Clive Davis’ – In a conversation, David Schulhof—founder and CEO of MUSQ Global Music Industry ETF—remembers working closely with Clive Davis on a documentary, hosting Davis at the Amplify Music Investment Summit, and the enduring guidance Davis offered: a hit needs three pi
When Clive Davis walked into a room, Schulhof says, you could feel the music industry tighten its focus. On May 8, it was the same feeling in New York, where David Schulhof hosted the Amplify Music Investment Summit and brought Davis to deliver a keynote speech.
Schulhof. the 55-year-old founder and CEO of MUSQ Global Music Industry ETF based in New York City. describes Davis as sounding and dressing like an educated man from Europe—until the Brooklyn-isms came through. reminding everyone that Davis was. at heart. “just a man from the street who really succeeded with hard work.” The keynote was also punctuated by an interview with Davis’s son.
That speech didn’t come from nowhere. Schulhof grew up close to Davis—“I grew up with Clive. ” he says—going to school with Davis’s kids and recalling that his own father was hired by Davis for a job early in his career. There was even an annual tradition: Davis had an apartment on the West Side. where Schulhof and his family would go every year to watch the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.
In those early years, Davis was the storyteller. Schulhof says Davis shared “amazing stories about the artists he worked with,” and that inspiration helped steer him toward the industry. While Schulhof didn’t work with Davis directly at record labels, he learned from him “all along the way.”
A decade ago, Davis reached out to Schulhof to co-produce a documentary about Davis’s life, “The Soundtrack of Our Lives.” The film is now on Netflix, and Schulhof says getting to work closely on it exposed just how relentless Davis’s work ethic could be.
Davis taught Schulhof a career philosophy that Schulhof says he carried forward into the companies and the entrepreneurial career he’s built in the music industry. The lesson was simple but uncompromising: as long as you have drive. taste. and work ethic. you can work and succeed until the day you die. Schulhof ties that directly to Davis’s own arc: Davis died at 94. after an “incredible career in music” that began the day he was hired at Columbia Records. a subsidiary of CBS. and ran until his death.
One of the clearest teachings, Schulhof says, came as a metaphor Davis used again and again: “Having a hit song is like a three-legged stool. You need the song, the performance, and the production. You can’t miss anything there.”
Schulhof says he never stopped believing in that framework. When he started a private equity-backed music publishing company, he made it a priority to have great songs—because in Davis’s view, the foundation has to be right before anything else can hold.
He also admired Davis’s instincts for matching artists with the right material. Schulhof says Davis was “a real music man,” selecting artists such as Carlos Santana and Whitney Houston, and—just as importantly—knowing how to choose the right material to help each artist land a hit.
The documentary work, Schulhof adds, showed another layer of why Davis’s judgment mattered: his attention to detail. Schulhof says Davis “truly wanted to capture the full history of every artist. ” and that even when the team believed they were done covering a subject. Davis would push for more detail. Schulhof links part of that precision to Davis’s training as a lawyer—“That level of detail. whether it was being a lawyer. publisher. or documentarian. was a really inspiring quality.”.
Schulhof says Davis’s legal training wasn’t the only thing that shaped him. Both of Davis’s parents died very young. Schulhof says Davis worked his way through college and law school. rose through hard work. and became both a “tremendous family and business man.” Family. Schulhof says. was everything to him. and he was as successful as a family man as he was a music executive.
One of Schulhof’s standout memories is Davis’s 2012 pre-Grammy party—a night Schulhof describes as packed with successful celebrities and artists. He also recalls seeing difficult moments, not just glamour.
One pre-Grammy party took place on the day Whitney Houston died. Instead of canceling, Davis “carried on the show,” Schulhof says. Schulhof describes being stunned by how Davis brought together so much of the music industry on a night when people were weeping and in shock. calling it “one of the greatest. most beautiful yet traumatic signs of resilience in life.”.
For Schulhof, Davis’s legacy is still active in how he thinks about building careers and companies. He says his lessons were to trust his gut, use his taste, use his ears, work with great people, and get great material.
Schulhof also speaks with a clear sense of distance between the time Davis spent and what most people can do in a career. “There’s no other executive I’ve worked with who’s touched nearly 70 years of music,” he says. Schulhof argues that Davis’s impact can’t be replicated quickly—“What he did in the music industry can’t be done in 10 to 15 years. He did this over a lifetime.”.
Schulhof closes by extending his condolences to Davis’s family. He describes Davis as “a very special man,” and says his legacy—music and brilliance—will live on “for generations.” Schulhof adds that he feels lucky to be “a small part of it.”
Clive Davis MUSQ Global Music Industry ETF David Schulhof Amplify Music Investment Summit “The Soundtrack of Our Lives” Netflix Columbia Records CBS Whitney Houston Carlos Santana music publishing private equity three-legged stool