BitTorrent has been busy this year. First they introduced SoShare in February, BitTorrent Live in March and BitTorrent Surf just last month. Now they’ve announced a new file format called the BitTorrent bundle. I’d try and describe it for you, but it’s probably best if I let the guys behind it do that instead:

The BitTorrent Bundle is not an album, an MP3, or an MOV. It’s a multimedia format. It’s an early build of a new type of torrent file where fan interaction, like email collection or donation, happens inside the torrent.

BitTorrent’s first partner in trying out the new format is Ultra, the music label for artists such as David Guetta and deadmau5. Their first Bundle will be a download that contains a free song by Kaskade and a behind-the-scenes video of his 2012 tour. But, here’s where the Bundle is different from any regular torrent: If you choose to provide your email address so they can provide you with updates (basically as a sort of payment), you’ll unlock “unreleased footage from his historic 2012’s Staples Center show, as well as an exclusive digital tour booklet.”

To put what they’re trying to accomplish with this new file format in a nutshell, here are three questions that they posed in their announcement:

But what if the record store was inside the album instead?

What if every single piece of content could function as a flyer, and a standalone storefront?

What if you could code a checkout counter into each media file published by an artist?

It’s definitely an interesting move for BitTorrent, whose technology and file format is more closely associated with the not-so-legal sort of content acquisition. But if the format is utilized by the right people in the right ways, it might just be here to stay.

What do you think of the BitTorrent’s bundle? Let us know in the comments!

[via BitTorrent, TheNextWeb]