The Spotify Stars Program Marks 10 Years!

[Melody]

10 Years of the Spotify Stars Program

In 2013, a year after the Community launched and one user had been spotted helping hundreds of others in the Community, the team was inspired to officially start the Stars Program! The idea was to create a place for like minded Spotify lovers who have a passion for helping others, to get closer to Spotify and earn rewards for their amazing efforts. Back then this was known as ‘The Rock Star Program’, and the idea really took off! It’s where this all began.

This November, a decade on, we’re so excited to have been celebrating 10 Years of the now titled ‘Spotify Stars Program’ together as a team. We’ve been marking the occasion in a number of ways, and we wanted to share a little about that with you today. In this blog we’ll be giving you a chance to share the joy of 10 years with us, and also gain an insight into the program and what goes on! We often shout here in the Community about the Stars incredible help posts, chat engagement posts, projects and testing opportunities, but there’s still much more that happens behind the scenes.

The Star Call!
To kick us off, let’s chat Star Calls! Each month in the program, we get together virtually for a ‘Star Call’. We try to meet at a time that sits nicely between all of our timezones (that's not easy!), for us to catch up regularly as a team - Community staff and Stars. The theme of our calls ranges, from introductions to wider Spotify teams where we engage and ask questions, to more casual calls spent chatting with each other and playing games! 

To mark the 10 year ‘birthday’ we spent the call reminiscing, taking a trip down memory lane. Although not all Stars in the program have been around the whole ten years of course, it doesn’t take long to make friends (and memories!), so we looked back on many of our favourite times through videos and stories. We laughed, chatted, and watched messages sent in from old Community team members and Legend Stars (who have now moved on to new things, but still look back fondly).

During the call one Star @Soundofus then shared a highlight of theirs, which was Spotify Star Jam 2019! Soundofus had been one of the lucky 5 making a once in a lifetime trip to the NYC office.

​​"Star Jam 2019 in New York city was a great experience. Beside different meetings with various Teams at Spotify Offices, we had the opportunity to combine serious work and testing products with entertainment.” - @Soundofus 

Here's one of the photos Soundofus shared from Spotify Star Jam 2019!

Our yearly event ‘The Jam’ which has taken place in the likes of Stockholm, NYC, and even virtually some years came up as a cherished life-long memory for a lot of people when looking back. The stories shared really showed how this virtual or in-person event creates an unforgettable moment of connection bringing us together year on year. 

During the call, another Star received some pretty high praise for having been in the program since 2014, and still being one of our most active today! Do you know who they are?! Finally, we were also super excited to see our newest Star join, so we all got to say Hello and give them a sneak peek of the type of experiences on offer in the program!

Swag:

Another way we ‘looked back’ this November was by gifting Stars an item of their choice from our old Star Program Swag inventory! Stars all got to select one piece of Spotify Swag from the list, such as a hoodie, a beanie hat or an umbrella to name a few, to be shipped to them. Some of the items still had old program logos on, and had a sort of ‘retro’ feel to them. It was super cool looking back at all the pieces, and it’s always a laugh when we enter calls wearing matching shirts or hats.

Badges:

Finally, one of the coolest things about the program is how involved Stars are in all elements of it. Our 10 year celebration Community badge (which was awarded to all Stars), was created by Star @Luan himself! We’re so impressed with Luan’s design work, and it’s fantastic to see so many skills being expressed here. Luan has designed many logos, banners and badges now for Star Program events and content pieces, and every time they get better and better! Thank you Luan for helping us mark 10 years.

To wrap up, there were of course a few other cool experiences this month, but we hope these examples show you what a tight knit ‘community’ within Community this program really is. 

Thank you to all our Stars old and new, and head here if you think the next one could be you!