Spotify · 2025
ScrollProduct Design
Spotify Rewards Program
Transforming passive music listening into visible cultural identity and reward-driven fandom.
A case-study project for a design strategy class at the University of Southern California, produced as a group project in which I worked as researcher and designer. The brief was to explore how Spotify could deepen listener engagement and open new ground for artist-fan interaction.
- Client
- Spotify (Concept)
- Deliverables
- Product Design, Research
- Role
- Researcher & Designer
- Year
- 2025
Research & Insights
An opportunity
79%
of users engaged with Spotify Wrapped.
60%
of Gen Z listeners share their music activity on social media.
156MM
attributed to loyalty programmes across the industry.
- Music taste functions as social identity, signalling personality and cultural belonging.
- Fans want recognition for early discovery when the artists they found go on to grow.
- Exclusive access to content or experiences strengthens artist loyalty more reliably than discounts.
The Challenge
Fans dedicate thousands of hours to an artist, and outside of one annual feature none of it becomes recognition, status, or anything they can hold.
Streaming made discovery trivial. With over 100 million tracks on the platform, listeners move between artists and genres instantly, but while access improved, being a fan did not change at all. Listening happens quietly in the background, and the platforms we use rarely acknowledge the time tied to it.
The Dashboard
Interactive
Every artist a listener has a relationship with, as a card.
Each one carries the current fan tier and the progress toward the next, so the set reads as a quick map of who someone actually listens to and how far in they are. Progress is non-transferable and tied directly to listening behaviour, which is what makes it worth holding.
Select an artistFan Loyalty
Follows your selection
One relationship, opened: what you have listened to, what it has earned, and what is still ahead of you.
Artists define the rewards, from digital collectibles to meet-and-greets, while non-transferable progress gives fan status real value. The OG Fan badge is permanent proof of being there before the artist broke through.
Switch artists at any time
Gold Fan
Lil Uzi Vert
You are in the top .01% of Lil Uzi Vert listeners.
- Streams
- 47,100
- Listening hours
- 2,748H
- 8 years listening
- Fan since 2018
Tier Roadmap & Rewards
- Listener Early Stream Access
- Bronze Fan Exclusive Digital Art
- Silver Fan Signed Photo Print
- Gold Fan Pre-Sale Tickets
- Platinum Fan Meet & Greet
- Diamond Fan Limited Edition Vinyl
Listening Record
- Total Streams
- 47,100All time
- Full Listens
- 87%Skip rate: low
- First Listened
- March 20188 years ago
- Hours Logged
- 2,748H6.6 hours per week
Lil Uzi Vert · OG Fan Badge
Supported before artist reached 10M monthly listeners.
Music Personality
Pedro Infante
The last layer turns listening behaviour into something a listener can say about themselves.
Archetypes summarise genre and habit into a shareable identity, the thing 60% of Gen Z listeners are already posting without the platform giving them anything to post. The archetype and the genre split below are this listener's relationship with Pedro Infante: ten years of it, and the deepest on the profile.
Open the full breakdowns
Late-Night Traditionalist
The Melancholic Explorer
You drift between emotional soundscapes and forgotten corridors of sound, especially in a Mexican cantina at 2:00 AM as in a dimly-lit bedroom playlist. You find meaning in music that others overlook.
Genre Breakdown
Listening Patterns
- Peak Time
- 8PM – 2AM
- Avg Replays / Track
- 3.8×
- Skip Rate
- Below Average
- Listening Mode
- Radio / Discovery
- Full Listens
- 87%
- Hours Logged
- 148H
- First Listened
- January 2018
Impact & Takeaways
The Verified Music Profile reframes streaming as more than passive consumption.
By turning listening history into visible fan identity, the platform builds a stronger relationship between listener and artist. Fans gain recognition and rewards for loyalty; artists gain the tool they were missing, which is a way to find and reach the people already giving them the most.
For Spotify, progress is non-transferable and tied directly to listening behaviour. That strengthens retention, encourages deeper engagement per artist, and opens ground for artist-driven rewards and partnerships.
More broadly it reinforced the value of designing platforms around participation rather than access. When users are recognised for their engagement, a digital product becomes a space for identity and belonging instead of consumption.
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