BitTorrent Rolls out BT Apps and Debuts Award Winning Film ‘Four Eyed Monsters’

November 10, 2010

Tools

SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- BitTorrent Inc., a technology company engineering transformative new products to accelerate the discovery, distribution and delivery of media over the Internet, today announced the immediate general availability of its new μTorrent client featuring the App Studio.

The App Studio, a development framework that enables programmers to build extensions on the BitTorrent platform that create richer one-click media experiences for consumers, launched in the company’s BitTorrent Mainline software to 15 million users in September. Previously, only available in the lab versions of μTorrent, today’s release makes apps available to all of its 65 million users. The Apps Studio offers users a one-stop destination to unique content within the software, including TEDTalks, films from VODO, and music from ClearBits. Other popular apps include social media/sharing feature enhancements and RSS feeds, plus utility apps TuneUp and BitDefender’s VirusGuard and games from Raptr and Outspark.

“We are very excited to be one of BitTorrent’s first partners in this initial roll out of apps,” said Gabe Adiv, CEO of TuneUp. “We believe that this partnership presents a compelling opportunity for us to grow our user base while providing BitTorrent users with software that will extend the functionality of the client and enhance their overall experience.”

To celebrate the milestone and continue with the artist experiments started last summer, BitTorrent also released the award winning film ‘Four Eyed Monsters,’ a docudrama that chronicles the relationship of a couple who meet on the Internet and fall in love through emails, notes, videos and pictures, to users as a free download in partnership with VODO. Starting today, the film will be available within BitTorrent Mainline and μTorrent as a custom app where consumers can download the film with one click and access the film’s website, social media properties and a donations link.

“The barriers to filmmaking have fallen, but the gates around distribution through traditional TV, theatrical and video-on-demand remain locked,” said Arin Crumley, creator and star of ‘Four Eyed Monsters.’ “With a user base of over 80 million, BitTorrent is exposing our film to an audience larger than many television networks and fostering a direct connection between audiences and filmmakers. The creators who embrace this modern approach will encourage a new culture of audiences who support the production of movies they want to see and help distribute the ones in which they fall in love.”

The release of ‘Four Eyed Monsters’ comes on the heels of a string of successful BitTorrent releases with other artists. In June the company released a pilot episode of ‘Pioneer One’ with VODO. It has been downloaded over a million times and has received over $33,000 in donations and a sponsorship with MOFILM. A month later the company teamed up with VODO again to release ‘The Yes Men Fix the World –P2P Edition.’ It has been downloaded over two million times and has raised over $31,000 in donations and merchandise sales. The most recent release was of PAZ’s debut mix tape, ‘Young Broke and Fameless.’ To date, it has been downloaded 500,000 times.

This is part of a broader initiative by BitTorrent to bridge the gap between content creators and consumers through the App Studio and other promotions. In September, the company announced a Featured Artist Pilot Program, which encourages musicians and filmmakers to submit creative works for the chance to be spotlighted to millions of BitTorrent users around the world. BitTorrent worked with torrent site and artists advocate VODO to connect with Four Eyed Monsters creators.

“Giving content creators a platform to connect with consumers is not only a step towards bridging the gap in the digital divide, but is also an evolution in new media distribution and business models,” said Eric Klinker, CEO of BitTorrent. “Our work with partners like TuneUp and the creators of ‘Four Eyed Monsters’ are significant steps in helping improve the discovery, distribution and delivery of digital media.”

This updated version of μTorrent also includes several feature enhancements, including full support for μTP, an upgraded lightweight BitTorrent protocol, transport and congestion control support; improved magnet link handling; file relocation features; and many more.

About BitTorrent

BitTorrent engineers transformative open technologies and products to accelerate the discovery, distribution and delivery of digital media over the Internet, bringing the world's open license movies, music, games and apps to over 80 million enthusiasts worldwide. The company's two main products today include the original BitTorrent software and the tiny-but-mighty µTorrent. BitTorrent is based in San Francisco, Calif. and currently has 40 employees. More information is available at www.bittorrent.com, and the SDK for apps development can be found here.