The first IMS Engage took place on Wednesday April 17th at the W Hotel in Hollywood, CA. Presented by the International Music Summit from Ibiza, the event drew in global attendees from electronic music and associated industries. IMS Engage consisted of six pairings, a platform designed to show how far the genre reaches with speakers from finance, technology, hip-hop and beyond.
Diplo and Kevin Systrom, founder of Instagram, started their chat by marveling on how such a simple app like Instagram could dramatically change how fans connected with their favorite artists.
The pair discussed the importance of staying on top of new media platforms, "when it comes to social media I don't want to be the odd man out", said Diplo. He described how artists have to balance "being credible and a promo machine" on their platforms, and his comments about social media numbers being "smoke and mirrors" often falsely inflated struck a chord with the audience, and prompted a heated debate between two attendees. He also noted that many "dance records come and go" and artists need to find what makes them special to sustain a career.
Systrom then began to draw parallels between his app and the value it provides its users to DJs and the value they provide for their fans. "Instagram is less about your photos than it is about your message you're conveying, the same way a DJ's music isn't about the individual notes," he said.