Music Service Spotify Recruits Barack Obama

This is What's Trending Today.

Barack Obama gave his final speech as President of the United States on Tuesday night.

His final day in office is Friday, January 20. That is the day that Donald Trump will be sworn in as America's 45th president.


Barack Obama will leave office on January 20, 2017. What will he do next? Spotify has a job for him.

The Obama family plans to continue living in Washington, D.C. while younger daughter Sasha finishes high school.

But what will the former president do with his time?

Some observers think Obama will get to work helping the Democratic Party find new candidates who can win local elections in 2018.

Obama said in 2015 that he might go back to working on issues similar to those he worked on before he got involved in politics. Before he became a state senator in Illinois, he helped poor communities in Chicago.

But, in case Obama changes his mind, the popular music streaming service Spotify seems to have a job for him.

The music service published a job posting on Monday for a "President of Playlists."

Some of requirements for the job are very specific. Obama is likely the only person in the world who is qualified for the job.

The job requirements include having had singer Kendrick Lamar perform at a birthday party. Lamar, Obama and Janelle Monae all sang "Happy Birthday" to Obama's daughter Malia in 2016.

Another requirement is eight years of "running a highly-regarded nation." Spotify also says the applicants must have a Nobel Peace Prize.

The listing also mentions being one of the "greatest speakers of all time."

Many people enjoyed Obama's summer music playlists he created last August. His playlists included artists like Miles Davis, Aloe Blacc and Leon Bridges.

The founder of Spotify is Daniel Ek of Sweden. He tweeted the job listing on Monday.

He wrote: "Hey Barack Obama, I heard you were interested in a role at Spotify. Have you seen this one?"

The message was liked and retweeted almost 20,000 times.

One person said she would sign-up for Spotify if Obama came to work for the service.

And, many people said they would happily take the job if Obama were not interested.

And that's What's Trending Today.

I'm Dan Friedell.

Dan Friedell wrote this story for Learning English based on news service reports. Ashley Thompson was the editor.

Do you think Barack Obama would be a good Spotify employee? Let us know in the comments section.

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Words in This Story

streaming ¨ adj. playing continuously as data is sent to a computer over the Internet

playlist ¨ n. a list of songs to be played especially by a radio station

regard–¨ n. a feeling of respect and admiration for someone or something

posting–¨ n. a public announcement of something