2. Ainsley Daigle ’13 Named to Billboard’s Women in Music 2025 List

Ainsley Daigle '13 Named to Billboard's Women in Music 2025 List The vice president at Firebird Artist Management was honored in the multisector category.

By Laura Lemon
April 14, 2025

Billboard named Ainsley Daigle '13 to its 2025 Women in Music list in the multisector category. Daigle, of Los Angeles, works as vice president of Firebird Artist Management at Firebird Music, an artist partnership company. Firebird has built up expertise across key functions in the music industry, such as digital marketing, data and analytics, label services, finance and operations and brand building, and it deploys those services to its partner companies, which span from record labels to management companies to festivals. Daigle, who has worked for Firebird since 2022 and held her current role since 2024, focuses on partnerships with music management firms.

Daigle is grateful for the recognition, as her shift to the music industry signaled a major career gamble. After graduating from Washington and Lee University with a Bachelor of Arts in mathematics and economics, she worked for the Federal Reserve Board for four years. But after completing her MBA at Stanford, she decided to take a risk.

"Music was always a huge passion of mine and a big part of my life, but I honestly never thought of it as a career until I was in grad school," she says. "There wasn't really a single moment, just a long, slow - but also constant and consistent - shift and pull in that direction. And I finally just realized I needed to give it a shot and go for it, so I moved to L.A. after I finished my MBA.

"It took a while to get my foot in the door," she adds. "And I definitely had moments of feeling very discouraged about how to properly make the post-MBA transition from financial stability regulation to the music industry. It's obviously not a small career pivot. So, this felt like a pretty cool piece of validation that I've come a long way down that path - with still a long way to go."

As she's worked to bolster her reputation in the music industry since getting her MBA in 2019, the soft skills and lessons from W&L remain ever-present.

"Entertainment is a hugely relationship-based business, and the world of music is small," she says. "So, the biggest things I take from W&L into my day-to-day life now are things like the value of community, the need to carry yourself with honor and integrity (even if no one is watching) and also the importance of clear, reliable communication. A well-rounded, liberal arts education is great as well, but being smart isn't really enough if you can't back up the competence with soft skills, and I think my time in Lexington helped a lot with that."

In addition to working in the music industry on the management side, she gets to truly immerse herself in the music, attending concerts on a weekly (and sometimes more) basis. Her last concert? Mumford & Sons, who just released their fifth studio album, "RUSHMERE." She also works with the teams behind artists such as Yungblud, The Marias, Maggie Rogers, Leon Bridges, Caamp, My Morning Jacket, BLOND:ISH, Justice, Empire of the Sun, LANY, Sabrina Carpenter and many more.

"Every time I go to a concert 'for work' I'm still in awe that someone is paying me to be there. Are you kidding? I spent four years in D.C. spending an irresponsibly large percentage of my 22-year-old government salary on tickets at the 9:30 Club," said Daigle. "And, honestly, that's the real reason I do what I do - because while I could never be an artist, myself, I'm a true fan of music deep down in my core. Even if it's indirect, I need to be helping people make careers of their art."

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