Spotify Hosted First NextGen Creator Day At Spelman College

 Spotify hosted its first-ever NextGen Creator Day at Spelman College and announced multiple pieces of news to expand its partnership with the institution and further support students aspiring to work in the audio industry: 

• Spotify NextGen Scholarship Program: Spotify will be funding a scholarship for five first-year Spelman students interested in pursuing a career in audio media (podcasting, storytelling, writing, sound engineering, music, etc.). Each recipient will receive a $10,000 scholarship during their sophomore, junior, and senior years. 
• NextGen Curriculum Program: Spelman has opened student registration for a custom, audio-first curriculum designed to upskill students in the art of podcasting, co-created in partnership with Spelman’s Dr. Michelle Hite and Spotify’s SoundUp team. The curriculum is showing students how to design an audio newsroom, edit content, and produce a final podcast.
• The Creator Lab Program: Spotify will be training aspiring podcasters during a week-long incubator program with the end goal of launching a new podcast. Students will be taken through a series of interactive workshops that teaches them how to successfully develop, launch, and grow a podcast using Spotify For Podcasters, the company’s one-stop-shop platform with everything needed to create and manage a podcast on Spotify. 

 NextGen Creator Day was an audio immersive event that guided students through the ins and outs of the industry and inspired them to launch their careers in audio.

In addition to the announcements, students heard from podcast hosts Rickey Thompson and Denzel Dion of We Said What We Said; content creator Wunmi Bello; Congresswoman Nikema Williams, Spotify executives including Equity & Impact Strategy and Outreach Lead Kristin Jarrett, Creator Partnerships Manager Amber Watkins, Creative Director of Podcast Mission Gavin Guidry, Creator Programs Manager-Podcast Mission Daniela Bao; Spelman’s Director of Corporate Relations and Partnerships Cassandra Joseph and Professor Dr. Michelle Hite.

Last fall, Spotify stated its ambitions to grow podcast culture on HBCU campuses through an initiative called NextGen, beginning with Spelman College.

NextGen is Spotify’s ongoing program designed to infuse, activate, and grow podcast culture on college campuses. Supported by Spotify’s Creator Equity Fund (CEF), NextGen demonstrates how Spotify is committed to using its platform and resources to drive cultural change. Other NextGen partners include the University of Southern California, the University of Pennsylvania, and New York University. 

This comes on the heels of several big announcements from the company – like the launch of GLOW, a new global music program that celebrates the LGBTQIA+ creator community and Making Space, our program that provides local minority-owned businesses with podcasting equipment for their communities to use.    

“As a Spelman alum and a former student of Professor Dr. Hite, the partnership with Spotify and Spelman College is meaningful, and I'm thrilled to see the impact our initiatives have on students and aspiring podcasters,” says Kristin Jarrett, Equity & Impact Lead, Spotify.

Jarrett added:“Together, we’re setting out to create a new class of Black content creators—equipping them with tools and resources to develop their podcast skill sets and ultimately making a career in audio more accessible for the next generation of storytellers. But this is just the beginning, and I’m eager to expand Spotify’s NextGen program to more HBCU campuses in the future."

 Georgia Fifth District Congresswoman Nikema Williams attended the event and said, “I'm so grateful to this partnership to Spotify for uplifting students and continuing to highlight more black excellence in this country. Spotify is coming in at a time when a lot of people are saying they want to support HBCUs, but they are stepping up and doing it.”

Finally, podcast hosts Rickey Thompson & Denzel Dion said, "Spotify really did push us to be good storytellers – they encouraged us to be more descriptive with our storytelling. I normally feel private about my life because, with social media, everything’s so public. But a podcast feels like a safe space. If you really want to know us, the podcast is the real us. I like how the podcast is growing, and we're seeing more people like us. This space is becoming more inclusive.”