How does peer-to-peer file-sharing advance an artist’s career? Believe it or not, “free” really is associated with some of the best things in life. Read on (thanks, Storify) to find out how DJ Pretty Lights attained a whole new level of profit, success, and exposure for his music by partnering with BitTorrent.

On December 1, 2011, DJ Pretty Lights (Derek Vincent Smith) released 3 EPs, through BitTorrent, to over 100 million music enthusiasts in 165 countries. Currently, the BitTorrent bundle has received over 7 million downloads and Smith has added 80,000 subscribers to his mailing list along with 40,000 new Facebook fans.

How does P2P advance an artist's career? Find out tomorrow, 5/30, as @mattmason19 talks about how partnering with @BitTorrent helped #PrettyLights reach over 7 million downloads of their musicbittorrent

The National Association of Recording Industry Professionals (NARIP) hosted a panel discussion on Wednesday, May 30th, at the SAE Institute in San Francisco.

San Francisco - Join @HishamDahud and @BitTorrent's @MattMason for @NARIP's 5/30 event on how P2P advances the artist: https://bit.ly/IlzyGRhypebot

Moderating the NARIP event tonight. (@ SAE San Francisco) https://4sq.com/JXD89fMichael Brandvold

RT @michaelsb: Heading out to the SF @narip event tonight with @HishamDahud and @BitTorrent going to be really interesting discussion.Hisham Dahud

The discussion started off with an explanation of BitTorrent, what it is (a technology that moves large files across the Internet), and why it should be embraced.

The #narip event has kicked off w/ a discussion of BitTorrent's historybittorrent

RT @BitTorrent: "We think of ourselves as the world's #1 content delivery system....also, BitTorrent the most downloaded software in history." #naripHoward

500,000 to 700,000 people install BitTorrent & µTorrent's software everyday. That's a huge audience to put an artist in front of...

"What we're trying to figure out: How do we create a long-term, sustainable solution for content creators." - @MattMason #naripBitTorrent Inc.

Some of the more pertinent arguments made throughout the evening included the fact that people are universally inclined, and more likely, to pay for something they can get for free. Bottled water is a good example of this concept...

"File-sharers really like content and they're willing to engage with it and purchase more from the artists." - @MattMason #naripBitTorrent Inc.

BitTorrent doesn't solely exist to help companies like Facebook & Twitter move large chunks of info across the Internet or for artists to gain mass exposure. Helping others is another priority and TED videos + the Khan Academy, an organization dedicated to educating children, also benefit from this technology...

"Content has freed countries and changed the world. We've helped Khan Academy deliver over 90 million lessons to date." - #naripBitTorrent Inc.

Next up: a look inside the BitTorrent x Pretty Lights campaignbittorrent

As mentioned above, due to partnering with BitTorrent, in 3 months time, Pretty Lights gained 40,000 new Facebook fans, a 700% increase in site traffic, 80,000 new email subscribers, and 7 million downloads from new fans in BitTorrent's ecosystem...

The Attention Economy: there is so much to consume, it's overwhelming. Attention matters. Overall: It has to be great content. #naripBitTorrent Inc.

Fame House's Hisham Dahud starts talking about how DJ Pretty Lights gives his music to fans for free and makes it a point to establish a strong presence on as many relevant platforms as possible. This way he can constantly engage and connect with people.

Hisham Dahud of @FameHouse on the Pretty Lights x BitTorrent partnershipBit_Torrent

"What Pretty Lights did was find many ways (video, music) for people to engage with them. BitTorrent provided the distribution." #naripBitTorrent Inc.

#crowd #peace #musicfans #lights #photo #people #photos #photography #instagram #silhouette #music #livemusic #live #lights #rescuerooms #nottingham Mark Barron ������������

If you've built up a relationship w/ fans, & given free content, they will reward you in ways you couldn't imagine (intrinsic value) #naripBitTorrent Inc.

To illustrate Hisham Dahud's point, the case of artist Amanda Palmer was brought up. A year ago, she was struggling to sell records to her fans. Then she starting building up an incredible online presence through Twitter, her blog, Facebook, and YouTube - to name a few. She gave her music away for free. 

Turning "free" into profits. The @amandapalmer @kickstarter story is brought up as a great example of building an online fan base. #naripBitTorrent Inc.

Just the other day, it was announced that she raised over $1 million dollars, to record her next album, via Kickstarter.

.@AmandaPalmer raises $1 million on Kickstarter, celebrates with concert, webstream. https://avc.lu/KZnBJZThe AV Club

#AmandaPalmer #CrowdSurfing #Coachella #Music #Badass By #LindseyByrnesCynthia Beltran

Everyone in attendance seemed to agree that the advice presented in this seminar was very timely and useful.

@bittorrent Great seminar at #NARIP! Thanks.Frank Colin

RT @BitTorrent: Thanks to everyone for tuning into our #narip updates. The whole story will be summed up in this post tomorrow morning: https://storify.com/BitTorrent/how-file-sharing-advances-an-artistChristian Sanz

From left to right: FameHouse's Hisham Dahud, BitTorrent's Matt Mason, and KISS School of Marketing's Michael BrandvoldBit_Torrent