A Web 3.0 Side Story

Spotify the prolific and probably most desired music streaming service available today is available to a select few countries. If you live in Canada however you are one of the unlucky who cannot access Spotify due primarily to license restrictions that prevent the service from launching a viable service north of the border.

There is however hope. If you are dead set on getting access to Spotify here in Canada there is an alternative method. The following method has been tested and it works. Follow the steps and in a few short minutes you will have access. Getting Spotify in Canada is NOT free however in addition to the Spotify subscription fee you will be required to pay for an alternate method to circumvent the geographic restriction methods Spotify employs.

Step 1. Obtain a new Facebook Account

Spotify now requires a Facebook account for authentication. The service is tightly integrated with Facebook. You may be able to use your existing account however I’ve not tested whether it uses any geographic data from Facebook to further determine  your location. I created a new FB account just to avoid any of that hassle. I did not add any friends at this time and only the required information was added… nothing more.

Step 2. Get an Unblock-us Account

This service is the only service I’ve found that provides access to most US based online services by routing your DNS traffic through a US proxy of sorts. I don’t know any more about how there tech works however I do know there is NO noticeable decrease in performance unlike solutions that involve VPN routing. This account will cost you $4.99 CAD month. With this service you can also access US Netflix, Pandora and other geo protected services such as HULU. You can use a trial service as well to see how you like it. The setup is straight forward and will require you to either 1) enter a new DNS address into your local PC/Mac (only affects that PC/Mac) OR 2) Enter the new DNS address into your home router which enables the service for all PC/Mac computers in your home network (I do the later).

The service is located here http://unblock-us.com/. Go setup the service and come back once you are done to complete the steps.

Step 3. Get an Entropay.com Account

Entropay is a virtual Visa card service. This service provides a real “virtual” Visa credit card which you can use to purchase goods online just like a real Visa. You create an account, load the card with funds using a real CC. The service provides you with a real Visa card number, expiry date, name on card, security code, etc.

Go setup the account here. http://www.entropay.com/. When finished come back and continue the steps below. You are almost done.

Step 4. Create a US Paypal Account

This like the other steps are necessary and will allow you to use your Canadian Paypal account to forward funds from the Canadian PP to the US Paypal. You will not be using the Entropay visa card to seed funds in the US PP. This will become obvious later. While setting up the US PP you will be asked to add a CC as a verification step. This is not a requirement. You can skip this step. Once your US PP is setup go ahead and transfer $10 initially from the Canadian PP to the US PP. You now have funds you can use to subscribe to Spotify.

Go ahead now and setup your US Paypal account. It is important to note that you will need to find a real US address. Go online and lookup any US business address and use that. www.paypal.com. When you have setup and seeded funds to your US PP account come back and complete the final step… the actual Spotify Subscription…. so close.. almost there.

Step 5. Final Step – Spotify Subscription

Now you are ready to subscribe to Spotify. Head on over to Spotify.com and choose which subscription service you want. Will be asked to create an account using Facebook. This is where you will use the FB account setup earlier. Do not use your personal FB account as this method is not tested. You will be asked to choose a payment method. Choose Paypal. You will then be redirected to PP for completion of the subscription agreement. You may be asked to verify the subscription using your CC, if so then use the card above. One the confirmation screen you will be able to specify which funding source… choose the funds already ($10 from above) you currently have in the PP account.

That’s it!

As with most online services the steps above are subject to change over time. If you encounter a different path let us know and we’ll update the article.

Enjoy listening to your new subscription of Spotify in Canada.

It all starts with your friends. If you’re like me and you like to keep in contact with those who are out and about probably one of the first questions that come up is “where are you”. The next question might go something like this “cool you’re next to Bestbuy have you checked out the latest xxx product?”. Or it might be “how close are you? Shall I order a beer for you?”.

With Apple’s latest iPhone announcement managing those relationships gets a little easier. Apple introduced Siri, a personal assistant ala “Kit” from Knight Rider. With Siri you can ask it questions using natural conversation… Want to reschedule an appointment, while pushing out another meeting and book lunch reservations… No problem just ask Siri and it will be done. Siri will present to you a list of conflicts and suggest options. Want to test message your friends? No problem just ask Siri. It’s not too far to imagine that Siri using another iPhone 4s feature (friend locator) will also be able to alert you based on the proximity of your friends… Or how about notifying you that your friends are within proximity of a part of town where you would be heading soon to pickup a parcel… Why not ask them to pick it up for you?

Now you are starting to see the power of the iPhone 4s. Apple has jumped and leapfrogged everyone else not just by introducing Siri and location awareness but it’s blending of these technologies into a social networking management platform. This is just the beginning, if and when apple opens it’s APIs up not it’s developer community you will being to see amazing new apps that will take the platform far beyond.

Today is the day… Prepare yourself.

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/facebook-music-about-press-play-135015

Google announces launch of new automatic voice recognition transcription service for YouTube videos. This new service aims to bridge the accessibility gap between rich media and the growing number of user around the globe who flock to YouTube as a source of entertainment and education with different language requirements.

While this new capability has been in the works for some time by the engineering genius at Google this beta launch represents a breakthrough step for Google. While this technology will certainly benefit users of different languages the real winner here will be Google and its video advertising service.

Read more about automatic captions on YouTube. http://googlepublicpolicy.blogspot.com/2009/11/automatic-captions-on-youtube.html

The 78 year old media tycon just might be shooting his company and shareholders in the foot if his plans to block Google from indexing his content go through.

In an interview with Sky News Australia, the mogul said that newspapers in his media empire – including the Sun, the Times and the Wall Street Journal – would consider blocking Google entirely once they had enacted plans to charge people for reading their stories on the web.

“The people who simply just pick up everything and run with it – steal our stories, we say they steal our stories – they just take them,” he said. “That’s Google, that’s Microsoft, that’s Ask.com, a whole lot of people … they shouldn’t have had it free all the time, and I think we’ve been asleep.”

Additionally, Murdoch who owns MySpace has been struggling with competition from Facebook potentially could fall short of lucrative advertising revenue from Google. How ironic isn’t it that on one hand Murdoch would gladly reap the rewards of such a relationship with Google but on the other hand want to jeopardize the relationship.

Read the article here. http://www.nextmedia-source.com/frame.php?id=7967634

I attended the Fuel Industries April Fuels Day career event last night and it was a amazing! For those of you who do not know Fuel Industries and no its not related to Husky Oil, Shell or any other energy behemoth but in the interactive branded application world they are rising stars.

The event was hosted in their swanky San Francisco’isc style office which includes full production recording studio (Fuel Sounds) and HD Cinema studio (Karbon Arc). Essentially its a full-service creative agency which reminded me of visits I did to Disney’s production studios. You have animators, flash, web, iphone and other mobile development all under one roof.

The event was well received from what I could tell. There were people from all backgrounds showing off their wares. I was a little taken aback when Boba Fett arrived in full armour… didn’t know intergalactice bounty hunter gigs were a little slow these days! But its all cool right.

All in all the guys were real cool and passionate about what they do and the industry is taking notice. McDonalds, HBO, Nokia, Microsoft and the GAP have noticed as well and that is why they have selected Fuel to provided branded online experiences for them.

If you’ve not checked out their work I’d suggest you head on over there now before you are the last one around the water cooler talking about these guys.

www.fuelindustries.com

LinkedIn Group

For those of you who are connected with LinkedIn and those who should be I’ve started a new group for Social Network professionals. The groups mandate is to provide a forum for thought leadership and discussion and to ultimately find ways to add value while monetizing those networks.

So what are you waiting for… join today!

http://www.linkedin.com/groupRegistration?gid=1873184

The Ontario Gov’t recently announced a new fund called the Ontario Emerging Technologies Fund. Basically the fund looks to invest $250 million dollars over five years together with qualified venture capital funds and private sector investors.

“The move is a response to the challenges emerging technology companies are experiencing in raising venture capital due to tightening credit markets. The long-term goal of the fund is to create a dynamic, vibrant venture capital community that will help Ontario companies grow and compete globally.”

QUICK FACTS

• The fund is targeted at companies working in clean technology, life sciences, digital media and information communication technology.
• Eligible companies must have a significant corporate footprint in Ontario.
• The goal is for the fund to be self-sustaining through return on investment.

The program starts in July. You can get more info from their website.

http://www.mri.gov.on.ca/english/news/ETF031809.asp

If you combine this with the recent announcment by TeleFilm Canada (e.g. $14 million funding) and with a little help from private sector you can see how these funding sources can add up quickly.

Now to start thinking of that next big idea.

While most every western based online service company, blogger and social media outlets fight it out for a share of the domestic market you should be thinking global!

That’s right think global is not a unfamiliar term and we hear it all the time however the new spin is that we don’t necessarily think global with English based content and new media. For instance Chinese and Koreans between the age of 18-35 are well trained with English curriculum as part of their traditional schooling. They can read and write English probably better than some cultural groups here in North America. What they lack however is the immerse cultural experiences. For instance Chinese consumers spend billions per year on North American brands with a very large proportion of that spending on new media…

According to a 2006 UPS Consumer Preference Study on China…

“More than three-quarters of Chinese consumers who plan to purchase books, music or video intend to buy an American DVD this year…”

This is where I see the opportunity. Individuals and organizations who are able to see an opportunity with their English only products and services that both meet the demand for immersive western culture while making it fun and interactive will take advantage of this new market.

McGraw Hill’s BusinessWeek Magazine was one of the first to see this opportunity while I worked with a Canadian company who developed an online edutainment platform. What we developed for BusinessWeek was a online experience using their English only content assets to bring global news and opinion to a non-English audience who wanted to enhance their existing English skills while having fun and learning at the same time. The product launched as BusinessWeek Business as a Second Language (www.businessweekbsl.com).

While others are fighting it out over the same limited set of users savvy individuals and companies should look to international markets especially if they have something that falls into the edutainment space. There is gold in them there hills only the gold is across “the pond”.