MUMBAI: After hosting six years of the summit in Ibiza, the International Music Summit is all set to make its debut in America on 17 April. The conference will host dicussions by titans of electronic dance music, tech and the music-biz infrastructure at Hollywood in Los Angeles.
After a successful IMS USA Symposium in 2012 at Coachella, IMS is engaging the electronic music world with the wider industries of technology, finance, hip-hop and arts at the event. The one day summit will play host to seven pairs of influential executives, artists and thinkers exploring the exploding global electronic music scene in a series of un-moderated conversations.
The conversations announced include hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons with Ultra Music founder, recently named president of electronic music at Sony Patrick Moxey. Discussing the EDM boom in US and its implications for the scene will be SFX Entertainment's Shelly Finkel and BBC Radio 1 and IMS co-founder Pete Tong.
Speaking about artist management in the digital space, the summit will witness Lady Gaga's manager Troy Carter converse with Swedish House Mafia's manager Amy Thomson.
Beatport CEO Matthew Adell will be seen discussing the technology's present and future with computer scientist Jaron Lanier, father of the term 'virtual reality'. A major highlight of the summit will be the conversation between Skrillex and Summit Series co-founder Jeff Rosenthal on 'big ideas'.
In a statement, IMS partner Ben Turner said, "IMS Engage is about elevating the status and positioning of the genre, bringing together people from electronic music and the associated industries and creative cultures that are reaching in. It will show how far the genre has come and how far it is capable of reaching out."
In addition to the conversations, Billboard editorial director Bill Werde will introduce the event on 16 April. W Hotels Worldwide will host a performance by UK singer Foxes on the eve of the IMS Engage event.
Over six years in Ibiza, IMS has earned a reputation as the 'TED of music conferences', featuring conversations and interviews with luminaries like Hollywood director David Lynch, musical pioneers Giorgio Moroder and Nile Rodgers, tech innovators from Twitter, Soundcloud, Google, Disney and Electronic Arts, plus DJs including David Guetta, Swedish House Mafia, Richie Hawtin, Luciano, Sasha, Danny Tenaglia and more. IMS was created by BBC Radio 1 / Evolution Radio broadcaster Pete Tong, along with electronic music industry veterans Ben Turner, Danny Whittle, Mark Netto and Simeon Friend.