Ultra Music founder Patrick Moxey is a perfect representation of the music industry evolution being showcased at this year’s MIDEM. His career has run the gamut, from managing DJ Premier and Guru to being SVP of A&R at Virgin Records. Billboard caught up with Moxey one light night in Cannes and talked about the changes at Ultra Music, where he was brought to American audiences such DJs and producers as Armin Van Buuren, Paul Oakenfold, Tiësto and Ferry Corsten.
Billboard: How was Ultra Music changed? How has your role at the label changed?
Patrick Moxey: In 1991, I first came to MIDEM as an artist manager. Then I became a record label. Then with the situation with record sales declining starting about six years ago I started a music publishing company. That company just had shares on number one hits by Katy Perry, “Fireworks,” and Rihanna, “Only Girl in the World,” in the summer. We started back strong in management about three years ago. Last year we started in merchandising. So we’ve been evolving as the market is changing. We’ve gone from being Ultra Records to Ultra Music, which encompasses everything around music. We also did the marketing for “DJ Hero.” We do a lot of different types of things now because that’s where music is. You stand close to music and then you work with it in every format.
I heard the NRJ Music Awards after party at Palm Beach in Cannes this year was pretty crazy.
There were a lot of very beautiful people, South of France people, partying their asses off at the Palm Beach with about 3,000 people. David Guetta, Will.I.am and Bob Sinclair DJ’d and we were all on stage in the VIP area. People were drinking and going absolutely crazy. It was just a wild scene. Everything from great music to people with incredible, short skirts. It was just a wild South of France, kind of St. Tropez party scene.