Hosting live webcasts of some of the most critically acclaimed artists that come through D.C. — that’s something DCist can get behind. We’ve been fans of NPR’s Live Concert Series for a while now. Their home base is the 9:30 Club and they make partaking in sold out shows without selling your soul to a scalper an actual possibility. Recently they’ve covered Ted Leo, Nellie McKay, The Good The Bad and The Queen, and tonight they’re airing the sold out Stooges show. We recently chatted with Robin Hilton, the series’ producer, about its ins and outs.

When and why did the program start? Is there a particular mission?

NPR Music and All Songs Considered started the series in January of 2005 with a performance by Bright Eyes. There really wasn’t a master plan behind it. We just loved the band and thought it’d be cool to do. We saw they were coming to town, called them up and they were into it and the club was into it so we figured out how to make it happen. When Wilco came to town a few weeks later and also wanted to do a webcast, it was obvious we were on to something.

How do you go about choosing acts?

We run advanced algorithms measuring album sales and unique listener hours against standard market analyses. I’m kidding. It’s totally subjective. In general we look for bands that have something to say; bands that are breaking new ground or simply doing something interesting, however you define that. Multi-dimensional bands that surprise us. In the end, though, we’re just doing stuff we love.