BitTorrent starts first paid sale of ‘music bundles’

BitTorrent has started offering the first paid music bundles. Radiohead frontman Thom Yorke offers a new solo album and a video clip via the p2p network for a payment of 6 dollars, or 4.73 euros.

Yorke’s solo album, called Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes, is offered in a ‘bundle’. These ‘containers’ were developed by BitTorrent to allow artists to distribute music efficiently via the bittorrent protocol. Films and series can also be bundled in this way, but until now only relatively unknown artists have used these bundles. However, with the unexpected release of a new album from the Radiohead frontman, BitTorrent seems to be getting more attention for his concept.

For the first time, a music bundle can be purchased directly from BitTorrent. The album, consisting of eight tracks, costs 6 dollars, approximately 4.73 euros. After payment via credit card or Paypal, the user can download the tracks directly via a torrent client. BitTorrent receives 10 percent of the purchase amount. A single and the accompanying video clip can be downloaded for free and the MP3 tracks with a bitrate of 320kbit/s are free of DRM.

Radiohead producer Nigel Godrich says he and Yorke want to see if paid access to content via BitTorrent bundles can be successful. Yorke, together with Radiohead, has previously released an album independently on the internet, whereby the customer could pick up the music for free or for a self-chosen purchase amount. The Radiohead singer also protested against the music service Spotify last year because it was still in the hands of the traditional music industry and would not give artists enough freedom and too low a fee.