The Livetree Adept main sale is now LIVE: https://secure.livetree.com/#!/seed/
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LiveTree is an established, socially responsible crowdfunding company based in London, UK. Over the last two years, it has captured 5% of the UK crowdfunding market (in the film and content category) and forged partnerships with several leading names in film, TV and content creation, including the British Film Institute’s Future Film, the Screen Arts Institute, Kent Film Office, Film London and 20 organisations. LiveTree has compiled a contact directory of 14,000 companies and thousands of individuals who work across film, TV and content creation.
PLATFORM SUMMARY
Armed with the learnings from the success of its current revenue generating platform, LiveTree is now ready to launch ADEPT (Advanced Decentralized Platform for Transparent distribution). The new platform supports projects throughout their entire life cycle, from creation through distribution to funding. It is a model that not only reimagines LiveTree’s existing operation, but the entire creative, film, TV and content industry.
Funding: unique project financing
ADEPT offers two new and unprecedented funding returns, as well as a funding model:
• Profit share return: This option enables backers to earn a percentage of any sales. For example, if a project creator opts to use Blossom TV, backers earn a percentage of each pay-per-view.
• IP rights return: Several contracts covering various IP transfer options are available, including per-territory, per-episode and per-license-period. This is discussed further in the Digital Rights Management (DRM) technical section of the whitepaper.
• Milestone-reached’ model: The crowdfunding industry currently has two models. The first is the ‘all-or-nothing’ model under which, if the funding target is not met, the funds are returned to the backers. For example, if the target raise is $1,000 and $999 is raised, the funds are returned. The second model is ‘keep-what-you-raise’, under which the creator keeps any funds raised. For example, if the target is $1,000 and $999 is raised, the creator keeps what has been pledged. ADEPT introduces a third completely new model: ‘milestone-reached’. Under this system, a milestone target is set and backers’ funds are only released upon sign-off. For example, the creator sets two milestones, the first at $1,000 and the second at $2,000. Backers pre-fund the first $1,000, which is released only upon sign-off (or a timeout). This process is repeated with every pre-set milestone. If a dispute occurs an arbitration process takes place similar to the current LiveTree (e-Bay-style) resolution procedure.
ADEPT is the first platform to offer content creators a combination of reward-based crowdfunding, profit share and IP revenue. Its ‘milestone-reached’ funding model is also unique. These are made possible through the use of smart contracts and decentralized technology. All contract fees and payments in Seed drive demand for Seed and, as a result, its value. These innovations alone will assist ADEPT in becoming the market leader in the global $1bn crowdfunding industry for film, TV and content.
Distribution: Blossom decentralized channel
Using the network effect of potentially hundreds of thousands of team members, content creators can decide how best to market and distribute their work. ADEPT supports three possible distribution scenarios:
• Blossom: This is a revolutionary new online channel operated by ADEPT. Initially, it will operate purely using ADEPT’s unique pre-pay-to-view (PPVOD) model in order to capture market share. This enables fans to pre-pay for the content they want to watch. It is envisaged that independent content-makers and the LiveTree Incubators will be early adopters. Subscription (Netflix style), advertising (YouTube style) and pay-per-view models will be added as professional content makers take Blossom mainstream.
Blossom TV provides a direct, peer-to-peer connection between content creators and viewers. Scoring and sharing content is encouraged and tracked through Blossom digital rights management (DRM) and rewarded in Seed. Blossom provides viewers an entirely new interactive experience. It is envisaged consumers will be able to cast and choose what gets made in a fully interactive fun ‘gamified’ fashion.
• Online streaming: This distribution model utilizes the popularity of YouTube and Vimeo to create a migration path to Blossom. It is suitable for professionals and emerging content-makers that want to gain exposure and build popularity for their projects. This option recognizes that these channels are extremely popular, and remain powerful channels for capturing market share. (Note: Google requires its users to have a special ‘partner’ account. Vimeo has similar requirements for accessing APIs and realizing revenue)
• Traditional broadcasters: This model provides access to broadcasters with existing infrastructure (for TV and cinematic releases). Traditionally, license contracts are negotiated between established content-makers and sales executives. Currently this negotiation process can take months and, in some cases, years. ADEPT smart contracts reduce this complexity, giving distributors more time to negotiate more sales, meaning more content gets to market. Additionally, ADEPT Analytics scoring system provides an efficient way to match content creators with distributors who are seeking fresh new content.
Blossom represents the distribution point of an entirely new, game-changing market that is set to revolutionize the industry. It provides professional content-makers transparent viewing statistics (something centralized providers such as Netflix and Amazon refuse to provide to producers), transparent digital rights management and gamification (note DRM which is currently locked into centralized solutions provided by corporates such as Microsoft, Google and Apple), efficiency gains for contract negotiations with traditional sales executives and emerging content makers the first ever pre-pay to view service, empowering the consumer to Seed their choice of what gets made. Blossom provides consumers a new level of interactivity. They get to choose, where appropriate, who stars in the next episode, film or content, what gets funded and are ultimately rewarded for scoring and promoting the project in Seed.
All revenues derived from Blossom (subscriptions, ads, pay-per-view, pre-pay) will be paid in Seed, again creating demand and raising its expected value.
THE SEED SALE
