“We saw the opportunity to build what we think will become the leading place for independent content creation,” Matt Mason, the chief content officer for BitTorrent, said of the new fee-based initiative.

Mr. Mason, who has made the point before, once again stressed that his site circulates sharing technology but does not condone piracy. “People wrongly assume we’re about illegal file-sharing,” he said.

Still, BitTorrent has failed in the past to make entertainment buyers of those who use its wares to share content. In 2008, the company shut down a short-lived operation, called BitTorrent Entertainment Network, that had joined Hollywood companies in offering a menu of movie and television downloads for a price.

Mr. Mason, who joined BitTorrent after that venture failed, said he believed it had charged too much — an episode of “Desperate Housewives” cost as much as $20, he noted. At the same time, he said, the undertaking did little to accommodate the habits of BitTorrent visitors, who tend to be male, young and inclined to drill deeply into whatever interests them.

In keeping with the peer-to-peer spirit of that audience, BitTorrent in the last year has made available about 10,000 bundles, each of which is controlled not by the company but by an independent artist or other purveyor. So far, free bundles have been downloaded 100 million times, even though many of them require providing an email address — no small act of trust by some wary BitTorrent users.

When the paywall option is in place for bundles, the artist will charge a fee, not BitTorrent. The site, as the host and distributor, will take a cut — adding a revenue stream, and perhaps genuine growth potential, if Mr. Weber, the still unnamed musician or musicians, or others can deliver a hit.