Matt Suda: Spotify Internship Cover Letter & Portfolio

[MattSuda]

This is an archive of my Cover Letter for when I applied to the Summer Internship for Consumer Product Marketing at Spotify in January 2022.

You can check out my current Spotify Star Portfolio by going here.

Comments are closed. If you would like to contact me, please email me or reach out to me on LinkedIn.

Cover Letter:

Dear Spotify Recruiting Team,

I am excited to be applying for the Summer Internship for Consumer Product Marketing at Spotify.

I am passionate about Spotify and music and have been a user and volunteer for the past 10 years. One of my favorite things to do is read Spotify news and stay up to date with what's happening in the music and tech industries. I've looked at just about every Spotify newsroom article and other marketing releases since I started using Spotify and I am very familiar with Spotify's marketing. When Spotify posts a new announcement or releases a new feature, I'm always one of the first to check it out and let other people know about it.

I started using Spotify 10 years ago in September 2011 when it launched in the USA, and then shortly after that I got involved in the Spotify Community forum right from the start after it launched in February 2012. The Community Managers noticed my posts were really helpful and soon after I started posting in the Community, I became a founding member of what is now known as the Spotify Stars Program. I have been the longest member of the Stars Program for almost 10 years now. I recently celebrated 10 years since I started using Spotify with a green Spotify logo cake. I made a post about the cake in the Community and I'm so grateful for all the love shown for my last 10 years. Because of Spotify, I have been able to discover so many artists and meet amazing Spotify users and employees. 💚‌

In 2014, I was invited to visit the Stockholm office for the first Star Jam and after that visit I was inspired and knew I had a new dream to work at Spotify someday and pursue a career in the music industry. I then wrote a post in the Spotify Community titled "My Spotify Dream" and I then tried to share it with co-founder Martin Lorentzon and I really thought nothing would happen. I was amazed to see that Martin reposted it on Twitter and shared it with others at Spotify, and that Daniel Ek shared it on Facebook. Today, Martin continues to follow what I post about Spotify on Twitter, and I'm really thankful for that. Ever since then I've been working hard towards that dream.

While volunteering in the Stars Program, I'm always keeping up with the latest issues that users are having and how I can help solve them, as well as keeping up with new features so I can teach users how to use them. My volunteer work in the Stars Program has been all so that I can connect and share my passion for music with other people, help users get back to enjoying the music, and help improve the Spotify app.

Thank you for your consideration. I am excited to be considered for this internship or another job opportunity at Spotify in the future. I am confident that my skills will be helpful at Spotify. If given the opportunity for this internship, I believe it will help me improve my skills and learn more about marketing and the music industry.

Sincerely,

Matt Suda

🎵 My Spotify Profile

Portfolio:

💼 My LinkedIn Profile

What I currently do:

I currently volunteer as a member of the Spotify Stars Program. I help solve problems that users and artists encounter, help report bugs, beta test new versions and features, and provide feedback. 

• Solve problems that users and artists encounter while using Spotify: Read posts in the Spotify Community forum and reply back with help. I also help and reply to users on Reddit. I help users so they can get back to enjoying music and I help artists so their music can be heard.

• Write, edit, and publish blog posts, announcements, and help guides for the Spotify Community when needed

• Keep an eye on the Spotify Community for posts that violate the guidelines

• Find and report problems with the Spotify Community website (bugs, layout errors, security, etc) and follow up and make sure they get fixed

• Help report bugs: When I find a bug in the Spotify app or website or find a report from a user, I pass the information on to the right people and follow up and make sure they get fixed.

• Beta test new app versions and features

• Provide feedback to Spotify about the app, new app versions and features, and the Spotify Community

• I am the longest member of the Spotify Stars Program since 2012: I interact with the other Stars to make sure they feel welcome in the program and mentor them when they need help and show them how to improve their skills.

• Communicate with the Spotify Community staff and fellow stars (Slack & Video Calls)

• Stay up to date on all things Spotify: I search the internet and find all of the latest Spotify news every day so that I can stay up to date with all things Spotify and do a better job at helping out by being aware of what's new and what's happening. I also look to see what people are saying about Spotify on social media and if there are any problems people are talking about that might need to be looked into.

Stats:

• Spotify user and Stars Program member for 10 years

• 22,000+ posts in the Spotify Community forum (more details here)

• 1,000+ posts helping users on the r/truespotify and r/spotify Reddit pages

• Reported many Spotify Community and Spotify App bugs (too many to count)

Key Projects:

• April 2021: Help Guide: New Your Library view (iOS & Android)

   • October 2020: Help Guide: (Test) New Your Library view (iOS & Android)

Expand below for more info:

Spoiler

In April 2021, I came up with a plan to support the new Spotify mobile "Your Library" design by writing a help guide that would be released at the same time that the new design was released to users. This guide (approved by Product Managers) helped users learn what was new and how to use the new design and allowed them to leave their feedback. I then followed up and replied to user questions to help them use the new design. I also came back to let users know how their feedback improved the new design in future updates. This guide was seen across the Spotify company and was used by Customer Support so they would be in the know about the new design right away to better help users. Previously I helped users with the beta test of this new design and improved on this to help all users with the public release.

My thinking was that because this was such a big change to Spotify's most used platform (mobile), a detailed help guide was needed. I'm happy with how this project turned out. 

• February 2022: Blog Post: 10 Year Evolution: Spotify Community

• February 2022: Blog Post: 10 Year Evolution: Spotify Apps

• August 2021: Blog Post: Spotify Virtual Star Jam 2021 

• February 2021: Blog Post: Stream On: Spotify announces new HiFi sound quality 

Continued down below

↓ ↓ ↓

[MattSuda]

Spotify Timeline:

Most of the major things I have done that are Spotify related

2022:

February 2022: 

• Blog Post: 10 Year Evolution: Spotify Community

• Blog Post: 10 Year Evolution: Spotify Apps

• I talked to CNET about why I love Spotify's Car Thing 💚 🚙

• The LinkedIn News Team featured my Car Thing video in their news articles 💚 🚙

• LinkedIn News: Spotify releases a Car Thing
• LinkedIn News: Spotify now in the hardware business

2021:

December 2021:

• Post: 2021 Wrapped (Share your stats with us)

November 2021:

• I posted an idea to improve the play buttons on albums and playlists by suggesting to have both play & shuffle buttons at the top so that users can easily decide how they want the list to play with just a tap of either button instead of an inconsistent button behavior throughout different parts of the apps. There have been similar ideas over the years but they never caught on. Following the recent button change on album pages, I came up with an idea post that was worded clearly that would hopefully make this idea more popular.

September 2021: 

• I celebrated 10 years since I started using Spotify with a green Spotify logo cake and made a post in the Community about it. 🎂 💚

Post: Celebrating 10 Years of using Spotify!

• I created a logo for the contest to redesign the Spotify Stars Program logo. My thinking was that the logo should be a design that can change depending on the use in the Community and program, so I made more of a logo system than just a logo. I thought it would be an eye catching and fun logo and more personal since the stars often use it for their profile picture. The winning design had a few more votes than mine, but I am still proud of my design. The design entries did not follow Spotify brand guidelines (this was to be tweaked by designers at Spotify to meet the guidelines after the contest).

     

    

      

    

August 2021:

• I attended the Virtual Star Jam 2021 (virtual for the first time)

• Blog Post: Spotify Virtual Star Jam 2021 

July 2021: 

• I was featured in the Spotify Q2 2021 Results news article for my help with the new mobile Your Library view in this help guide post

May 2021: 

• I uploaded a walkthrough video to YouTube on how to use Car Thing and it currently has 70,000 views. I replied to 150 user comments on the video on how to use Car Thing. I also replied to users in the Car Thing section of the Community and provided feedback on how Car Thing could be improved.

• Blog Post: Values Week: Behind the Values

April 2021: 

• Help Guide: New Your Library view (iOS & Android)

• I came up with a plan for Spotify to register spotifycommunity.com and communityspotify.com as redirections to protect the Spotify Community website from spoof abuse. After this was approved by Spotify, I communicated with Spotify's domain partner to get these domains registered and set up.

March 2021:

• I started replying to users on the r/truespotify and r/spotify Reddit pages to help solve issues that users have encountered and to also inform users of the Spotify Community forum by linking to announcements and issue posts that are in the Community. My main goal was to get more people to use the Spotify Community for official help and to check the Community for Ongoing Issues rather than using Reddit where posts often get left unanswered. And for the users that prefer to post on Reddit, it keeps these users informed when they wouldn't be otherwise because they don't know about the Spotify Community or they prefer to use Reddit.

February 2021: 

• Blog Post: Stream On: Spotify announces new HiFi sound quality 

2020:

December 2020:

• Post: 2020 Wrapped (Share your stats with us)

October 2020:

• Help Guide: (Test) New Your Library view (iOS & Android)

July 2020:

• Blog Post: How Spotify Stars Improve the Community with Ideas

May 2020:

• I created a Spotify version of the Facebook Care emoji and it is used in the Spotify company Slack as a reaction emoji to show love and support to others. 💚

2016:

December 2016: 

• Post: 2016 Wrapped (Share your stats with us)

August 2016: 

• I attended the 3rd annual Star Jam at the Spotify office in Stockholm, Sweden

News Link: Star Jam 2016 

2015:

December 2015: 

• Post: 2015 Year in Music (Share your stats with us)

August 2015: 

• I attended the 2nd annual Star Jam at the Spotify office in Stockholm, Sweden

News Link: Star Jam 2015 

• I visited the Spotify office in New York City

January 2015: 

• I designed an image to see what it would look like if Spotify Pizza was real (joke)

2014:

November 2014: 

• I wrote a post about "My Spotify Dream". I tried to share it with co-founder Martin Lorentzon and I really thought nothing would happen. I was amazed to see that Martin reposted it on Twitter and shared it with others at Spotify, and that Daniel Ek shared it on Facebook.

October 2014:

• I posted the idea for a New Releases section in the app for artists that you follow

August 2014: 

• I attended the first annual Star Jam at the Spotify office in Stockholm, Sweden

News Link: Star Jam 2014 

2012:

February 2012: 

• I started posting in the Spotify Community right after it launched to help users and post feedback. A few months later I was a founding member of the Spotify Stars Program.

• I posted the idea for a Repeat One option in the Spotify app. I started a social media campaign and replied to Twitter users that mentioned they wanted a Repeat One option and suggested that they vote for the idea and linked to it. This made the idea more popular and increased awareness of the Community Ideas Exchange.

2011:

December 2011: 

• I made and released my own music on Spotify and learned how to use the artist tools

September 2011: 

• I started using Spotify shortly after it launched in the USA

[AdamDamon]

Best wishes on your application to this Spotify internship, @MattSuda!

[MattSuda]

Thanks @AdamDamon 🙂 I appreciate it!

[MattSuda]

I appreciate all the best wishes and support that I have received in the Community and in Slack 🙂

This was the image for my Cover Letter playlist but it's also great as a representation of me thanking everyone wishing me good luck

[Hubo]

Honestly — if anyone knows Spotify it’s our Matt here. Always keeping us up-to-date on the latest and such a good eye for detail and notices the smallest changes in the app, community and website!

Wishing you the best of luck, Matt! Would be great to see your dream of working at Spotify come true here. 💚

[MattSuda]

Thanks @Hubo  🙂

I really appreciate your support!

[MattSuda]

UPDATE:

Unfortunately, I was not selected. It's looking like I wasn't even seriously considered otherwise they would have asked me to interview. I was hoping I would at least make it to the interview round with my 10 years of work in the Spotify Stars Program.

If that doesn't stand out and get you an interview, then what does? 😔 💔

And there is usually nothing entry level... I have been checking the jobs website for a long time now and I only ever see advanced to more senior level job postings and no entry level (in the US). It looks like using the Spotify app for 10 years and 10 years of work in the Spotify Stars Program doesn't count as experience. And how can you get experience if you aren't selected for an Internship?

Maybe there is something else out there in the music industry. If any other music company is reading this and you like what you see, then please send me a message.