The music industry is innovating, and it's making billionaires out of those who grace the global stage.
Larger-than-life personalities -- from Jay-Z and Kayne to Beyonce and T-Swift -- are not only selling out shows, but are now reaching their fans in entirely new ways. Digital streaming, generative AI, and NFTs are all helping to turn the music industry's amps up to "11."
Behind the scenes is an extremely profitable and thriving supporting cast of businesses. Music labels, streaming platforms, and live events promoters are all generating billions of dollars for artists and are receiving a standing ovation from their investors.
So how should investors best plug-in to the music industry?
To answer that question, we've brought in an expert. 7investing CEO Simon Erickson recently spoke with David Schulhof, the founder and CEO of MUSQ, LLC. MUSQ is the world's first pure-play global music industry ETF, giving investors a way to align their portfolios with the best opportunities of the music industry.
In the first part of their conversation, Simon asks David to describe his background and why he created the thematic ETF. David describes how the music industry is growing, and why he's structured it into streaming services, music labels, and live events.
The two then discuss how artificial intelligence and generative AI is driving more of a need for labels and curators. With more than 120,000 new songs being uploaded every day due to generative AI and digitization tools, there's more of a need than ever for sorting and finding the highest-quality new music. Labels are becoming more important as ways to create playlists or to offer legal protections against piracy or copyright infringements.
David then explains that streaming platforms like Spotify, Apple Music, Amazon, and YouTube are surging in popularity, with tens or hundreds of millions of users. They make distribution seamless between artists and listeners, and modest price increases this year are falling extremely quickly to their bottom line.
In the second part of the program, Simon and David discuss the continued demand for live events and why companies like Live Nation will continue to profit handsomely. New digital approaches using cryptocurrencies or NFTs could be opportunities for progressive artists or marketers to make the pie even larger with the world's most passionate music fans.
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Publicly-traded companies mentioned in this podcast include Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Live Nation, Sony, Spotify, Universal Music Group, and Warner Music Group. 7investing’s advisors and/or its guests may have positions in the companies that are mentioned.
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