There are thousands of tapes, video and audio, all live concert recordings from some of the most well known bands ever. But this isn't some hole-in-the-wall bootleg shop in a back alley. This is just one of the vaults owned by Wolfgang's Vault, a website that's leading the way in bringing classic concerts out of the shadows and into the world, digitally, online, and legally. The site allows you to stream many of the shows free or download them for a fee. Adam Balkin reports.

It's making news because recently, in a single day, it added 1,000 new concerts to the almost 3,000 it already had up. Developers say proof, that really over just the last year; artists and labels have finally started seeing the value in distributing this unreleased material in an official way.

"We have full rights and agreements behind all of these downloads and it's been controversial in the early days but all that's been cleared aside. Have people heard some of these recordings? In many cases yes, if they're really old recordings there may've been someone bootlegging that same show in the audience with their own tape deck so someone in the audience may've heard the same performance but not from our tapes. The quality ranges from at the low end soundboard recordings," said Matt Lundberg with Wolfgang's Vault. "At the other end of the spectrum are recordings like the King Biscuit Flower Hour where they got a full 12-track mobile truck that would actually go to the concert venue."

So why have the copyright holders of all this content finally decided to start releasing it? Well, in this digital age, a:, if you don't give people a way to buy it, they usually find other not so legal ways to get it. And b:, with music available on so many different devices, from so many different sources, classic bands are searching for new ways to stay relevant.

"As radio tightens up, as record sales continue to spiral downward, you know artists are looking for any way they can to put their music in front of fans so I think they'll embrace it and continue to," said Ray Waddell with Billboard magazine.

Which has led to another new way to reach audiences. Recently sites as if Billboard, YouTube and MySpace have tested services that allow fans to catch live concerts live, as in as they're happening, from the comfort of their own homes.