Red Bull Music Academy is celebrating its 15th anniversary with a new documentary and book. What Difference Does It Make? A Film About Making Music offers a feature-length look at “the challenges that a life in music can bring,” according to the RBMA website. Director Ralf Schmerberg filmed testimonials from a few reliable sources on the subject, including James Murphy, Nile Rodgers, Brian Eno, Giorgio Moroder, Erykah Badu, Q-Tip, Rakim, Flying Lotus, Debbie Harry, Philip Glass, and Thundercat. The doc will hit theaters in select cities (New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Detroit among them) on February 17. A day later, on February 18, What Difference Does It Make? will be released online for free. For now, watch the star-studded trailer above.
As for the book mentioned above, it’s called For the Record: Conversations With People Who Have Shaped the Way We Listen to Music and it’s out now through Gestalten. The 400-page hardcover captures conversations between several notable artists — Rodgers, Badu, and Lee “Scratch” Perry included — as they talk shop. For the Record also devotes space to essays by a number of music journalists, including SPIN’s own Philip Sherburne.
