Forget Horoscopes: Everyone Is Now Defined by Their Spotify Wrapped Sound Town

It’s the most wonderful/embarrassing time of the year for music lovers, as Spotify has released Spotify Wrapped 2023. It’s our yearly reminder of what songs and artists have been dominating our playlists and our earholes. Our music tastes have been collectively curated into a funky little slideshow we can share on social media. Whether we’re rocking Beyoncé, Taylor Swift, or endless repeats of the soundtrack from the Broadway musical Six (okay, that one is me), our music says a lot about us.

But this year, Spotify Wrapped is throwing a new detail into the mix. In addition to their stats, users are being assigned “sound towns,” a.k.a. cities that share their taste in music. As soon as sound towns hit Spotify Wrapped, users began sharing their results on social media. But while 1,300 sound towns are available, many LGBTQ+ people have found themselves in one of three cities:  Burlington, Vermont; Berkeley, California; and Cambridge, Massachusetts. Queer website Them explored the phenomenon in their article, “Did Your Spotify Wrapped Place You In Burlington, Berkeley, or Cambridge? You May Be Gay“.

Naturally, this led to the internet declaring that all three cities are now queer meccas. And once the internet decides something is queer (see: The Babadook), then it is QUEER TO STAY. So congratulations to future queer vacation destinations Burlington and Cambridge! Berkeley was already pretty queer, obviously.

Many people took to X (formerly Twitter) to share their sound towns and to potentially plan upcoming queer communes in the areas (okay maybe that’s just me).

(featured image: Spotify)