The conference brings together professionals such as artists, DJs, record label representatives (A&R), producers, promoters, radio and the media for seminars and panel discussions.

[5] The WMC & The Recording Academy began in 1996 - a partnership presenting The Producers Forum, a gathering of legendary artists.

[6] This inaugural year of the competition resulted in Sergey Lobodln (Moscow, Russia), walking away with the top winner prize.

[8] Since 2008, the conference has received increasing competition from the International Music Summit taking place in Ibiza in May.

In 2011, for the first time, WMC and Ultra Music Festival split and took place during two completely separate weekends in March.

[12] Since then, other music conferences have come about including SXSW in Austin, Amsterdam Dance Event (ADE), and EDMbiz in Las Vegas, which takes place during Electric Daisy Carnival yearly.

The IDMAs are an integral part of WMC generating over two million votes from music enthusiasts in 209 countries and territories every year to recognize and honor exceptional achievements in 57 award categories.