2022 Virtual Star Jam

[Luan]

It's been a while since our last Star Jam in 2021. And this year, our most important event was back in all its glory, as always (after all, the Jam is our golden disc): 2 weeks of unique events and incredible meet-ups!

This year, the Jam was virtual again, due to the state of restrictions for Covid-19. Still, following the example of the previous one, we had lots of occasions to enjoy every second, all while getting together and sharing our love for Spotify and the Community!

Here's a brief summary of everything that happened and, without a doubt, you will want to take part in the next edition (oh, and a little bird told me that maybe it will be back in person) So, headphones on, Jam playlist set & let's go!

We kicked off our Jam this year on August 22nd with a Coffee Chat, hosted by @Jose_M, where our Stars and Staff could show their favorite beverages and desserts while having a great chance to chat about their memories-related tastes. And if you think it stopped here, go back one step because there was a Gartic session and everyone had a blast drawing (or should I say "scribbling") and in the end, we chose the best one. This was a great way to start the week!

Moving on to the second day, we had the opportunity to meet and talk to two members of Spotify's Consumer Product Marketing team: Caju, from Brazil; and Erick, from Mexico. They shared how they had become Spotifiers as well as their career experience. We also had the chance to get to know more about the team, meet different members and discover how their job contributes to the Spotify user experience. Our Stars took the opportunity to make suggestions on possible improvements and contribute with some noteworthy ideas. 

On the third day, we had the Do you Play…Liszt? event, hosted by one of our Stars, Gerard (aka @Soundofus), where we chatted about the music listening experience and the whole process of playlist creation. All participants of this call got to express their feedback and develop a definitive guide to creating the perfect playlist.

On the fourth day, it was time to meet a new team - Spotify's Release Management. Kristen and Sam presented everything about the team structure and their functions, and showed how important it is to Customer Support and the user's overall experience. There was also a Q&A session, where we could share our thoughts about features and usability, suggest new features, as well as improvements for existing ones.

On the 26th, we met the Desktop and Design team through Daniel, Peter, and Alex. They showed us some user data across different platforms and explained how Spotify for desktop gets developed. The Stars got presented with some initial mockups and possible changes & features that may be arriving on desktop soon.
On the second event of the day, we had an excellent opportunity to slow down a little bit during a meditation session with Georgia. She guided us through great exercises for improving our focus and bringing a peaceful moment to our day.

On the 27th, finishing the first week of the Jam with a flourish, we came together with @MattSuda and @AdamDamon for an awesome listening party with our special playlist created by Stars and moderators. The participants had the opportunity to discover new songs and share their thoughts about them. 

Following up, we had a great meetup on the 29th with Josh, who guided us on how to feel more comfortable when presenting online. He opened our minds and encouraged us to think about what our biggest challenges when presenting are and how to deal with them for a more vibrant and confident presentation. Not only that, but he also talked about vocal tone, body language, and the ways to catch and keep the audience's attention. 

On the next day, we boarded into a very cool game where we had to gather and 'retrace our steps and work together' in order to find essential items to go on our first band tour and get to the stages. Time flew fast and Team 3 ended up winning the Game. This was never about who wins though - it was just pure fun!  

On September 2nd, we met the Moderators and some of our Community Managers at a roundtable to discuss the Community and Stars Program experience. We had the chance to share some of our feedback on what improvements we would like to see in the Community.

To finish our 2022 Jam in a memorable way, on September 6th, we got the huge opportunity to talk to Martin Lorentzon, co-founder of Spotify. This meetup was an incredible surprise and we definitely loved it! We had the chance to hear from Martin about the Spotify's inception and how it became the biggest audio streaming platform in the world!

Yes, yes. I know this got big, but I couldn't lose the chance to tell you everything that happened and, believe me, this had to be very summarized because, if not - I wouldn't have had sufficient words to express how exciting these two weeks were. If you felt spirited and would like to join us on our next adventures, feel free to become a Spotify Star too, you’re more than welcome!

(Oh, and I almost forgot, see you on the 2023 Star Jam, it's almost right around the corner… 😉😁)

[geovanebento]

This was my first Jam and I loved it!🕺🏻 Congratulations Luan for the text, it was very good! 👏👏👏

[Luan]

Thanks! Happy to know you had a great experience on your first Jam, @geovanebento. See you at the next one 🙂

[MattSuda]

It was great to see everyone during the Jam! 🙂