Sixth annual IMS Ibiza honors Fatboy Slim, talks dance music shop, parties on White IsleFatboy Slim1

Sixth annual IMS Ibiza honors Fatboy Slim, talks dance music shop, parties on White Isle

In days 1 and 2 of the sixth annual International Music Summit in Ibiza, the dance music industry conglomerated to reflect on the status of music, posit the future, and award the best of the past. After a brief introduction by the IMS partners (including Pete Tong and Danny Whittle), the group moved right into the IMS Business Report which, much to everyone’s liking, showed that from 2011 to 2012, there has been a 36% growth in the sale of dance/electronic tracks, higher than any other genre by far.

Market researcher Kevin Watson shed light on festival growth (particularly in the United States) and the mergers and acquisitions in the last year associated with the commercialization of dance music. According to his report, the global EDM industry is worth a reported (and staggering) $4.5 billion annually. Patrick Moxey of Ultra Records/Sony Music and Mark Geiger and William Morris Endeavor followed with two telling keynote speeches –both giving their own upfront and take-charge thoughts on the current state of the industry (and of course touching on Daft Punk.

There were also panels on the changing face of Ibiza and discussions around better harnessing the technology associated with club play (Shazam) and the nonstop music exposure associated with the Internet. Duncan Stutterheim of ID&T and Tomorrowland sat down with Shelly Finkel of SFX, and Finkel began calling “EDM” “EMC” for electronic music culture, a term we certainly like better than EDM. Lastly, Pete Tong sat down with controversial blogger Bob Lefsetz for a straightforward conversation on piracy, social media, and promoter politics.

On Thursday evening, IMS honored Fatboy Slim at the Legends Dinner complete with clips of praise (no pun intended) from Iggy Pop, David Byrne, Carl Cox, and Nervo. A 20 piece choir performed a special rendition of “Praise You,” and a Christopher Walken imitator even reproduced the dance from the award-winning “Weapon of Choice” music video.

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