Tonight and tomorrow, March 12th and 13th, The Drive By Truckers will be live streaming two nights from Atlanta’s Variety Playhouse, courtesy of iClips.net. The concerts are being streamed to drive interest in their new album, “The Big To-Do,” which will be released on Tuesday, March 16th. Prices for the live broadcast are $6.99 per show or $9.99 for both. For those that purchase the live broadcast can also purchase their new album, The Big To-Do for $7.00 as a digital download at a later date from the Drive-By Truckers website. All pre-orders will receive an immediate Premium DRM-free 320kbps MP3, FLAC, or Apple Lossless download of the songs “Birthday Boy” and “Working This Job”.

The best thing about a live event is that it simply cannot be pirated in the traditional sense. For a live event, either you were there to witness at the moment it happened or you weren’t. No viewing or listening to a recorded version of the event at a later date has the same authentic value.

As we all know, people will pay for things that are scarce and have authentic value. So, it is no surprise that more and more money is being made by musicians through live performances.

It is also not surprising to see a big increase in live concerts streaming on-demand. And instead of the crazy $40+ price-tags I’ve see on live TV on-demand programming (I’m looking at you, UFC) most of the concerts seem to be available online for less than $10 and come with lots of extras.

It is a great example of finding a business model that works with the web and fans instead of against them and proves that selling records is not the only, or even sound, way to make money in the music industry.