Content strategist Sam Frenzel ’18 landed a job with tech company Spotify—despite not being a tech guy.
By Robyn Rime
The day that Spotify Wrapped drops is a big, big day. More than 570 million Spotify users around the globe get to see and share what they listened to most during the past year—their top songs, artists, podcasts, and albums.
“It brings people together—if you go on Twitter or Instagram, everyone’s sharing it,” says Sam Frenzel ’18, associate manager for SEO and digital content strategist at Spotify. “It captures the collective consciousness of the country.”
Frenzel himself clocked 89,000+ Spotify minutes in 2023, which puts him in the top one percent of global listeners.
As a content strategist, though, Frenzel looks at more than his own Wrapped stats—he looks at yours, and everyone else’s, too. Will Taylor Swift outstream Bad Bunny? Who is Gen Z following right now? Is the Armchair Expert still a thing?
Wrapped is more than a fun gimmick—it’s a viral boon for Spotify that provides the company with scads of useful marketing information. Frenzel and his team “take all the data we collect during the year and create macro trends for listening habits in specific demographics and in specific countries,” he says. “And we use that to drive our strategy for the rest of the year.”
Much of what Frenzel does is both behind the scenes and beyond the playlists. For instance, Spotify also offers audio books, advertising, and podcast production resources. “I help develop websites and content for the Spotify properties that aren’t the actual app that people use on their phone,” he says.
What does that mean? A little coding, a little website design, a lot of copywriting and search engine optimization (“SEO basically means making sure it’s written so Google can find it”). He’s a thought leader in the audio space, creating accessible content on topics as broad as 2023 trends in podcasting or as hyper-focused as the best day of the week to place ads for fitness-based products on workout playlists.
TLDR? “I help Spotify reach new audiences, while still maintaining connection with folks already in the platform,” he explains.
Frenzel, a business administration major with a marketing minor, knew he wanted a career that would allow him to live in New York City. “I sort of fell backwards into the tech world,” he says. “Students should know that there are career opportunities in tech for people who aren’t software engineers.” At Geneseo, he started early with the Career Design Center, looking for internships, creating relationships, and honing his resumé and interview skills while working as a Career Mentor.
A couple of years managing SEO and content strategy at Vimeo gave Frenzel the experience he needed to land a position at his bucket-list company. “I love working for a brand with such a high approval rating, even within the tech industry,” he says. “Spotify has such interesting cultural touchpoints, and it brings so many people joy.”
As an employee, Frenzel leans into that sense of joy, confessing that his life is soundtracked by Spotify and the many playlists he reverently curates: Real Sad Boi (all male artists), Pop Perfection (25 perfectly produced pop songs), Frank Rank (Frank Ocean songs ordered from most to least favorite), Karaoke Songs in My Register (self-explanatory).
“I have very niche and very specific playlists,” he says, “and I love them all like they’re my own children.”