The BitTorrent Bundle Is A New Kind Of Multimedia Experience

Jeff Weisbein -

Today, BitTorrent took some major steps towards monetizing and working directly with the music industry on ways to create better products for artists.  The company announced a new product called the BitTorrent Bundle, which is a new way to package content.

“The BitTorrent Bundle is not an album, an MP3, or an MOV. It’s a multimedia format. It’s an early build of a new type of torrent file where fan interaction, like email collection or donation, happens inside the torrent,” said Matt Mason, VP of Marketing at BitTorrent.  Right now, the company has partnered with Ultra, a record label that has signed big names such as Kaskade, David Guetta, deadmau5, and Calvin Harris, to offer a BitTorrent Bundle with behind-the-scenes footage of the documentary of Kaskade’s 2012 Freaks of Nature tour.

If you’re interested in checking it out, you can access half the content (a remix and a tour trailer) for free, but to get the rest (a digital tour booklet and unreleased footage of Kaskade’s Staples Center show), you will need to enter your email address.  While the first bundle focuses on collecting email addresses (so artists can better interact with their fans), BitTorrent will also be experimenting with other ways to structure the bundle, including ones where users actually pay money to get access to the content.

The end game for BitTorrent is create a publishing tool for artists to create their own bundles and offer them however they want.  In terms of when you can expect that tool to be released, we are hearing Q4 2013.  While Mr. Mason didn’t touch on this (and we haven’t heard anything to confirm this), I’d expect BitTorrent to take a cut of any transactions that occur from people buying bundles — something for artists to keep in mind when pricing their bundle.

Nonetheless, the BitTorrent Bundle looks like a very cool way of offering content.  And while BitTorrent seems focused on the music industry, I think offering a bundle could be a great way to distribute content for all types of creators.  I’m definitely up for trying it out. You can check out the Ultra Bundle starting right now.