovating new business models that represent what’s next for our industry globally,” said Sasse.
“Goodlife has always been about helping distinctive artists build impactful, long-term careers, and Firebird shares the same vision of nurturing artistic longevity and longstanding trust amongst artists and partners.
“We are committed to trusted collaborative relationships in this industry — I have worked with Ellie, David, and our Goodlife team for over 16 years, and Nat Zilkha and I have known each other since childhood — so we are excited to work with Firebird to collectively build exciting new opportunities together.”
“Nat Zilkha and Nathan Hubbard and the Firebird team are exceptional leaders in moving the metrics that matter most for artists, and are innovating new business models that represent what’s next for our industry globally.”
Oliver Sasse, Goodlife
The partnership will provide Goodlife’s roster with access to Firebird’s strategic infrastructure, which Hubbard described as encompassing a digital audience team running campaigns to drive streams and sell tickets, a label services operation underpinning the company’s recorded music infrastructure, and a finance team skilled in both operational management and M&A execution.
Firebird says it serves as a “premier resource for artists, labels and management companies,” offering “the skills, capital and scale to empower artists worldwide” within a network of partners that it claims reaches a global audience of more than one billion fans.
The Goodlife deal is structured as a majority acquisition, though Hubbard was keen to emphasize that the partnership preserves significant “upside” for Sasse and his team.
He described Firebird’s model as operating in two ways: infrastructure, encompassing its digital audience, label services, and finance teams; and incentives, with deal structures designed to align the interests of every partner across the ecosystem.
“Oliver and his team have all the incentive in the world to grow and participate in the upside of their own business and the Firebird ecosystem as a whole,” he said. “Every partner in our ecosystem has the incentive for Firebird as a whole to be successful, and for the individual partners within our ecosystem to be successful.”
Firebird was founded in 2022 by former Ticketmaster CEO Hubbard and music industry veteran Nat Zilkha, with Raine Group as its lead investor. (US-based Zilkha served as Chairman of Gibson Brands, and left his role as a Partner at KKR in December 2021.)
Since launch, Firebird has rapidly assembled a portfolio spanning management, labels, and publishing.
In September 2022, Firebird acquired a stake in Coran Capshaw’s Red Light Management. The following year, the company confirmed investments in Mick Management, Defected Records, Ntertain, Tape Room Music, and One Two Many Music. Further deals followed with Hills Artists in September 2024, a joint venture with ALTER Music in May 2025, and a strategic alliance between Firebird-backed Mick Management and UK company Hunger Management in June 2025.
More recently, Firebird moved into direct artist partnerships through its deal with Yungblud, announced in January 2025, which saw the company invest “tens of millions of dollars” in YB Inc., a holding company encompassing the artist’s music, touring, merchandise, fashion, and festival businesses.
Hubbard told MBW that Firebird’s growth is now accelerating in two key areas: recorded music and management.
He pointed to the success of Leo33, the Firebird-backed Nashville independent label whose flagship artist Zach Top won the inaugural Grammy for Best Traditional Country Album in February.
“We’ve shown that the infrastructure that we have can take an artist from zero to 100 and can inject them into culture and help tell the story around their incredible art,” said Hubbard.
“We’ve been intentionally reserved in the number of bets that we’ve taken in recorded music so that we could be certain that we could look an artist in the eye and tell them that we could execute on their behalf. We’re there now.”Music Business Worldwide
