David Schulhof, MUSQ
The Global Music Industry ETF
David Schulhof brings an unusual resume to the ETF world. He's spent his career in the music industry , not just as a fan, but as an executive who's watched the business transform from vinyl to CDs to streaming. MUSQ, the music industry ETF he created, is built on a thesis that music isn't just entertainment , it's as essential to human life as food and water, and the companies powering this ecosystem represent a non-correlated investment opportunity that most portfolios completely miss.
Music as a Non-Correlated Asset Class
"Our view is that this is a non-correlated investment and it's as important in life as food and water," David says. "I don't think a human being can go through life without listening to music in some way. You celebrate music in good times , at your weddings and your proms , and you use music in unfortunate times, like COVID."
The emotional case is compelling, but the business case is equally strong. The MUSQ index covers companies across the entire music value chain: streaming platforms, live music and ticketing companies, radio, music labels, and the technology companies enabling distribution. These revenue streams have been growing structurally as music consumption shifts from physical ownership to digital access, and the addressable market continues to expand as mobile phone penetration grows globally.
The Streaming Revolution and What Comes Next
David's perspective on where music consumption is heading is shaped by watching every prior technology shift. Ten to fifteen years from now, he sees a world where "everybody has a mobile phone, everybody is consuming short-form content, and everybody's accessing music. Music is incorporated into every aspect of life , every video, everything you see all day."
The live music connection is critical to his thesis. Streaming drives discovery, which drives demand for live experiences. He shares a personal moment: "I'll never forget when my daughter saw Taylor Swift for the first time at the iHeart Radio festival. She had been listening to Taylor Swift, and it was like this figure came alive. The look on my daughter's face , that was a beautiful moment. And that's why live music is so important."
Radio persists too, as passive discovery. "You still spend two to five hours a day in the car. You can't look at your phone , obviously you're driving. But what you can do is listen to the weather, listen to news, and discover new music." Discovery feeds streaming, which feeds live attendance , it's a virtuous cycle that benefits every company in the MUSQ index.
AI's Impact on Music: Opportunity Over Threat
The conversation addresses AI head-on. Over 100,000 new songs are being uploaded to platforms every day, and AI is making music creation accessible to virtually anyone. David acknowledges the piracy and forgery threats , the fake Drake and Weeknd AI-generated tracks that went viral , but argues that the existing legal infrastructure handles it effectively. "General counsel was on right away to Spotify. They took it down in a second."
More importantly, AI is actually making the labels more valuable, not less. "Now you have curators that are actually out there having to listen to this music. You still need a company to come up with a marketing plan, to take a song to radio." The explosion of AI-generated content increases the premium on curation, marketing, and the human connections that drive fandom. "The benefits far exceed the threat of the costs associated with it."
Index Construction and Portfolio Fit
Building the MUSQ index required defining the investable music ecosystem , streaming services, live entertainment companies, ticketing platforms, labels and publishing, radio, and the technology infrastructure underneath all of it. The companies in the index represent the full value chain, from content creation to consumption.
For advisors, MUSQ offers exposure to a specific secular growth story , the expanding monetization of music consumption globally , in a wrapper that doesn't overlap heavily with standard sector funds. You're not getting broad tech or broad communication services; you're getting the music economy specifically. And David's deep industry relationships give MUSQ a level of sector expertise that generic thematic ETF providers typically lack.
Whether music is truly as essential as food and water is debatable. What's less debatable is that global music consumption is growing, the companies enabling it are profitable, and most portfolios have zero dedicated exposure to this theme. MUSQ makes the bet that this structural growth story , streaming, live events, and the technology enabling both , is worth owning as a distinct allocation.
David's industry background gives him access and insight that pure financial professionals lack. He understands the business relationships between labels and streaming platforms, the economics of touring and merchandise, and how technology shifts , from radio to MTV to Spotify , have repeatedly transformed the revenue model without diminishing music's importance to consumers. When he talks about AI-generated music flooding platforms with 100,000 new songs per day, he's speaking from direct experience watching the industry manage similar disruptions before. Each technology wave has ultimately expanded the pie rather than shrinking it.
Key Takeaways
- David Schulhof brings an unusual resume to the ETF world.
- MUSQ, the music industry ETF he created, is built on a thesis that music isn't just entertainment , it's as essential to human life as food and water, and the companies powering this ecosystem represent a non-correlated investment opportunity that most portfolios completely miss.
- Over 100,000 new songs are being uploaded to platforms every day, and AI is making music creation accessible to virtually anyone.
- For advisors, MUSQ offers exposure to a specific secular growth story , the expanding monetization of music consumption globally , in a wrapper that doesn't overlap heavily with standard sector funds.
Full Transcript
5,380 wordsMachine transcribed from Brad Roth's conversation with David Schulhof, MUSQ, with speakers identified automatically. Timestamps link to that moment on YouTube. Lightly cleaned, otherwise unedited.
Welcome to Behind the Ticker. I'm Brad Roth, Chief Investment Officer of Thor Financial Technologies and Portfolio Manager of THLV, the Thor Low Volatility ETF. Behind the Ticker uncovers the inner workings of the ETF industry. We will interview portfolio managers and ETF service providers to dive deep into their work lives and their businesses. We will learn the inner workings of their strategies and what drives them as they continue to grow their company. Many of these individuals are entrepreneurs and will have unique and compelling insights to share as much goes on behind the ticker. Please note, nothing in this show is investment advice and it is meant solely for educational and entertainment purposes only.
Welcome to Behind the Ticker. Today we have David Scholhoff. He is the CEO and founder of MUSQ, which is the first pure play music ETF. He has a very compelling background, very interesting and fun and unique background. And we talked a little bit about that. We talked a little bit about the innovations that are happening and the growth in the music space. I think you're going to find this conversation very entertaining, also very educational. I think David's done a wonderful job constructing his index. And please enjoy this episode with David Scholhoff. David, welcome to the show.
Thanks for having me on your show, Brad. So you have one of the more unique backgrounds, I would say, prior to starting an ETF. Can you tell us about your background and what led you to ultimately found and start MUSQ?
Sure. Well, I've been in the music industry for my entire life, really. I went to Georgetown University, graduated college early. And the first job I had was working for a guy named Jimmy Iovine at Interscope Records. Jimmy later went on to, he was the founder of Beats with Dr. Dre, which they sold to Apple for $3 billion. But I started working for Jimmy, getting exposure to the music industry. I went back to law school, got my law degree, and then I was recruited by Disney to go work at Miramax and Dimension Films. And I was the music attorney there for seven years, also overseeing all the music for the studio. And during that time, I developed relationships with songwriters, publishers, labels, concert promoters, everybody sort of in the whole music industry. And I went on to start my first company,
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Company called Evergreen, which was a private equity-backed company. I was backed by Lehman Brothers. I'd raised $100 million in financing to go and roll up music companies, roll up music publishing companies, merch companies, recorded music companies. And we bought everything from Bill Monroe to Death Row. We acquired everything in bluegrass, hip-hop, rock, a lot of jazz catalogs, and consolidated that portfolio and sold that to KKR. That company became BMG Rights Management. And after that, I went on to become the president of two other music companies, including my last company, which was a company called Live One, a public company, which owns Slacker Radio and Podcast One. And over that time during my career, I also was the sponsor and board member on two SPACs. So I raised two SPAC vehicles to go and acquire
Companies. So I've been running sort of public and private music companies for, the better part of 25 years. And I guess around this time last year, I was leaving, I'd spent four years at Live One, and I was thinking about what to do next. And I said to myself, I can't really go back into publishing because like everybody's doing publishing. Every private equity firm is paying, 25 times for Springsteen, for Bob Dylan, for Neil Young, for Tom Petty. I wanted to create something different. I wanted to sort of blend my skills as an investor and as a experienced operator in music companies.
Um, and, uh, and I decided to create, um, an exchange traded, an exchange traded product. Um, and what I realized was over my career, Brad, that it was really hard as an investor to get exposure to music. You had to be an LP at a lot of these private equity firms that I mentioned, and you had to show net worth of whatever it was, a million or $5 million. And so over the last 10 years, you've also seen an explosion of music companies become available. Um, you have, uh, everything from streaming to content, to live music, to ticketing, to satellite, and to radio. So I wanted to design and create something as an investment product for the masses. So that's sort of my background and where I got to today. Yeah. Well, I would say that there's not, probably not too
Many people on planet earth, given that experience that have more knowledge or deep knowledge of the music industry than yourself. So I'm actually excited to talk about some of the things that are going on in the music industry. And, uh, just as hearing that, I got to ask who, who's got to be the most famous musician or artists you've ever met in your long tenured career in the
Music industry. Well, I've had the privilege and the good fortune to meet a lot of talented artists. Um, but I'd say, uh, probably the most impressive artists that I had time to spend time with get to meet talk to was Bruce Springsteen. Yeah. Probably the most interesting, the most charismatic, the most deep thoughted, uh, songwriter that I've ever had a privilege of
Talking to. That's, that's really cool. My, uh, my father-in-law will, uh, appreciate hearing that he's a big Bruce Springsteen fan. So I ask everybody on the show, what do you like to do outside of, uh, outside of the office? what are some of the hobbies you have maybe outside of music and outside of, investing in companies? Right. Well, you know,
So one is naturally related. I play a lot of guitar and I do a lot of songwriting myself, purely recreationally. Uh, but I am a, I am a songwriter. I like, like to play harmonica and I like to play guitar and play piano. Uh, but I'm big, I'm big into sports. I love tennis. I love golf. I love snow skiing in the winter, do a little bit of surfing. So I'm pretty active.
Um, yeah, no, that's, I've, I had a feeling you were going to just reading your bio and, and, and looking at everything you've done. I had a feeling you were going to say guitar. So, um, so let's talk a little bit about the music industry as a whole. Cause I'm, I'm fascinated after reading some of the literature you had. So what are some of the innovative things that are happening in the music industry today that investors need to be aware about, aware of?
Yeah. Well, look, streaming is driving a lot of the industry today. It's driving about 40, 40 to 50% of the revenues. Um, and, uh, every, um, every, every individual on the planet today that has a mobile phone is a potential new music user. So you think about the TAM on that, it's pretty, it's pretty big. Um, Goldman Sachs just reported that the industry was going to double to 131 billion by 2030. Right. And a lot of that is driven by, uh, by, by the top streaming companies like Spotify, like Google, like Apple. Um, so that's driving a lot of the revenue. Uh, and, uh, and then content is driving a lot of the revenue. You have, uh, a lot of big companies around the world, big K K pop is becoming a massive force. Uh, you look
At our index, I think we have maybe 10 companies, I think seven content companies and three streaming companies that are in K pop. Um, and so just, every country in the world now, uh, has, it has some music service, right. Whether it's in China, you have, uh, cloud music or, or 10 cent music or, or Japan or Korea or India. So, it's a global force, uh, and, and streaming and content is driving a lot of that. That's about 70% of the companies on our index, uh, are about, are, are about streaming and content. So, um, the, uh, the TAM is big, it's growing, uh, live music is growing. You saw what happened with recent tours, like from,
Taylor Swift, the Aeros tour and the yellow brick roads. These are massive numbers that are having huge impact on all of these live music and ticketing stocks from, uh, from live nation to Madison square garden, to sphere, all the ticketing companies like vivid seats, um, like a CTS event in Germany, these are all very big businesses. Kids love, kids are driving, kids and super fans are driving the industry today. Uh, Gen Z audiences and millennials are driving a lot of that streaming. Um, you saw about a week ago, Warner music group licensed its entire music catalog to tick tock. Wow. It was a very big deal because that's where the audience is today. So, uh, so it's a, it's a booming industry. It's growing and, uh, you know,
All these companies are on MUSQ. Yeah. And it's not only is it a growing
Industry. It's something that's never going to go away. Right. everybody's going to always love and consume music. It's just how we consume it in the, in the Avenue in which we consume it. Um, and I want to talk about that in a little bit, but AI is a really hot topic right now. Um, how is, if at all at this point, do you see new innovations or disruptions to the music industry kind of by this AI boom, or is it going to affect more of, maybe the editors or even songwriting? where do you see AI fitting into the music industry?
Yeah. So I see AI, uh, very complimentary to the music industry. I don't, I don't view it as a threat. remember every like 10 years, there's always a new piece of technology that disrupts everything. What you go back, whether it was compact disc and everybody was like, Oh my God, what do we do with our vinyl collections? What do you do? You replace them. You, and that exploded, right? That, that like doubled the industry when compact disc came out. So you can go through every 10 years. And then Napster was like, Oh my God, Napster, everybody's stealing music. And then what happened? Then you had paid streaming platforms. So here we are 10, 15 years later with AI, what AI is doing, Brad, it's giving creators new tools to create new music, right? It's giving
An opportunity to, even the most amateur, the most amateur musician to create music. So it's giving them tools to do exciting new things. You saw what Paul McCartney just did, which on Lennon, which is incredible. kids out of their bedrooms now can create new songs. I think something like 120,000 new songs are being uploaded every day. And what that's doing, by the way, it's making the labels even more valuable, right? Because now you have curators, right? That are actually out there having to listen to this music. You still need like a company to come up with a marketing plan to come up with a song to take to radio. But like, but the point is that anybody can actually create music right now, they have more tools available themselves. you saw what
Happened with, with Drake and the weekend and some of the piracy there. But look, when that happens, when you have a fake weekend or a fake Drake, like there's a takedown notice, right? They can send immediately. So, general counsel was on right away to Spotify. They took it down in a second. So there's, there is the threat of, of piracy. There's the threat of forgery with AI, but I think the benefits far exceed, the threats or the costs associated with it.
Yeah, I would agree. So last question before we talk about the ETF. You actually just mentioned this where we went from, vinyl to compact disc to CD to now everything is, digital, not everything, but mostly everything is digital or streaming. How do you see, 10 to 15 years from now us consuming this type of content, whether it's just music in general, or, having the ability to maybe have immersive experiences at a live show from sitting on our couch, how do you see, how do you see the regular everyday consumer 10, 15 years from now
Consuming this type of content? Yeah. So I see it as a, everybody has a mobile phone 10 or 15 years from now, everybody's consuming short form content, whether it's short form video and everybody's accessing music, right? And music's incorporated into every aspect of life. You go back to, and every video, every, everything you see all day, you mentioned something about consumption in food and water. That's really our view. Our view is that this is a non-correlated investment, and it's as important in life as food and water. I don't think a human being can go through life without listening to music in some way. You celebrate music in good times at your weddings and your proms, and, and you celebrate and you use music, in unfortunate times like COVID.
So 10 or 15 years from now, music is more ubiquitous than it is today. People are streaming it, people are consuming it, it's on their phone, they're accessing it all day long. And then, and people, and once they discover that music, they want to figure out who that artist is, right? They want to learn about that artist, right? And then they want to go see that artist perform. Like they want to actually see that person. I'll never forget when my daughter saw Taylor Swift for the first time at the iHeartRadio festival. And she, and it was like this, this genie that came out of this bottle. And the look on my daughter's face, and because she'd been listening to Taylor Swift, it was like that figure came alive, right? That was a beautiful moment. And that's why,
That's why live music is so important. So streaming content, live music, that's driving the industry. And radio, people still want to still want passive experience, you still spend two to five hours a day in the car, whether you're commuting to work, whether you're driving to see your friend, and that's a passive time for you can't look at your phone, obviously, you're driving. But what you can do is listen to the weather, you can listen to news, and you can discover new music. So music discovery will continue with radio, it'll continue on your phone, streaming services will thrive, content will strive, live music will strive, people will continue to buy tickets. All these companies are on our index. And that's why we believe that music is like part of life. Yeah, well, let's talk about
The index. You make a very compelling case about the growth and the opportunities in the music industry, specifically, going forward. So let's talk about MUSQ. What types of companies are you investing? I know they're in the music industry, there's some companies I briefly looked at the holdings, there's some companies we know, there's some companies that I don't know. So can you talk about how that, how you're putting that index together and what type of companies you're
Investing in? Sure. So the con the companies really fall into five different categories, right? Leading the category would be streaming companies, right? We have 11 companies on the index there. So those are big companies like Amazon, Apple, Google, Spotify. You have companies like cloud music, Tencent music, and you have smaller companies like click digital, like live one, right? So those are all streaming companies. That's about 35% of the portfolio on the index. Second big subcategory is content. So there you have big obvious names like Universal and Warner Music Group. Then you have all the big K-pop companies. You have, you have HYBE, you have JYP, JYP Plus, you have SM Entertainment, you have Cube, right? These are all very big businesses, very big, important companies. Then you, and you also have companies in every country. In Japan,
You have Amuse, you have Nexttone. In Thailand, you have HIM. And then you have the smaller royalty trusts that are actually really important and focused on songwriters and publishers. You have companies like Reservoir Music and Hypnosis and Roundhill. So those are all of the content companies. Followed by content, you have live music and ticketing, right? So there you have some of the obvious names like, Live Nation, Madison Square Garden, Sphere Entertainment, CTS Event, and Vivid Seats. Then you have equipment and technology. You have important companies like Yamaha, Rollin, Sonos, Avid, Dolby Corp. These are all companies that are, whether they're producing guitars or producing keyboards or producing the editing equipment that musicians and artists need to record music, like these tools are all on the index. Then you have radio, right? And you have broadcasting. So
You have companies like iHeart, which are so all around the country. You have companies like Sirius Radio. You have companies in Australia, like Arn and Southern Cross. You have Town Square Media. So those are the five categories. We have 48 companies on the index, and we give investors broad exposure to the entire ecosystem. MUSQ is the first pure play music ETF designed to give investors global exposure to the music industry ecosystem.
Yeah. And I think that's important too. You're getting global exposure. It's not just domestic. And so I'm curious, how are you locating these companies and these investment opportunities? Is it market knowledge or are you running some sort of screen? How are you finding these opportunities?
OK. So just on your previous point, you are correct. 45% of the companies are domestic. 55% of the companies are foreign. And that's why we think it's a unique product too. You're giving investors access to all these companies. And for the self-directed Robinhood investor, they can't typically get access to those international companies. They have to open up custody accounts and, it's difficult for them to get access. So this gives them broad public exposure. So, Brad, when I was thinking about, first of all, I kind of like reverse engineered this. In my head, I wanted to create the most perfect product for music, right? So I thought about all these companies in my head for a long time. Like, wow, this could belong. This belongs on the index. That belongs on the index.
Then I had to like, OK, after I had that in my head, then I had to actually design rules around them. And I had to figure out, OK, how do we actually create the index? So MUSQ, right, is a passive index. And the rules which I designed in partnership with EQM, I hired Jane Edmondson over at EQM, and she's been amazing to work with. we spent probably six months designing this, right? And so what we came up with was a methodology, which we first, scoured the universe for all music companies, right? That were either directly involved in the commerce of music or peripherally involved in the kind of ecosystem of music.
And what we concluded was we designed an index that had to include companies that were generating at least 50% of their revenues from music. That was one critical criteria. Or they were a top five player in one of those sub five categories I just mentioned. Or they controlled greater than 10% of the global market share in any of the five categories I just mentioned. So that includes small cap, mid cap and large cap companies. And on the small side, they couldn't have a market cap less than $100 million. They also had to have minimum trading volume of $500,000 a day. And if they had less than that, $200,000 to $500,000, then they would receive a half weight.
So all the companies are market cap weighted. They'd be a half weighted if they fell $200,000 to $500,000. And the big names that I mentioned, because I had to include them, right? They're all top five players, even though you don't think of Apple and Amazon as like pure play music companies. They're still top five players. And Apple is number two, and Amazon is number three, and Google is number four after Spotify. And their market caps are, their market weights are capped at 7%. So this index gets rebalanced every quarter. And even if Amazon goes above 7%, you'll see it rebalanced at 7%. But that gives you kind of the perspective on what the index looks like.
It's 48 companies across all those subcategories.
Yeah. And you just answered my next two questions. You're definitely deeply familiar with how you put this all together. And thank you for that. And it makes sense, too, to half weight some of the small caps. So where do you see, you mentioned Robinhood Investors. Do you see this product appealing more towards the retail crowd? Or are you trying to also talk with investment advisors about the opportunities and growth of the music industry to have them also see the potential for this outpacing the growth of the S&P 500 or whatever it might be, right? Where do you see this product fitting in?
Yeah. So first of all, it is outpacing the growth of the S&P. The index is up 22% for the year. The MUSQ index is up 22% for the year. And it is outperforming the S&P. So it's definitely a product for RIAs. I see this. And honestly, I see this in every portfolio allocation. I don't know how you don't have 1% or 2% or 3%, whatever the number is. It's not correlated. You're getting very strong returns. And it's technology. It's a lot of exciting things that you want to own. And so I do think the RIAs are excited about this product. I think it's for pension funds. I think it's for hedge funds.
And I think it's for self-directed Robinhood investment. It's really for everybody, right? It's for somebody who has $10, $100, $1,000. And if you want to put $1 million or $5 million or $10 million, it's there too. If you want exposure to music, that's what this is. It's a very neutral platform for exposure to the whole industry. And like I said earlier, investors shouldn't have to lock their money up. For years, you had to be an LP. You could not get exposure. And now today, they shouldn't have to pick. Do I decide to invest in Live Nation because tours are up? Or do I invest in Universal because Taylor Swift is signed to Republic Records and Republic is owned by Universal?
No, you shouldn't. There's a lot of work to do, right? You're missing out on Bruno Mars, who signed to Warner Music Group. You're missing out on Springsteen, who signed to Sony. Just by the index, you get exposure to all these companies. But I think it's really exciting for all the investors, retail and sophisticated investors who see the value of music. Music is really too big to ignore today. It's too big of an asset class. And there's honestly too many companies today to study and do diligence. These investors don't really have the expertise and the resources, but they need exposure to it. And that's what this is designed to do. It's a portable and convenient way for all investors to get exposure to music.
I love that. And so with that being said, because you believe it fits really with everybody, how are you thinking about marketing and distribution? What is your plan in terms to really get the word out and start getting flows into the fund?
Yeah. So there's a couple of things. So I've been out there promoting it, talking to – we've had nice articles written in Barron's, all the ETF period articles. I gave some nice interviews on – I was lucky to be a guest on TD Ameritrade. And thanks for having me on your show, podcasts like yours. So I'm out there doing a lot of advertising and promotion. You can follow me on LinkedIn, by the way. I regularly write thoughtful articles, I think, about the industry. So you can follow me, David Shulhoff, on LinkedIn, where I provide all kinds of educational content, white papers that we wrote, all kinds of articles, anything going on.
Like YouTube raises rates last week. What does that do to the streaming stocks? Spotify raising rates. What does that do to the streaming stocks? So I talk about current events that are happening and how that dovetail back into the index. So I maintain a strong online presence, whether it's on LinkedIn or also on Twitter. We're doing financial advisor outreach. I've got a couple of webinars coming up. I'm invited to speak at Future Proof in September. And then we have partnerships and sponsorships. So we're actually sponsoring a few upcoming conferences, music industry conferences. So all kinds of marketing strategies. And then lastly, we're about to announce some partnerships with some artists that are getting on board here.
So the artists will be promoting it. We'll be doing deals with them. So my goal is to make, and then lastly, we're also going to do an MUSQ conference where I invite all the CEOs of all the companies from all that. And if you're an investor, just like the Barron Conference, you get an invitation to the Barron Conference. You'll get an invitation to the MUSQ conference. There'll be artists there for you to mingle with. There'll be panel discussions with CEOs. So our goal is to kind of do a lot of outreach to the finance community and give, all investors access to, all the exciting things we have going on in the music industry.
That's great. No, it's and you having such a niche product with such a singular focus, I think gives you an upper hand in terms of marketing and distribution and partnerships. And so, well, I'm going to I'm going to be buying shares now because I want to come and mingle with some artists and hang out at your conference. And I hope to see it future proof. I need I believe I'm going to be out there as well, maybe only for a day or so. But it's all very exciting. And congratulations on the work. But you're a recently launched fund. And I believe I saw and correct me if I'm wrong. Are you working with exchange traded concepts? Did you work with them to launch the actual fund itself?
I did. So I designed the index, with with EQM and then I licensed it to exchange traded concepts. Yeah, so they've been great. Garrett and Rich Hogan and Jay and the whole team have been amazing to work with.
Yeah. So I had Garrett on the show, really an interesting guy and a cool guy. And so just from your perspective, as as a as a brand new issuer, it doesn't have to be specifically about exchange traded concepts. But can you tell me a little bit about the process that you went through in order to get this successfully to market? Yeah.
So, well, first, I did a lot of research and due diligence, so I kind of got the idea, as I said, a year ago. And then I really did diligence on on the whole business, on the whole industry, the TAM, how many ETFs were out there. I wanted to make sure that I had a first to market pure play music ETF. So I was confident that I had that product. I designed that product. Then I had to quickly get it to market, which I did. And I wanted it to be a compelling product. And I wanted it to be a we back tested it to death. I wanted to make sure it was a great product that was going to deliver great returns to investors.
And I think that we put together a product that aligns investor portfolios with that opportunity. So I'm very proud about that. And then and then we took it to market. And then, once I identified, the partners, we then, rushed to, file the paperwork. And it was all done, in that 75 day period. And we had comments back with the SEC. We, and then we had to design our website. We had to, get that live. And then, here we are. We the product is now the product is now live. And we got all the publicity, I think, that we wanted from a successful launch.
And now we're out there, promoting it and getting investors excited about it.
Well, David, it is very exciting. And congratulations on the launch. Congratulations. I know we're kind of creeping up on our one year. And I know that that's three to six months of work or longer, right, is getting something to market. And you have that sigh of relief and the excitement. And then you realize you're just getting started. So, again, congratulations on getting that out to market. Before I let you go, any other ideas for additional funds in the future? Or are you going to be singular focused on the CTF? Look, I like the industry.
I think it's a clever industry. There's a lot of capital out there. I think Tom Lydon at Vetify told me there was $10 trillion in ETF money out there. I couldn't even believe it. And so, look, there's obviously a lot of access to capital out there. I think thematic funds are really interesting. I guess I could see myself creating another thematic down the road. But I want to make this really successful. I think this is a great product for everybody who loves music. My goal is to turn this into the triple Qs of music. Right? When you think about investing in music, just invest in music, buy music. M-U-S-Q. So, I really hope.
And this is like, honestly, whatever happens, I'm just really proud of this product. Right? I know I designed a great product. And I want this to live forever. I think this benefits everybody. Anybody who has a fascination and interest in music can now benefit from the industry. And so, I would love to see this get really big. But I'd also love to see just people excited about it.
Yeah. Well, again, congratulations on the launch. I think you do have a compelling product. And before I let you go, where can people learn more about M-U-S-Q? Yeah.
So, they can go to M-U-S-Q.com. Go down there. We have our fact sheet, our white paper, our investment case, our pitch deck. If you want to read up on the index, you can go to M-U-S-Q.index.com. There, you can also see another white paper. We've got our methodologies there. Tons of information about the industry. But M-U-S-Q.com is where you can go to get all the investor materials, the prospectus, and you can trade from there. And just call up your broker and ask to place a trade with M-U-S-Q.
Well, David, thank you so much for your time. I wish you the best of luck and look forward to hopefully running into you in the future.
Likewise. Well, see you at Future Proof. I'll be on the thematic panel on Wednesday morning. So, I look forward to seeing you in September, if not before. And thanks again for having me on your show.
Yeah. Thank you, David. Thank you.
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The Signal
Brad Roth's daily market brief — systematic signals, ETF positioning, and what the data is actually showing.
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