The alpha publishing project BitTorrent Bundles is catching on as a diverse tool for the distribution of content directly to fans. BitTorrent has announced a new Android app and an update to two of their software clients, uTorrent and BitTorrent. The update will make Bundles available to download directly from inside the clients. What does this mean for filmmakers? Read on for more details.
Since 2013 more than 60 million Bundles have been downloaded. Notably the Act of Killing bundle, which provides over an hour of bonus content, has been downloaded almost 4 million times. Their mobile BitTorrent client has also reached a high water mark of 50 million downloads. To see some more statistics on popular Bundles, check out The BitTorrent Report, 2013 Edition.
Here's the scoop on BitTorrent's releases and updates:
Mobile V.2
- A complete overhaul to the Android app, with improved user interface and usability
- Selectable downloads within a torrent and ability to choose download locations
uTorrent 3.4 & BitTorrent 7.8.2
- Integrates BitTorrent Bundle into the client
- Gives BitTorrent Bundle publishers direct exposure to 170 million monthly users
- Establishes a powerful ecosystem within the client for BitTorrent Bundle and the 8,000 + content creators who have signed up for the publishing tool
Theoretically this update makes Bundles much more attractive for publishers, as now there's built-in Bundle curation in their popular torrent applications. How these Bundles with be organized / prioritized is another matter. While Bundles remains in Alpha, the curation remains up to the discretion of the BitTorrent team. But as with all these new distribution methods, no one tool is going to make your film instantly float to the top; that part is up to you, the creator.
The other notable thing about this update is that it will allow for quicker releases from the engineering team in the future. They are saying to expect releases every two weeks moving forward:
We are implementing new processes to allow our engineers to focus on performance and stability issues for a product used by hundreds of millions of users. This means quicker bug fixes and quicker feature introductions.
What do you think? Has BitTorrent's tenacity kept you interested in the potential of these tools for a direct-to-fan distribution model? Speak up in the comments.
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