Introducing Appetite for Distraction, Season II

Notes on the future of this newsletter

Aug 30, 2021

Hey everyone! Yash here. I know it’s been a while since I last published an essay, but there’s a good reason for that. (or so I hope)

I've been enjoying a beautiful summer here in Valencia, thinking about what the future of this newsletter looks like.

I’ve always aspired to adopt a lifestyle-first approach when it comes to my professional life. For me, that means having complete freedom over:

One — What I work on

Seth Miller 📻 @sethmills21

Why Don't We Have a Music Creator Economy?, by @YashBagal yashbagal.substack.com/p/when-will-we… Solid post by @YashBagal. I think I’m due to post my own version after exploring this space for 8 years or so 😜 PS - Monetization 100% on the roadmap ✅

yashbagal.substack.comWhy Don’t We Have a Music Creator Economy?Notes on the music industry’s long-awaited ‘Instagram moment’

Two — Who I work with

Nathan Baschez @nbashaw

Write with us!!! (Hello from Tulum!)

Dan Shipper @danshipper

✨We're opening up a few spaces in our writer collective at @Every!✨ We're accepting writers as a batch, and the first member is @AdamDavidson of the New Yorker. There are 4 more slots available. Want to write with Every? Apply here: https://t.co/jcPzHNlE4B

Three — Where I work from

Yash @YashBagal

the best part about living in Spain is that when you go out, nobody cares AT ALL about what you do for a living, who you know, and who you can connect them with they just want to know how your grandma’s doing, or better yet—which vermut to order

To achieve this, I need to focus on two things:

Sharpening the saw — really investing time and effort into becoming a good writer.
Using the saw — publishing quality content on a regular basis.
Polina @polina_marinova
If you're writer, you know this well: "Amateurs sit and wait for inspiration, the rest of us just get up and go to work.” — Stephen King in his memoir 'On Writing'
7:50 PM ∙ Feb 26, 2021
400Likes39Retweets

Having said that, I’m really psyched to announce the next season of Appetite for Distraction! I’ve been incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity to work onstage and behind the scenes with some of the smartest minds in music, tech, and the creator economy. Now it's time to apply everything I’ve learnt, and make this newsletter a resource that cuts through the noise; helping creators and creative industry professionals make informed decisions.

So what does this new chapter for AfD entail? Let’s dive straight in:

New Editorial Calendar

I have designed a new editorial calendar that helps me balance quality and quantity. It looks something like this:

Weekly News Roundups: all the latest stuff happening in music, tech and the creator economy.
Monthly Deep Dives: Long form essays deep diving on specific trends (answering questions like: Why tf is DistroKid valued at $1.3 billion in 2021?)
Monthly Interviews — starting October, I’d like to test out the AfD Podcast — where I’ll talk to founders, investors, journalists, and creators working at the intersection of music, tech, and the creator economy.

New Editorial Focus

This season, AfD will be focussed on two topics:

Paid Membership & Founding Member Fund

I’m introducing a paid subscription priced at $5 a month so I can keep working independently, hire researchers, invest in a richer information diet, have unbiased opinions (and potentially do this full time?)
I am also introducing a very exclusive founding member fund — a $500 subscription which comes with its own set of perks:

Monthly 1v1 calls deep diving on pre decided topics
Business plan review, industry reports, database management, and analyses.

I started off with 4 slots and I’m elated to say that we already have 2 founders who are interested!

Join Founding Member Fund

If you’re not satisfied with the content, you can unsubscribe at any time, and I will fully refund your money! No questions asked.

I really appreciate your support so far, and I strongly encourage you to become a paying member.

Love & loads of coffee, ☕

— Yash