IMS Ibiza 2026 Unveils 140-Session Programme on AI, Investment Shifts

IMS Ibiza has turned its 17th edition into a barometer for where electronic music is heading next. The summit runs from April 22 to 24 in Cala Llonga, split between Mondrian Ibiza and Hyde Ibiza, and the 2026 programme stretches to more than 140 sessions, showcases, workshops and networking events under the theme Reclaim The Dancefloor.

That theme is doing a lot of work. IMS and AlphaTheta are framing the summit around a return to culture and shared experience, but the agenda is clearly built around the pressure points reshaping the business: artificial intelligence, investment, changing audience behaviour and broader global shifts. For a scene that still trades on underground credibility, that makes IMS less a conference stop than a yearly reading of where the club world is being pushed, and by whom.

The headline draw is Yann Pissenem, who is set as the keynote speaker and the recipient of the IMS Legends Award 2026. The speaker list also reaches across the ecosystem with Sister Bliss, 2manydjs, Dukagjin Lipa, Maykel Piron, Joseph Capriati, Vintage Culture, Steven Braines, Maria Garrido, Mark Mulligan, Suzanne Ciani, Ahadadream, Culoe De Song, Eliza Rose, Josh Baker, Manuka Honey, Max Dean, MoBlack, Sama' Abdulhadi and Todd Terry. Pete Tong, Jaguar and Katie Knight will host the summit together for the first time, giving IMS a new front-facing trio as the programme widens its reach.

The first wave of talks shows where the conversation is likely to land. 35 Years of Nervous Records links the present back to one of dance music’s durable labels, while Market Focus - Brasil: From Identity to Impact points to the continued rise of regional markets. Meet Team Josh Baker and Eastern Europe on the Rise, presented by Telekom Electronic Beats, place newer circuits and talent pathways alongside the established names. Add in sessions on AI ethics, culture versus capital, online abuse and misogyny, and Afro Electronic Music, and the shape of the debate is clear: not just who is selling tickets, but who gets to define the culture.

For minimal-techno readers, that matters because the style’s concerns sit inside the larger argument rather than at the centre of it. IMS is still one of the few places where booking patterns, platform strategy and underground credibility are discussed in the same room, but in 2026 the louder currents are AI, money and market expansion. The summit’s business framing is backed by hard numbers too: the IMS Business Report 2025 put the global electronic music industry at $12.9 billion in 2024, up 6 percent from 2023, while independent labels held 30 percent of global label revenues for a fifth straight year.

IMS Academy, launched in March with Pete Tong DJ Academy and AlphaTheta, adds another layer to that shift by folding emerging artists and education into the summit itself. The closing Dalt Vila celebration is set for Friday, April 24, overlooking Ibiza Old Town and the Mediterranean, and that final night will again underline IMS’s bigger role: not just a party week, but the annual place where the scene decides what it thinks it is becoming.