Listen up, Australia. Red Bull Music Academy is taking applications for their next Academy program: This year it’s in Tokyo.

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What is Red Bull Music Academy?

Starting back in 1998, the Academy takes place in a different city each year. Basically, two groups of 30 successful applicants head to a city for a fortnight, attend lectures by some major musical pioneers and get to work on their own tunes by day. By night, they get to perform.

This year the Academy is heading to Tokyo; a city where everything from techno and fun  to dancehall and garage rock has seeped into its streets. Excited, racing hearts and sweating palms infiltrate its record stores – any collector’s wet dream.

This super amazing musical opportunity has a long list of alumni including Flying Lotus, Aloe Blacc, Mark Pritchard, XXXchange and loads more. Last year some of Australia’s very best earned themselves a spot, including Andras Fox, Sui Zhen and Ross McHenry.

How do I apply?!

Applications are now open to music makers of every methodology and style. Just be 20 years old by October 12 this year and return your physical application post-marked no later than March 18.

You’ll need to answer some questions and send along a track-listed CD. You can find all the details at www.redbullmusicacademy.com/apply

What Difference Does It Make: A Film About Making Music

In May 2013, the Red Bull Music Academy took over New York City. German director Ralf Schmerberg shot footage during the event and captured its energy and inspiration.

This full-length feature is one of the best films about music I’ve ever seen, getting to the heart of what it takes to be a musician.

We hear the insights of Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Brian Eno, Philip Glass, Giorgio Moroder, Erykah Badu, Nile Rodgers, Rakim, Skream, Q-Tip, Bernie Worrell, Egyptian Lover, Ken Scott, Thundercat, Richie Hawtin, James Murphy, Debbie Harry and more.

In the first five minutes is Brian Eno – “The first thing that happened to me that was really sort of an art experience was, I went to visit my uncle who had borrowed a little 8mm projector. He didn’t have a screen so he showed the film on the wall and it was just about 16 inches from the projector to the wall, so the film was incredibly bright. I had never seen a movie before I had never seen television and it was the early 1950s when everything was dull. Suddenly, I saw this bright, bright, bright thing and I was so moved by that, for years afterwards I was trying to make bright colours again. When I started making music it was because I wanted to make a kind of sound I had heard or imagined I’d heard. I think that’s the beginning; the beginning is when you want to make something because you so much want to hear it or see it.”

Another young musician who, when asked why he makes music, says, “I work at Macy’s and.. shoes are not that exciting.”

You can watch the entire film here.