1. Home

Introducing the Popcorn Time for Music: Aurous

Paul Resnikoff
19

aurous2

Popcorn Time is public enemy no. 1 for Hollywood, with splinter versions still alive and delivering movies despite a ‘shutdown’ back in March.  Because it’s easy to smash a bunch of servers, but virtually impossible to wipe a codebase.

Now, the concept of a BitTorrent-backed media application is coming to the music world.  It’s called Aurous, and it’s based on a BitTorrent-backed search engine called Strike Search.  “What sets Aurous apart is its ability to allow users to search for music, all over the BitTorrent network, using the very same technology that powers Strike Search,” concept developer Andrew Sampson told Torrentfreak.

aurous4

“Even if as a project, development stopped and we shut down our website, the app would still continue functioning without any problems.”

All of which means that regardless of what happens to Sampson, the project could easily expand with a life of its own.  “The app itself is decentralized, nothing routes through any external servers for the primary features,” Sampson continued.  “Even if as a project, development stopped and we shut down our website, the app would still continue functioning without any problems.

“It can look through entire BitTorrent archives in milliseconds to get individual files.”

By comparison, Grooveshark managed files from a central, controllable location, which made it identifiable and liable for massive copyright infringement.  The major labels not only knew the location, they knew the executives, and executed both.  Aurous, by stark comparison, could quickly become a wild, untamed entity, much like Popcorn Time and the Pirate Bay today.

spotifylicensing2014

(Spotify licensing costs, 2010-2014)

It may also offer serious competition for Spotify, a company that has a clean, curated catalog but still has to properly license every last song.  BitTorrent, of course, has none of the same requirements, which makes a clean, streamable torrent presentation a very, very scary possibility for the music industry.

Aurous, available currently at aurous.me, remains in alpha-stage development.

19 Responses

    • dcguzman

      Theyre a week too late. Torrentfreak already covered this on there website. Theyre just click baiting and fear mongering about the dangers of tech companies taking away artists jobs. Just like Rush Limbaugh fear mongering for people to believe his conservative ideals.

      • the REAL dcguzman

        I love to suck on the weenies of the people who write at torrent freak. Unless you could not already tell. That is how Darnell does it

  5. Anonymous

    Torrentfreak… does that still exist?

    Can’t imagine what anybody would use a site like that for today.

  6. PiratesWinLOL

    This is great 😀

    And now they are also planning to release apps for Android and iOS also. What more could anyone want? I bet Taylor Swift & friends won’t like it and boycutt it though xD Perhaps she can window her releases for around 2 seconds if she try very, very hard.

    Anyone who want to get rid of the Spotify free version btw? I heard some people don’t like it and that it shouldn’t exist anymore. Perhaps you prefer this.

  7. Anonymous

    It’ll never be as big as Adblock Plus!

    Get that, and you’ll never see another annoying ad on Digital Music News!

  8. Rick

    It’s an important story for sure. But at the end I was distracted by the chart for Spotify licensing fees. Are artists really unhappy about 1 company contributing almost 1 billion dollars into their pockets? Let’s get serious, follow the money, and start pointing fingers at the real culprits.

  9. [email protected]

    I think the question of scale applies. One guy steals all of your money, while the other guy only takes 90% of it. So we wind up loving the more generous thief.

    • Paul Resnikoff

      Interesting. I was at Future of Music Policy I think a few years back, and it was floated that piracy may be essentially the same a streaming platforms like Spotify, in terms of actual payouts to artists. If you’re a major label artist getting nothing from either, who cares? It’s more than just a theoretical musing.

      In other areas, we’re seeing people driving fans to the ‘least worst’ royalty-paying service: with Ellie Goulding, she’s now driving traffic from YouTube to Spotify and Apple Music.

    • Troglite

      IMHO, that’s a really good way of looking at it. At least with the pirates, the laws are working in the musician’s favor. Legally empowering streaming companies to rip you off actually seems worse in that regard… unless of course you happen to own a % of those streaming companies (as the major labels do).