Africa takes centre stage at International Music Summit in Ibiza

Considered the premier platform for thought leadership in electronic music, the IMS is an educational, inspirational and motivational platform dedicated to creating awareness and appreciation for electronic music, the artistry related to DJing and all related popular art forms. This year’s event is expected to turn the world’s attention towards the continent and the amazing talent that it possesses.

Lagos Music Conference founders Leke Awoyinka and Jenny Tan will be presenting a keynote talk titled “Africa: The Music Industry’s Final Frontier”, aimed at elaborating on Africa's potential as a new growth market for electronic music and to showcase Africa's musical uniqueness to the world. This keynote will outline the peculiarities of the African music industry, its key players, as well as the creative and technical infrastructure affecting the development of the local music industries in the key African music markets of Nigeria, Kenya, Mauritius, Mozambique and touching on South Africa.

Meanwhile, a special South African market focus panel will be made up of reprentatives from Bridges For Music, Ultra SA and Soul Candi, alongside Goldfish's manager Raymond Bloom and house superstar Black Coffee. The panel will be moderated by Association For Electronic Music advisory board member Nic Burger. Pulse Radio Africa's GM Kavir Magan will also be in attendance.

The International Music Summit, presented by Pete Tong, was created in 2007 to inspire debate, discuss and help implement change in electronic music. IMS began when electronic music was at rock bottom - Ibiza was the place where the industry always congregated every summer, so naturally it was the platform to begin the vision. Today IMS continues to pave the way in the electronic music industry. Described by media as “the TED of music conferences” in 2013, three IMS panels were voted in the Top 10 electronic music debates of all-time by the Beatport platform. The ambition of IMS is to continue to grow, continue the debate and help the genre to innovate. The IMS calendar year starts in April with IMS Engage in Hollywood, USA and then onto IMS Ibiza in May – the main event. The inaugural IMS Asia-Pacific was launched in December 2014 in Singapore. 

Watch the recap of IMS Engage 2015 to see what's in store at Ibiza next week: