First, LBRY is a new protocol that allows anyone to create applications that interact with digital content on the LBRY network. Applications created using the protocol allow creators to submit their work to the LBRY host network (like BitTorrent), to set a price per stream or download (like iTunes) or distribute it for free (like YouTube without ads) . The work you publish can be videos, audio files, documents or any other type of file. Traditional video sites (or other content), such as YouTube, Instagram and Spotify, store your uploads on their servers and allow viewers to download them. They also allow content creators to earn money from advertising or other mechanisms. However, there are some known disadvantages, especially for people whose material is perceived to be unfavorable to the advertiser.

Everything built to power LBRY is open source and designed to be controlled by the general public. Hundreds of developers contributed to the main code bases that empower LBRY and thousands of other members of the community helped in other ways: recruiting creators, executing translations, creating graphics and more. Although there is a company behind LBRY called LBRY Inc., we try to tie our own hands as much as possible, so that we can never become a megacorp without an evil face. By making everything open source and standardized, anyone in the world can move away from LBRY with everything intact (or create a new, better version).