Streaming is transforming the music industry, but taking music from artists without paying is wrong, said legendary music producer Quincy Jones.

“It’s a question of integrity,” he said Monday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.”

“Singers, songwriters and musicians have to work hard to know how to do what they do,” he said. “And it’s just not right to take that [income] from them.”

In his six-decade career, Jones has seen the way people find and enjoy new artists move from albums to cassettes to CDs, and he said it is now “on the way” to streaming.

Last June, Jones filed the Quincy Jones Streaming Music, Media & Entertainment ETF (QJ), also known as the “Quincy 100,” with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a way to track music and media companies that stream online and provide more exposure to the content they provide.

This week the music producer, who has won 27 Grammy Awards and worked with iconic names such as Michael Jackson and Frank Sinatra throughout his career, will speak at the Inside ETFs Conference in Hollywood, Florida.

“We’re in another business now,” he said of music and media industries. “We’re getting there [to streaming]. We’ve got to grow into the business.”

Streaming, in fact, is just taking off, said Donna Nairi, founder & CEO of Iconicbeta, Inc., who co-created the index with Jones.

“Streaming is just getting started in a lot of markets,” said Nairi, who is a former structurer at RBS Securities and Sempra Energy Trading. “If you look at Japan, 75 percent of music sales are in physical format. … It’s exciting. The opportunity is huge.”

Nairi predicts technology such as blockchain will be “huge for artists.”

“People will be willing to pay more for music,” she said.

Jones’ global index will include a wide range of entertainment, telecommunication and technology companies. To be eligible, companies must have a market cap of more than $1.5 billion, a six-month average daily trading value of at least $5 million and be listed on the U.S. Stock Exchange.

The conference, which began on Monday, marks the 25th anniversary of the first exchange-traded fund and is one of the world’s biggest conventions for investment advisors. This year’s gathering is expected to draw more than 2,500 attendees to discuss an industry that generated approximately $466 billion in inflows last year.

Source: Tech CNBC
With his new ETF, legendary producer Quincy Jones looks to help artists profit from streaming