To keep a seeder

There are some that say that a torrent distribution system like this would not work, it depends too much on the customers. I say no, they just need a bit of encouragement.

While I said before that the music downloaded would be free, I did not clarify. It would be free in real money. You would still have to "purchase" music with fake money.

This is how it would work. When someone signed up for the website, they would get a certain amount of "money" to spend. Each album would have a different cost, depending on its file size. Once a user has used all of their fake money, there would be three ways to get more. The first would be to upload. For every X Mbs you upload you get Y fake dollars. The second would be to refer more users to the website. The third would be to donate to the artists, giving people without the ability to upload a way to purchase music.

You could play around with this idea of fake money even further. Host contests, have raffles, sell merchandise. You can do pretty much anything with fake money that you can do with real money.

The Basics of BitTorrent

Basically this is how BitTorrent works.

The Torrent file
This is the only file the "host" of the distribution site actually needs to distribute. This is a small file that basically works like a map or answer key for the torrent client.

The Client
Users of BitTorrent then have a torrent client that connects to other users. It then downloads small chunks of the larger file little by little from every other user it can connect to that has the same file. It then uses the Torrent file to put the overall file back together. Unlike other protocols where the more users that are connected the slower it runs, in this scenario, the more users one can connect to, the faster the download.

Leecher
Someone who is downloading.

Seeder
Someone who is uploading.

Seed Box
A computer which its sole job is to upload files to other users.

Birth

Torrents.

BitTorrent: a peer-to-peer file sharing (P2P) communications protocol - dictionary.com

When someone mentions BitTorrent, illegal downloading is immediately associated. We need to bring Torrents out from the dark side and into the light.

Here is the basic idea: use BitTorrent as a legitimate distribution system.

The initial idea began with the idea for a new way of distributing music. Since many people already use BitTorrent illegally to get their music, why not take adavantage of that system, and still make money. And here is the kicker, since Torrents work by using primarily the users bandwidth and not the hosts, costs of distribution would be cut considerably. The music could be given to the users for free, legally, and artists could be paid through advertising revenue on the website.

Things that need to be addressed in the future:
This will be a relatively reoccuring section for this blog. Any time I come up with things that still need to be addressed in the future, I will add them here. Then I will add them to a larger list, and slowly work my way down.
-The Basics of BitTorrent
-Keeping Seeders around (fake money for uploading)
-Ways to improve the BitTorrent protocol
-What kind of people would be using the site
-software that could be written to enhance the torrent process
-other types of media or files that could be hosted

NOTE: I do not personally use BitTorrent, but I have done a considerable amount of research as to how it works. I do not condone illegal downloading, which is why I am preposing this solution.