“Skills, skills, skills”: Max’ed Aadan reflects on the MA in Podcasting and interning at Spotify

He set up a call with the Programme Director Sandy Warr, who spoke about how the course is aimed to equip students with the skills to work immediately, which appealed to Max’ed.

He applied to the course and the Spotify bursary, which provides funding for the programme and a work placement at the company.

“I thought – if I get accepted onto the programme and I get the bursary, great, I'll go,” Max’ed said. “If I don't, then maybe this is not meant to be.”

Luckily, he was accepted for both and began the programme in September 2024.

The first podcast: Gen Z Love

For his first-ever project, Max’ed, who is a Millennial, worked on a pilot episode with his classmate Manav Pallan, who is from Gen Z.

Despite only being a few years apart in age, their perspectives on romance and dating were completely different.

“For Gen Z, ghosting is absolutely normal. It's just expected, and they all move on from it,” he said. “Whereas for my generation, there was a bit of societal shame.”

The episode interviewed someone who had experienced ghosting, another who had ghosted, and a social psychologist. It explored what makes ghosting painful and its longterm impacts on people.

“It turned into this beautiful personal story,” he added.

From the classroom to the studio

Looking back at everything he’s learned so far, Max’ed said the course was even better than he had hoped.

“I thought it was going to be very practical, but I didn't realise how practical,” he explained.

Max’ed was able to translate what he’s learned on the course straight to the Spotify placement, where he is providing studio and technical support, setting up different cameras and equipment, and audio troubleshooting.

The studio is where Spotify records its own shows and is also the facilitator of fellow major players in the industry such as Goalhanger. It hosts podcasting stars like Louis Theroux and Harry Hill.

He said:

A mantra for studying: focus on your skills

Max’ed’s mantra for the degree was to equip himself with as many news skills as possible.

Working on the rebrand of the City Sounds podcast network opened his eyes to audience strategy.

Each week, the students produced and put out a new show on the podcast channel, with rotating tasks.

One week, a student group might be producing a podcast, the next week working on promoting the shows on social media, and the third, working on its audience strategy to help people find the channel.

What surprised him was how much he enjoyed the challenge of finding and growing an audience, retaining them, and figuring out what makes them tick.

“When I look at the City Sounds podcast channel, I'm so proud of the work that everyone's done,” he said. “To get 18 people to agree editorially on everything, to make episodes that we're all proud of at a professional standard is a huge achievement.”

Find out more about the MA in Podcasting, or about the Spotify and Goalhanger bursaries.