How Spotify’s Stars Program transformed the community superuser experience

Spotify, the global music streaming service, has cultivated its online community for over 12 years — evolving the platform into a space where users can create, express themselves, share, and learn. The Spotify community has experienced astronomical growth since its inception, boasting 574 million users and 226 million subscribers.

For Spotify, its community is of paramount importance. The team believes customers should spend time experiencing its products and engaging with friends, family, and peers — not talking to customer service.

Since 2013, the community team has nurtured a successful superuser group called the Spotify Stars Program. According to the community site, “The Spotify Stars Program aims to unite the most engaged and passionate Community users, bringing us closer to Spotify.”

The group consists of vetted community members who’ve provided the most answers and solutions for other users in the community. It is a primary focus area for the community team to foster a strong relationship with the Stars, as they know Spotify better than anyone else — sometimes even better than the moderators.

At first, the Spotify community team identified and onboarded new Stars members through a fairly automated process. Hopeful recruits filled out a standard form and waited to receive an invite by direct message if they met all the appropriate criteria. The program initially recruited around 150 members, which should have been a success. But something wasn’t working. The contributions from these superusers were lower than expected, and even the most engaged members’ contributions were dwindling.

The Spotify team realized the group had become too large, and because of this, Stars members no longer felt unique or valued. Spotify also couldn’t properly vet new members short of having one-to-one conversations with Stars.

The community team decided to pivot and scrap the automated onboarding process for the Stars program. After applying and meeting certain criteria, the team now sets up calls with potential members to discuss and ensure they fully understand their role in the community. Today, the group has only 25 members, and retention rates have drastically improved.

Along with reimagining the onboarding process, it became a priority to regularly chat one-on-one with core members, encouraging them to speak candidly, and helping them run through their questions and assumptions. The community team was eager to understand why Stars members wanted to be in the group, how they spent their time, and how the community fit into their day-to-day. Taking the time to connect with Stars members brought invaluable insights and made them feel heard.

As the Spotify Stars Program evolved, the team made an effort to add a more human touch to the program as a whole. The Stars had great ideas and suggestions and wanted to take actual ownership of the community. The Spotify community team recorded and shared this feedback with relevant internal teams. At the Community Innovation Summit, Johnston told the crowd, “We could say things ‘til we were blue in the face, but when you hear it directly, it has a much bigger impact outside of the team.”

Over time, the community team had to find a balance between where they wanted the group to go and the areas their superusers wished to move into. For example, the community team wanted the Stars to increase their contributions on the help board, post more, and answer more questions. But the Stars hoped to become more involved in the music and product spaces.

Spotify made this a reality and began integrating the Stars more closely with internal product teams. The input provided by the Stars early on in the research process proved to be invaluable. Johnston said he informed internal teams at Spotify, “You’re not basing all of your research on these twenty people, but if you can get them involved early on, what they give back is a hundred-fold.”

Because the Stars are indeed product experts, Spotify also connected its top members with its Release Squad to directly flag any issues with new releases before they become more widespread.

Mature community program leaders know that gamification is integral to encouraging community engagement. Through the use of ranks, badges, and other rewards, members are motivated to level up and increase their contributions to the community.

Spotify found that its gamification program needed to be simplified, with an overabundance of ranks and permissions that kept new members from joining and leveling up. The community team also realized that once members had been around for a while, ranking up wasn’t a huge motivator for them. They eventually streamlined their ranking system to only three levels, where members get evaluated at each level before moving up to the Stars Program.

Another way the team rewarded members was by providing swag. This program initially created a lot of work for little reward. They’ve since shifted to a surprise and delight model, where the community team hand-picks members to recognize. Overall, it’s a much lighter lift for the team and more impactful.

But for Stars members, swag wasn’t a reward they were particularly excited about. The Spotify community team had to think bigger to incentivize their most dedicated members.

Events, both in-person and virtual, play a crucial role in online communities, building relationships with members and increasing engagement. In 2022, Spotify hosted its first live concert livestream to showcase up-and-coming artists and creators. The event was a hit with the Stars.

“Taylor Swift, Ed Sheeran — they don’t need our community to grow their audience,” said Johnston. “But there are millions of people who are producing, creating podcasts, audio books, and music, and they do come to the community. They’re looking for an audience.”

The most popular event for the superusers is Spotify Star Jam, an annual event eligible for the top ten-ranking Stars to come together and share their love for Spotify and the community. The team gamified choosing which members to invite and created a masked leaderboard so members could view their ranking among the rest of the group. This all-expenses-paid gathering (previously held at headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden, or New York City) is the ultimate reward for Stars members. 

Stars visiting the Spotify Studio in Stockholm, Sweden, in 2023. Photo credit: Luan

Stars gather from all over the world for these Jam “sessions,” where they take tours of the Spotify headquarters, meet Spotify team members, play games, share music, and collaborate on the future of the Stars program.

The Star Jam was held virtually in 2021 due to COVID-19, and all Spotify Stars members were invited to attend for the first time. This year’s event was the first in-person Jam since 2019. It is such an impactful experience that for those who attend a Jam, their tenure in the program is twice as long as those who don’t.

“You can change things in the community, you can do all kinds of stuff, but you can’t take away the relationships that people form,” said Johnston. “You can only get so far virtually, but when people come together in person — something else happens.”

The annual Stars Jam is a memorable gathering for Stars members and an opportunity for those outside the community to gain insight into why superusers take on leadership roles, give up their time, and ultimately, why the community is worth paying attention to. The success and popularity of this event helps increase internal awareness and buy-in among senior Spotify employees and across the organization.

The Spotify community team knows the importance of nurturing and fostering their most engaged members, and they’ve set the bar extremely high. When the Spotify Stars Program wasn't working as planned, the team wasn't afraid to overhaul the group and start over. They’ve taken the time to understand their superusers, make them feel valued, and have devised creative ways to reward and thank them for their contributions.

Implementing and maintaining a superuser program requires careful planning and ongoing support. Selecting the right individuals, providing adequate tools and resources, and recognizing their contributions are essential to achieving not only community growth but also sustained leadership.