POSTED BY Rebecca Rubin
Perhaps taking note of U2’s largely undesirable infiltration of users’ iTunes accounts with their recent album release, Radiohead front-man, Thom Yorke, turned to the controversial BitTorrent platform to debut his newest solo record. In his swift attempt to appeal to the public’s infatuation with digital media, Yorke has successfully garnered over 1,000,000 downloads of his record in just one short week.
Yorke, who has been vocal in the past about his determinations to directly connect music to the audience and has vehemently opposed companies like Spotify for standing in the way of that goal, released his second solo album Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes on September 26, 2014. In what some may deem an unconventional choice, Yorke partnered with BitTorrent to release his album via BitTorrent Bundle for the reasonable price of $6.00. BitTorrent allows for peer-to-peer file transfer where portions of media are downloaded from multiple users, allowing for an efficient way to share large high-quality data over the Internet with little interference with Internet bandwidth. BitTorrent has had the data piracy finger pointed at it for years, as many of its related client websites provide for easy free downloading of licensed content. Additionally, BitTorrent has suffered some backlash for a large bulk of files transferred through the use of client sites containing malware, or malicious, virus-containing software.
BitTorrent Bundle began as an experimental means for the payout to go directly to the artist, while the fans purchase a full album for a cheap price. Through this method and agreement, BitTorrent accrues 10% of the profit, while Yorke and other artists reap 90% of the payout through the pay-gate feature. Payments can be made via credit card or PayPal. The Bundle even allows for a download of one song and one video for free, so consumers can preview their purchase. With the Bundle software, media is packaged into torrent files, and by entering an email address, consumers unlock and unload their purchased bundle of music, video, or other digital media.
Bio: Rebecca is a 3L at Suffolk University Law School and Lead Note Editor of the Journal of High Technology Law. She is concentrating in Trial & Appellate Advocacy and focusing her studies on family law. Rebecca graduated from UMass Amherst with a B.A. in Legal Studies and as a member of the Commonwealth College honors program.
