Vacation time!
I’ll be taking time off between July 1 and July 4 (both dates included) to enjoy the long weekend (Canada Day to the 4th of July) and to recharge my brain juice.
Patrons will receive their June playlist today.
4 months in!
Well, look what we’ve made together. An awesome little corner of the internet where we share a song a day, some cultural insights, a long essay or three, and camaraderie in the comments.
I did 2 collaborations this month, with Brian Sutich and Kevin Alexander. Both are newsletter veterans in their own right and bring years of musical knowledge. The beauty of a collab is that the audience is always the winner: they experience new songs and a new style of writing. It’s like the cherry on a delicious sundae. To clarify, What’s Curation? is the sundae. 😆
A fun story on the question mark
What’s Curation? is the only music newsletter on Substack’s leaderboard that has a question mark in its name. I checked.
The question mark is vital because I give you all something different in terms of genre, language, and emotion—I don’t curate for anyone’s tastes. When my Kiwi friend Luigi says in the comments that the song that day wasn’t for him, I always ask him to come back tomorrow. And he always does. It’s becoming a time-honored tradition for us!
So, remember to stay curious and don’t forget the ‘?’
On the logo
I picked this hand gesture because it seems to accomplish several things at once:
A sense of questioning
An act of receiving
It’s simple, human, and uniquely identifiable
I think the icon and the typeface choice seem okay for someone who put this together in under a day in Canva (pssst…that’s me).
When I have the budget, I hope to hire a creative designer who can spiffy this up a bit more. But for now, Canva-designed-hand-asking-for-more-music fits the bill!
I bought the domain name!
www.whatscuration.com links to this Substack!
Recommendations!
Thank you to all who are recommending this newsletter to their audiences and friends. And those who are saying nice things about me in the comments. 💖
Leave a tip in the jar if you can 💵
I helped 3 fellow newsletter writers set up their online Ko-Fi tip jars. I’m happy to hear that they are seeing some💲being sent their way!
If you are in a good place right now and have been enjoying this newsletter for a while, please consider
Subscribing monthly or a one-time tip via Ko-Fi gets you the monthly playlist, my thanks, and the satisfaction of supporting a growing endeavor. If you have left me a tip, thank you so much, and I hope to win you over again!
I’m trying to raise $35 towards buying a textbook on copywriting. That improves my writing and this newsletter!
See you on July 5.
-Nikhil
🌴
Read the previous State of the Newsletter # 3:
Enjoy the time off! Congrats on sticking with the newsletter. I look forward to reading it when it hits my inbox
Hi Nik! Have a beautiful vacation! I also did my Ko-Fi in my newsletter this week. Thanks for the tip!