My Spotify Dream

[MattSuda]

My new dream: work at Spotify someday

The future is always on my mind. I've been undecided of what I want to do in the future for a long time now. I worry how my Autism will be a conflict with work. Some things everyone else can do aren't so easy for me. Autism has a lot of positives that outweigh the negatives for me though. I think it gives me an advantage to think differently. I have always wanted to be a comedian because people think I'm funny and it's something I'm good at. I like to do many things though. I recently watched the movie "Nightcrawler", and I really liked the "Louis Bloom" character. Nightcrawler has a theme of work dedication and it inspired me to really think about what I want to do. I spent a lot of time thinking, and I thought to myself, what do I have the strongest passion for? What is something I do every single day? What puts the biggest smile on my face? What motivates me? What gives me that tingling feeling flowing through my blood stream?

It's MUSIC! Music is something that I have a strong passion for. It's why I volunteer for Spotify. I spend most of my time jammin' out to music and finding new artists to listen to. I spend an average of 20 hours a day listening to music. That's 20 hours total including music focused time as well as music I listen to in the background. I never get bored of music. I add an average of 2-3 new songs to my library every day. Since the beginning of 2014, I have already discovered 500 new songs and it will continue to grow. I struggle trying to pick a song to listen to because I want to listen to so many songs at once. I will get frustrated sometimes looking through my list of songs. When I listen to music I have the biggest smile in the world on my face. Music is how I am able to sleep. Music is what gets me up in the morning. I even have a speaker in my bathroom so I can blast music and dance along to it in the shower to motivate me for the day. I have a really nice music setup so whether I'm in my room, the living room, in the shower, or on the go, I can just continue on and listen to music with great equipment. When I get a chance to see one of my favorite artists perform in concert, I get so excited. Seeing an artist live in concert takes the experience to a whole new level. When I listen to music, I can feel my blood. I can feel my heart beat.

Spotify is the future of music and I want to be a part of it. You don't even have to wait for the future to use Spotify, because Spotify is here NOW. Sure, you've probably heard about all the artist controversy with Spotify, but the haters will quickly fade into the background. The haters don't understand the importance of Spotify. In the future, Spotify will probably be the first thing everyone thinks of when it comes to music. My new dream is to work at Spotify. I'm not sure if it will ever happen, but I'm so tired of being uncertain about the future. Now I don't have to worry about what I want to do. Dreams come true if you work hard enough. I know this because I've had dreams come true before. All it takes is hard work and dedication. Even if I never end up working at Spotify, at least I can say I tried. I have always liked music, but I didn't appreciate it that much and really understand it's value until I started using Spotify in 2011. Spotify took my experience of listening to music to the next level. I have Spotify to thank for getting me interested in music. The whole Spotify experience inspired me to start helping other people enjoy and use Spotify. Every single day since early 2012, I've been helping people enjoy their music on Spotify by volunteering my time in the Spotify Community. On some days, I will jeopardize my sleep in order to help out at outrageous hours of the day. The passion just takes over. The Spotify Community shows that I've spent 738970 minutes online which is 12316 hours or 513 days. I'm not sure how accurate that is, but I've already put in so much effort that I can't stop now. Employees at Spotify know who I am. They know I exist. I will not go away. I've met some of them and I get to talk to them every single day and it's so cool. I believe in Spotify's vision for music and I believe I fit in with their culture. If I don't get to work at Spotify someday, I will at least try to get a job somewhere in the music industry. I just hope everything works out. I might have to move and travel for a job in the music industry, but I'm not going to worry about that right now. I'll just let music lead the way.

If you don't have the biggest smile in the world on your face when you jam out to music, then you are doing it wrong.

♫ Music keeps my heart beating ♫

- Matt Suda

Meeting CEO Daniel Ek - August 29, 2014 @ Spotify Stockholm HQ

[JoeThomas]

Lovely post, Matt - I'm not really surewhat to say! It amazing that somebody with a disability like autism can help countless amounts of people on here a day. Keep on rockin'!

~Joe

[MattSuda]

For those wondering, I am currently taking a business program. 😉

[MichaelW]

Nice post! It makes me a little speechless..

Keep up the good work Matt!

[krikelin]

It's the same for me. I was applying for a job as a web developer at Spotify two years ago, spring 2012. I was 

 I've dedicated so much time with developing with Spotify the latest four years. And at the same time Spotify Apps were released, I worked on my own project "Spotify Apps". That were just quite intriguing to see Spotify release something I just worked on myself.

My big obsession with Spotify is rooted on the fact that Spotify prior to CEF created their own kind of client side web rendering system "Spider", where the Spotify client acts as a web server. I've tried to create a clone of that engine multiple times in multiple languages. I were obsessed with it since I found some XML files in the spotify directories that contains preprocessing directives and ASP.NET like errors when views are rendered wrong. It was intriguing since Spotify worked so extremly fast five years ago, on a laptop that were hell slow (Acer Aspire).

http://spotifyapps.wordpress.com

I've attached a document I wrote only weeks before the official launch regarding an own project with the same name.

[Josh]

I hope your dream comes true 🙂 It's my dream also to one day to work for Spotify, or somewhere in the music industry, maybe someday we can work together! Keep rocking, you really deserve this! 🙂

[MattSuda]

Note for future reference:

Facebook shares

https://www.facebook.com/eldsjal/posts/10152401421731933

https://www.facebook.com/gustav.soderstrom/posts/10152900264026214

Tweet by Rorey and retweet by SpotifyCares

Also retweet and Facebook post from Martin

Thanks to Martin for spreading the initial word

[Amarro]

@MattSuda Holy F`ck (sorry) but this is the best application or kind of history i've ever read. Keep going and darn... 738k minutes online are just amazing!!! Keep your head up and concentrate on this dream 😉

p.s. in my opinion autism is a really great way to see the world with different eyes. I think that this is a really amazing positive aspect. Im a Borderliner which was diagnosted 3 years ago 😉

[user-removed]

I wanna too Spotify. Music is my life.

Hands up for it!

Noting is better than never ending bass attack. Beis to your feis 🙂

Greetz everyone!

PS: Greetings also to Josh, you was so great at Stockholm!

[Carina]

What kind of business program are you attending right now?

I know it's a dream of some people, because they think music is their life and stuff, but working at a technology company requires either business / economy / marketing or tech-related studies. I always wanted to work for Lastfm, Soundcloud, Hypemachine or now Spotify too, but I have to say that I want to study computer science so I'd be a developer somewhere and to work for a music company is even better. Just wanted to mention to everyone who reads this: you need some skills and not only a heart for music 🙂 This is a general comment and not  related to your situation Matt.

But I think your text is great and inspiring and I wish you all the best! ♡

[Flixx]

My dream would also be working for Spotify. At this moment I am working at a servicedesk of a Cloud Computing company. I'm growing into a project engineer there, but someday when Spotify will have a headquarter nearer to home (not in USA or Northern Europe, but in The Netherlands / Belgium / United Kingdom or something more close here).

First let's finish school 😉

[jake17007]

Even though it seems like you're already motivated enough, your story reminded me of a movie I watched called "Temple Grandin".  It's based on a true story of an autistic woman whos passion was animals.  She never gave up, and eventually she graduated college and went on to get a Ph.D!  According to her Wikipedia article, "she also was listed in the Time 100 list of the one hundred most influential people in the world in the 'Heroes' category."  If you haven't seen the movie, you should definitely check it out!

I'm really passionate about music, too.  Your story is inspiring!  I worry about the future too sometimes, and I think that's a good thing for the most part if it doesn't make you too anxious.  Don't forget to be thankful for and present in the situation that you're in right now.  I like how you ended with letting the music lead the way, because that's how I try to live my life... Like a continuous beat at varying tempos, with ups and downs of different frequencies, accompanied by an arrangement of various notes at different pitches evolving into different melodies - some that you'll never forget.  Often times you don't know where the song is going - what will happen next - but at the end of the giant production, you can look back and listen to it's beautiful story.  Even more so, you can remember how great it is making the music come to life.

- Jake

[camillo75]

You are a really nice person.
Go on with the good work!
It is really difficult to post an answer in the forums before you!

All best,
Camillo

[refall7]

My main question would be what to major in for college that eould set you up to succeed. Good luck!

[MattSuda]

@refall7

Thanks!

I'm hoping business/marketing can help me out.

[user-removed]

@MattSuda this is a great story and I wish you all the best with chasing your dream. The music industry is tough to crack into but with your determination and persistence you will do well. Keep it up!

[MattSuda]

@user-removed

Thank you!

[Foqs]

You're so inspiring! Keep up the amazing work! I believe in you ♡

[GSaldan]

Hey @MattSuda,

Your text leaves me speechless. It's the first time ever I can feel that this musical dimension that drives my live is understood by someone else which is pretty awesome! Music wake me up, drive me to my job, enhance my 8 hour work shift, drive me back to home, make me cook perfect meal and so on!!!

I found it beautiful you have now your eyes on a tangible dream, an objective, a life goal.

Never.

Let.

This.

Go.

Curiosity lead to opportunity and passion lead to dedication, so you know exactly where you are going and one day, you will just enjoy your remarkable life as it is, because you will forge it just the way you want it.

[MattSuda]

@Foqs

Thank you!