Welcome to the Diffraction

This is Keith O'Brien, proprietary of one or two newsletters you previously subscribed to. What you're about to read is a full-speed-ahead publication, of which I hope you will stick around.

The Diffraction is a newsletter/publication about live music. Sound diffracts as it encounters objects, which means a) your attendance at a show fundamentally changes the overall sound of the show and b) every individual at a show hears the music slightly different.*

I intend for The Diffraction to be a publication for everyone: the fans who go to show to experience for entertainment or to get lost, the bands whose livelihoods in a streaming world increasingly depend on playing live and selling merch, and the small venues that are at risk of closure if the demand or the scene dies.

I am starting small - as a one-person newsletter scribe - but I have big designs for this publication. This will go where the audience takes it, but I'd love to grow and hire and build to serve every neighborhood. There will be a free and paid tier. For those of you

For those of you who are remnants from a previous newsletter who do not want to continue, please feel free to unsubscribe. For those of you who are interested in continuing, I invite you to check out a few things already published.

The Live Music Manifesto - by the Diffraction

Why live music is so important and what needs to happen to keep it healthy and thriving.

The DiffractionKeith O’Brien

How to participate

As denoted here and here, The Diffraction launches as a one-person labor of love. But! Despite that specific reality, there are many different ways you can participate, and I sincerely hope you will. Contact us form Fans Send me ideas! What do you want covered? What are your pet peeves

The DiffractionKeith O’Brien

Also, please forward this email onto any friends of yours (especially if they are in a band or work at a venue) that would be interested.

I've already published a couple of recurring features and essays, and I'm deep into the research phase of a couple of longer-form pieces that I will publish once I get a little momentum.

Ultimately, this is meant to grow into a community with informative and interesting content, but also help fans see more of the shows that interests them, bands to sell out their shows, and venues keep booking shows that people want to see. I hope you will join me on this journey.

*According to my high school science knowledge. One of the most famous album covers, which featured a similar phenomenon got it wrong, so cut me some slack!

Great gaffe in the sky: the erroneous physics behind The Dark Side of the Moon – Physics World

Uncovering the physics inconsistencies of the ground-breaking Pink Floyd album cover

Physics WorldNo Author

I am probably not getting this 100% correct, but hopefully you find the analogy cool enough. As far as I can tell, Eddie Vedder never jammed some pearls and the Gza et. al. were not actually from "the foot of Wuru Peak of the Songshan mountain range in Dengfeng County."