Skip to main content
  1. Home
  2. Web
  3. News

Digital Trends may earn a commission when you buy through links on our site. Why trust us?

BitTorrent dives into Spotify’s world with on-demand streaming app BitTorrent Now

By

Even now, some may still associate the BitTorrent name with the shady activities its namesake protocol can be used for, but when the company first launched its Bundle platform in 2013, that was pretty much all it was associated with. When the Bundle platform became available to all artists in 2014 to help them distribute and be paid for their work, whether that work was music, video, or anything else, it was clear that the company’s technology could indeed be used for good.

Now BitTorrent (the company, not the protocol) is ready to take the Bundle platform even further, and it’s starting by renaming the platform BitTorrent Now and adding both audio and video streaming in addition to the downloads the service already offered. The platform is now available in more places thanks to new apps and, perhaps most interesting, ad-supported streaming in the vein of Spotify and other services is now supported in addition to paid downloads.

Recommended Videos

BitTorrent Now will also be much more widely available than the Bundle platform thanks to the addition of mobile apps. In addition to being accessible via the web, BitTorrent Now apps are now available for iOS, Apple TV, and Android. No apps for other smart TV platforms like Roku or Amazon Fire TV have been announced so far. The Android app will be available today, with iOS and Apple TV following shortly.

As part of the platform refresh, a number of artists are releasing new content via BitTorrent Now starting today. Rapper and digital artist Yung Jake, Nashville folk singer Caleb Groh, and Brooklyn-based alternative band Caveman are among those releasing new music, while a number of new series including documentary web series We Are San Marino and Back on Track are premiering today as well. If none of those names sound familiar, that’s sort of the point: the goal is to help users find new and exciting music, films, and other media

The Bundle platform first kicked off what BitTorrent refers to as paygates in 2014 with Thom Yorke’s Tomorrow’s Modern Boxes. The album, sold as a $6 downloadable Bundle, may have made Yorke over $20 million in a year. Even so, streaming — especially free streaming — is more popular than ever, so the addition of ad-supported free streaming was almost a necessity.

BitTorrent claims that the Bundle platform was created “to give artists options. Not rules.” As part of continuing that ideal, BitTorrent Now aims to give filmmakers, musicians, and other artists more data about their fans, and to help fans know more about their favorite artists, with the ability to follow specific artists in a manner similar to platforms like Spotify.

BitTorrent Now is far from the only way BitTorrent is aiming to make content easier to share. Last month the company unveiled its BitTorrent Live streaming-video platform, while earlier this week a job listing pointed toward the company preparing its own live news channel for the platform.

Download for Android

Updated on 06-23-2016 by Kristofer Wouk: Edited to clarify that video streaming is also available

Topics
Kris Wouk
Kris Wouk
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Kris Wouk is a tech writer, gadget reviewer, blogger, and whatever it's called when someone makes videos for the web. In his…
How to change margins in Google Docs
Laptop Working from Home

When you create a document in Google Docs, you may need to adjust the space between the edge of the page and the content --- the margins. For instance, many professors have requirements for the margin sizes you must use for college papers.

You can easily change the left, right, top, and bottom margins in Google Docs and have a few different ways to do it.

Read more
What is Microsoft Teams? How to use the collaboration app
A close-up of someone using Microsoft Teams on a laptop for a videoconference.

Online team collaboration is the new norm as companies spread their workforce across the globe. Gone are the days of primarily relying on group emails, as teams can now work together in real time using an instant chat-style interface, no matter where they are.

Using Microsoft Teams affords video conferencing, real-time discussions, document sharing and editing, and more for companies and corporations. It's one of many collaboration tools designed to bring company workers together in an online space. It’s not designed for communicating with family and friends, but for colleagues and clients.

Read more
Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs
A person using a laptop that displays various Microsoft Office apps.

For the last few decades, Microsoft Word has been the de facto standard for word processors across the working world. That's finally starting to shift, and it looks like one of Google's productivity apps is the heir apparent. The company's Google Docs solution (or to be specific, the integrated word processor) is cross-platform and interoperable, automatically syncs, is easily shareable, and perhaps best of all, is free.

However, using Google Docs proves it still has a long way to go before it can match all of Word's features -- Microsoft has been developing its word processor for over 30 years, after all, and millions still use Microsoft Word. Will Google Docs' low barrier to entry and cross-platform functionality win out? Let's break down each word processor in terms of features and capabilities to help you determine which is best for your needs.
How does each word processing program compare?
To put it lightly, Microsoft Word has an incredible advantage over Google Docs in terms of raw technical capability. From relatively humble beginnings in the 1980s, Microsoft has added new tools and options in each successive version. Most of the essential editing tools are available in Google Docs, but users who are used to Word will find it limited.

Read more