A wealth of new information, old anecdotes, subtle digs and bold statements, we collect the best quotes from this year's International Music Summit Ibiza, held at the Hard Rock Hotel.
Day One
- “Forbes data shows inflation in DJ Earnings slowed in 2014, except for #1 Calvin Harris ($66m)” - IMS Business Report
"We estimate the global Electronic Music industry has grown 12% year on year to $6.9 billion.”
- IMS Business Report
- “Beatport will eventually become its own social network." - Greg Consiglio, SFX President
- “You’re affectively arguing over a shopping list… it’s vaguely ridiculous the amount of time spent on this, but it’s a necessary evil.” - Ed Karney, artist manager, on festival billing politics.
- “An agent pretty much put a gun to my head and said this is the way it’s going to be… It used to be that billing was down to the stature of an artist - now the status of the agent is coming into play. It’s problematic and it’s a total waste of everyone’s time.” - Will Harold, London Warehouse Events promoter, on festival billing politics.
- “The Game of Thrones that is electronic music…” - Ed Karney, artist manager
- “You know the rules of the music industry, if you're not sleeping you're working” - Patrick Moxey, Ultra Records.
- “We love Spotify because they pay people properly. What does SoundCloud pay artists now? Close to nothing." - Patrick Moxey
- “If it aint Detroit, it aint techno.” - Beatport’s Clark Warner quoting Juan Atkins during the Detroit Love panel.
- “I want to go to Europe and meet Kraftwerk and pat their dog” - Carl Craig
- “I have this nationalism thing… or ‘cityism’. Anytime anybody says anything is great I’m like no, Detroit is the best.” - Carl Craig
- “I was in my trailer, knocked out, while Madonna was kissing Drake [at Coachella]. Man, that would have been amazing!" - Carl Craig
- “Guys like Seth Troxler and Ricardo Villalobos help poeple have a bit more patience. I’ve seen gigs at Cocoon where he's just on another planet and the people are on another planet…the connection isn’t always there but the music is incredible.” - Carl Craig
- "There is a wide space for one genius to come in and turn everything around. We need a Kanye in techno." - Carl Craig
- "Imma be Beethoven. I’m going to be deaf and making music not knowing what i’m writing but it’s still going to be compelling.” - Carl Craig, when asked if tinnitus would ever stop him making music.
- “The only thing that matters is the emotional impact the music has." - Craig Anderton (Gibson Guitars, UK)
- “I’m the oldest living techno guitarist, and possibly the only one” - Craig Anderton
Day Two
- “Swedish House Mafia's 'Don't You Worry Child' in 2012 was the catalyst for electronic music in Nigeria" - Jenny Tan, Lagos Music Conference, Nigeria.
- "The white and black scene is starting to work together more than ever before." - Valentino Barrioseta, Bridges for Music
- “Black Coffee was the guy who broke the ice in South Africa." -Valentino Barrioseta, Bridges for Music
- “Being an artist is essentially being a brand... the product is just music & tour tickets." -Bobby Simms (Founder, Popshop Agency), with one of the least romanticised statements of the conference
- "This album has been made with passion and from the heart. What is money anyway?" - Damian Lazarus on his Ancient Moons project.
- "As a DJ, you have to have a passion for music... and I don't believe Paris Hilton has a passion for music." - David Morales
- "I come every summer. I couldn’t live here, I’d die here!" - David Morales on Ibiza
- "We're still who we are, we just miss that guy." - Judy Weinstein on life at Def Mix after Frankie Knuckles' death.
- "Some of the crap that’s coming out now is breaking my heart, I’m telling you. I’ve turned to country music it’s so bad!" - Judy Weinstein on modern dance music.
- "It's not an electronic music problem, it's a society problem" - Steve Rolles (Transform Drug Policy)
- "We're not pro-drugs, we're anti-death." -Mark Lawrence (CEO, Association for Electronic Music, UK)
- "If the information is out there, people will take it on board and it will change the way people take drugs." - B Traits
- "My job is to take drugs. When i design them I know the chemistry atom by atom." - Dr Z, Drug Discovery Scientist
- “In 1980 the recording studio was a much more exciting place than to be than live.” - Trevor Horn
- “Record labels are tough things to have. You think they’re going to be romantic creative endeavours but a lot of the time they’re quite troublesome. And they get through a lot of money.” - Trevor Horn
- “He gave me a total musical hard on” - Trevor Horn, on Seal singing live.
Day Three
- ”Thanks to social media, we went from 250 people coming to watch the sunset, to 25 000." - Christian Anadon, Mambo Brothers.
- "We have to look after these people [sitting on the rocks] that dont spend any money on the bar, because they're the future of ibiza. Hopefully in a few years they can buy their strawberry daquiries at Mambo." - Christian Anadon
- "It takes a scary amount of money to run a club in Ibiza." - Christian Anadon
- "Pacha told me that our booking policy & our music had no future. They then went and booked all our artists" - Simon Dunmore, Defected
- "Some people would rather there not be any competition and as a result the club closed down." - Simon Dunmore on the closure of BOOOM
- "[Ibiza] is a closed shop. It’s a viscious place to try and do business if you’re not already part of the island." - Darren Hughes of We Love respects Sankeys for cracking through that.
- “Marco [Carola] is very professional because he’s on 24 hours a day. When he don't think about women, he thinks about music.” - Ernesto Senatore, Music On.
- "The English bring the money, the Italians bring the party." - Ernesto Senatore
- "We’ll see. At the end of the summer, we’ll win." - Ernesto Senatore huffing and puffing in response to the introduction of Hyte at Amnesia.
- "Young people's bullshit detectors are strong; authentic and engaging content is a must." - Sam Wolfson, Noisey editor, Vice UK.
- "There are 12 hours of audio uploaded to soundcloud every minute." - Alexander Ljung, Soundcloud creator.
- "Copyright is about a principle to protect creativity, not a set rule. So every case is different." - Alexander Ljung
- "I’m Swedish, I’m friends with everybody." - Alexander Ljung after diplomatically dodging a question on the new Tidal streaming service.
View this feature in the weekly Spotlight Magazine, Issue 021.
