Social Media Has Theories About Why You Got Assigned Berkeley Or Burlington

Topline

This year’s edition of Spotify Wrapped is predictably taking over social media, in part because the streaming service is telling users what city matches their music taste—and users are theorizing Burlington, Vermont, and Berkeley, California, are the most common results for LGBTQ listeners.

Spotify Wrapped 2023 was released Wednesday. (Photo Illustration by Jonathan Raa/NurPhoto via Getty … [+] Images)

NurPhoto via Getty Images

Key Facts

Spotify debuted the “sound town” feature for its annual Wrapped marketing campaign, which gives users an end-of-year summary of their listening activity, including their five most played artists and songs of the year.

Cities like Burlington, Berkeley and Cambridge, Massachusetts trended on X Wednesday morning as many users made memes about their “sound towns”—particularly the large LGBTQ communities that might live there, thanks to these cities seemingly correlating with queer artists and LGBTQ listeners.

LGBTQ publication Them joked: “Did your Spotify Wrapped place you in Burlington, Berkeley, or Cambridge? You may be gay,” noting the large number of queer Spotify users that seem to be “overwhelmingly assigned” to one of those three cities.

One user joked Spotify is “trying to make a gay commune in berkeley, a lesbian commune in burlington, and a bisexual commune in cambridge,” and another joked the company must be creating a “homosexual homeland in Berkeley California.”

Other users joked Berkeley must look like the dance scene in the Barbie movie, and that the United States would need a “high-speed railway system connecting the berkeley, burlington, and cambridge spotify crowds.”

Spotify addressed the trend on social media, posting on X: “hey besties @CityofBerkeley @Burlington_VT @CambMA 💚”

Some noted the lack of major cities in the Spotify results, with one user asking: “is Spotify working with the government to populate smaller cities?”

But some users joked about feeling left out after getting cities that seemed to be uncommon—like Madison, Wisconsin, or Flagstaff, Arizona.

Key Background

Spotify typically adds new features to its Wrapped release every year—and the “sound towns” aren’t the first to inspire jokes and mockery. In 2021, users noticed how Spotify used plenty of internet slang phrases and referenced trends that were popular at the time in its Wrapped campaign, which inspired some mockery. That year, Spotify Wrapped told users they “understood the assignment and were the “main character,” and even referenced non-fungible tokens, which were then popular on the internet. “You are a total Karen, but your music taste is highkey fire and we stan,” one X user wrote in a meme he made poking fun of Spotify Wrapped’s tone. “vibe check! you understood the assignment and kept it on fleek with this podcast that lived rent free in your head, just like an NFT,” another user posted on X, mocking Spotify. Spotify’s global marketing head Taj Alavi told the New York Times the company embraces “playful language and user experiences — it’s a core part of who we are as a brand.”

Crucial Quote

“Sound Town was created to show users how their listening habits are shared by communities everywhere. The Sound Town selected for each eligible user has the most similar taste profile to their own – based on their most streamed artists of the year and how those artists are streamed in other cities across the globe. It is objective and entirely driven by a user’s listening history,” Spotify wrote in a statement to TechCrunch.

News Peg

Spotify unveiled the 2023 edition of Wrapped on Wednesday morning, unleashing a yearly social media phenomenon that the company considers one of its most important marketing pushes. A user’s Spotify Wrapped comes with graphics made to be shared on Instagram Stories, and the annual release often inspires much discussion on X. Social media analytics company SproutSocial found 400 million posts were made on X about Spotify Wrapped in the three days following its 2022 release, a 15% increase from the year before.

Topline

Key Facts

Key Background

Crucial Quote

News Peg

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