How Swarm Downloads Work
When you click "Download" on a recording, your browser joins a BitTorrent swarm using WebTorrent. Instead of everyone downloading from the server simultaneously, users share pieces with each other over WebRTC.
How the swarm forms
The first user pulls the file from the server (via a WebSeed). The second user gets pieces from both the server and the first user. By the third user, most data flows peer-to-peer.
WebSeed fallback
If no other users are downloading at the same time, the browser falls back to fetching the entire file from the server's HTTP endpoint — the same as a traditional download. There is no degradation, only improvement.
For desktop clients
A magnet link and .torrent file are available for each recording, usable with any standard BitTorrent client.