The Beatport Group has acquired a majority stake and formed a partnership with the International Music Summit (IMS) Ibiza.
IMS Ibiza is described as an “educational, inspirational and motivational thought-leadership platform dedicated to creating awareness of, and appreciation for, electronic music, DJing, and all related art forms”.
The partnership will enhance and secure the future growth and expansion plans of the IMS business platform. The Beatport Group is billed as the worldwide home of music for DJs, producers and their fans, including the Beatport digital music store for electronic music DJs.
IMS Ibiza returns for its 14th edition at Destino Pacha Ibiza resort on April 26-28.
Established in 2007 by five partners, including DJ, A&R exec and BBC Radio 1 presenter Pete Tong and industry executive and artist manager Ben Turner, IMS Ibiza was created to inspire debate and discussion while helping to implement progressive change within the electronic music industry.
The three-day immersive event features live seminars, keynote interviews, technology masterclasses, performances and industry networking opportunities.
IMS has also helped dialogue on issues including diversity, mental health and sexual harassment, and has worked closely with the Shesaid.so organisation for the last seven years. Shesaid.so has co-curated their speaker line-ups and hosted their own events and safe spaces.
The organisation publishes the annual IMS Business Report, and its data, analysis and annual valuation have become critical to the industry’s own positioning and success.
IMS Ibiza will continue to operate under the direction of its co-founders, with the full support of the Beatport Group.
“IMS has become one of the most impactful gatherings for the global DJ and dance music industries, and everyone at Beatport is excited to take this brand to the next level,” said Beatport CEO Robb McDaniels. “We look forward to partnering with Pete, Ben and the entire IMS team to broaden the IMS footprint as a major component of our plan to expand the Beatport brand around the world through community, education, and thought leadership initiatives.”
The IMS founding partners, Ben Turner, Danny Whittle, Mark Netto, Pete Tong & Simeon Friend, said: “We are very proud of what we’ve built at IMS over these past 16 years, driving the narrative and agenda of the culture forward from the genre’s spiritual home of Ibiza. Aligning with Beatport, who have been supporters of IMS from our inception, will enable us to action many of our ideas on how to continue to grow the platform all year round; to further educate and mentor the next generation; and to help focus the industry’s attention on the issues that matter. It will help increase our ability to have more impact for the genre.”
IMS has a long international history, previously hosting satellite summits in Los Angeles for five years (IMS Engage), Shanghai and Singapore (IMS Asia-Pacific), and in Malta more recently with IMS College. Its flagship event remains IMS Ibiza.
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