Why Yungblud Chose Firebird for New Multiplatform Company YB Inc
Written by djfrosty on February 12, 2025
After investing several hundred million dollars in labels and management companies, Firebird Music has entered into its first partnership with an artist — the U.K. rocker Yungblud — on a new company, YB Inc.
For Yungblud, this alliance offers an opportunity to expand his pursuits outside of recorded music, which already include Bludfest, a festival, and Beautifully Romanticized, Accidentally Traumatized, a fashion brand. “This is a new type of venture for both of us, which is very exciting,” the artist says via email. “Building and scaling a music festival, a 360 lifestyle business — including physical stores and a music venue — and starting a clothing brand all need resources.” And Firebird has a large war chest — Nat Zilkha, the company’s co-founder and executive chairman, told Billboard in 2023 that it has access to over $1 billion in equity.
For Firebird, teaming up with Yungblud furthers the company’s goal of “support[ing] any entrepreneur who has vision and aspirations, but needs capital, expertise, infrastructure and support,” according to Zilkha. “Through his recorded music and touring, merchandise, fashion line, brand deals and festival,” Zilkha adds, “Yungblud has built one of the largest and most successful businesses in the world.”
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Zilkha launched Firebird in 2022 with Nathan Hubbard, who previously served as CEO of Ticketmaster. Initially, the company focused on investing in labels (including Defected Records and Transgressive Records), management companies (including Red Light and Mick Management) and publishers (Tape Room, One Two Many Music), often acquiring majority stakes, according to Zilkha.
For Defected, a dance music label, “Firebird’s investment provides capital that allows us to scale — whether that be through A&R expansion, catalogue acquisitions, technological advancements, or other efforts,” says CEO Wez Saunders. “The partnership removes financial constraints that independent labels often face when competing with major label-backed entities.”
On top of that, Saunders continues, “Firebird is known for leveraging technology, analytics and audience engagement strategies. This allows Defected to enhance its data-driven approach to artist development and fan engagement — areas where major labels often hold a competitive advantage.” (“For any of these individual companies to spend the kind of money that we’re spending on our data analytics team would be cost prohibitive,” Zilkha said previously. “But we can spread that cost across all of the different companies.”)
Firebird has also wanted to work directly with acts. “There’s an opportunity to create a new kind of partner for artists, one that is fully aligned across everything they do,” Zilkha told Billboard in 2023. The music industry “is stuck in silos” — most labels take a cut of an artist’s streaming and sales income, for example, but not their touring income. That means the record company has little incentive to help build an act’s touring operation, which “under-optimizes the investment behind an artist,” according to Zilkha.
By partnering with stars across all their various revenue streams, Firebird is theoretically freed up to take a different approach to career building. “It might be that we lose money on the distribution or recorded music, but that’s okay, because we’re partnering with the artist in a lot of other places where she or he may be reaching their fans,” Zilkha explained.
Yungblud is signed to Interscope Capitol Labels Group, but he will funnel his earnings into YB Inc, which he owns jointly with Firebird, according to Bloomberg. This strategy “allows me to manage the risk, but enables my projects to breathe and grow,” Yungblud says. “My managers and I can focus on getting the proposition and execution just right, while keeping our fundamental values in place, and without rushing or skipping important steps.”
Zilkha hopes to strike more similar partnerships soon. “As Firebird continues to scale and bring on more artists,” he says, “the diversity across artists will be paired with that added benefit of also being diversified across revenue streams.”