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Nathan Hubbard
NationalityAmerican
Education
Occupations
  • businessman
  • music executive
  • podcaster

Nathan Hubbard is an American business and music executive, and the founder of Firebird, a music startup, and Rival, a ticketing startup that was acquired by Ticketmaster.

Early life and education

Hubbard graduated summa cum laude from Princeton University, receiving a bachelor's degree in politics.[1] Hubbard later received an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.[1][2] He is the older brother of PGA Tour player Mark Hubbard.[3]

Career

Hubbard began his career in the entertainment industry as a touring and recording singer/songwriter with the group Rockwell Church.[1][2][4] The band released five albums.[1][4]

Hubbard served as CEO of Musictoday until 2006, when the company was merged with Live Nation Entertainment.[4] Hubbard then joined Live Nation, where he was the CEO of Live Nation Ticketing. After Live Nation merged with Ticketmaster in 2010, Hubbard served as CEO of Ticketmaster at Live Nation Entertainment until 2013.[1][5] Hubbard oversaw the e-commerce division of Live Nation, working on ticketing and online sales.[4] During his time at Ticketmaster, Hubbard brought a "tech-focused and data-driven" strategy to the company[6] and attempted to improve public perception of Ticketmaster.[7][8] In 2013, Hubbard left Ticketmaster. Theories proposed for his departure included tensions with Michael Rapino, the CEO of Live Nation, over differences of opinion in product launch strategies, Ticketmaster's direction, and Hubbard's fan-friendly initiatives.[2][4][6] While Hubbard was CEO, Ticketmaster started providing mobile tickets and launched a live analytics data service and a database marketing platform. From 2009 to 2013, Hubbard's term, Ticketmaster showed growth in ticket sales each year.[9][10]

A few days after leaving Ticketmaster, Hubbard joined Twitter as the company's first vice president of commerce and the interim head of global media and commerce, where he remained from August 2013 to 2016.[11][12][13][6] Hubbard was hired to work with retailers on making sales from their tweets through a "buy button."[14][15] He left after Twitter disbanded its commerce team, stating that commuting from Los Angeles to San Francisco had been difficult for his family.[16]

Following his time at Twitter, Hubbard founded ticketing company Rival in 2018 as challenger to Ticketmaster and served as the company's CEO.[5] Rival had a contract with Kroenke Sports & Entertainment and teams from sports league in the US and the English Premier League and raised $33 million in investment from Andreessen Horowitz, Upfront Ventures, and payment company Stripe founders Patrick and John Collison.[5] In July 2019, Ticketmaster began negotiations to acquire Rival and, in March 2020, the Department of Justice approved Ticketmaster's acquisition of Rival and Hubbard sold the company.[5][17]

In 2022, Hubbard partnered with college roommate and chairman of Gibson Brands, Nat Zilkha, to start Firebird Music Holdings, a music company that provides career and brand guidance to artists.[18] The company's investors include The Raine Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Goldman Sachs Asset Management and includes artists such as Maggie Rogers, Chris Stapleton, Mumford & Sons, Dave Matthews Band, Phish and Leon Bridges.[19][20] In 2023, Firebird partnered with TikTok stars the D'Amelio's DamGood Mgmt.[20]

Hubbard works for The Ringer, where he hosts the podcast Every Single Album alongside reporter Nora Princiotti,[21] where the two discuss the discographies and business impact of musical artists.[5][22][23]

Hubbard is on the board for Gibson.[5]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Speaker Profile". MIT Sloan Sports Analytics Conference. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  2. ^ a b c Eaton, Kit (August 13, 2013). "Ticketmaster's President Nathan Hubbard Out". Fast Company. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  3. ^ "PGA Championship contender's brother pokes fun at Scottie Scheffler arrest".
  4. ^ a b c d e Karp, Hannah (August 12, 2013). "Live Nation Pushes Out President at Ticketmaster". Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  5. ^ a b c d e f Smith, Dylan (April 13, 2020). "Ticketmaster Buys Company Started by Ex-Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard". Digital Music News. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  6. ^ a b c Salter, Chuck (Aug 28, 2013). "Ex-Ticketmaster Chief Nathan Hubbard Was Better Suited For Twitter All Along [Updated]". Fast Company.
  7. ^ Salter, Chuck (August 24, 2011). "Ticketmaster Teams With Facebook So You Can Sit Next To Your Friends". Fast Company. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  8. ^ "Ticketmaster CEO On Brand Hatred: "People Want To Eat My Kids They're So Angry"". Fast Company. November 10, 2011. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  9. ^ Waddell, Ray (2013-08-16). "Leader Nathan Hubbard Out at Ticketmaster, What's Next for Live Nation's Overhaul of Its Ticketing Giant?". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  10. ^ Boorstin, Julia (2013-08-27). "Twitter hires former Ticketmaster chief". www.cnbc.com. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
  11. ^ "Nathan Hubbard". Fast Company. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  12. ^ Jarvey, Natalie (January 25, 2016). "Twitter Names Former Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard Interim Head of Media". Billboard. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  13. ^ "Twitter names CCO Nathan Hubbard as interim media head". Las Vegas Review-Journal. January 25, 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  14. ^ Ingraham, Nathan (August 27, 2013). "Twitter hires former Ticketmaster president Nathan Hubbard as commerce chief". The Verge. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  15. ^ Pnazarino, Matthew (August 27, 2013). "Twitter Hires Ex-Ticketmaster CEO Nathan Hubbard As Head of Commerce To Make It Retail Friendly". Tech Crunch. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  16. ^ "Twitter's Exiting Buy Button Exec Tweets Farewell". PYMNTS. June 2, 2016. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  17. ^ Brooks, Dave (April 11, 2020). "After DOJ Approval, Ticketmaster Buys Former CEO's Company Rival". Billboard. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  18. ^ Christman, Ed (2023-06-06). "Firebird Chief Nat Zilkha Lays Out Plan to Break Through With Investments in Red Light, Mick Management & Access to $1 Billion". Billboard. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  19. ^ Ingham, Tim (2022-09-01). "Firebird takes flight, acquiring a stake in Red Light Management – with more deals on the way". Music Business Worldwide. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  20. ^ a b Steele, Anne (2023-06-09). "WSJ News Exclusive | TikTok's Star D'Amelio Family Starts New Venture to Boost Influencers". Wall Street Journal. ISSN 0099-9660. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  21. ^ Passell, Lauren (2022-11-18). "12 Pop Music Podcasts That Slap". Lifehacker. Retrieved 2024-01-15.
  22. ^ Rafford, Claire; Gomez, Desi (April 20, 2021). "SCENE 'Are you ready for it?': A Taylor Swift song draft". The Observer. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
  23. ^ Princiotti, Nora; Hubbard, Nathan (March 8, 2021). "How Taylor Swift's Self-Titled Debut Album Put Her on a Path to Superstardom". The Ringer. Retrieved 30 April 2021.
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