90.1 FM San Luis Obispo | 91.7 FM Paso Robles | 91.1 FM Cayucos | 95.1 FM Lompoc | 90.9 FM Avila
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

San Luis Obispo trends on social media after Spotify drops annual list of user music habits

Mission Plaza in San Luis Obispo.
Gabriela Fernandez
Mission Plaza in San Luis Obispo.

Streaming service, Spotify, dropped their annual list of users’ music habits yesterday. It’s called Spotify wrapped and it caused the City of San Luis Obispo to trend on social media Wednesday evening.

The list shows users the most common artists they listened to throughout the year.

This year, something called “sound town,” was added to the list. It identifies the places where Spotify listeners were most likely to share similar music. One of those places was San Luis Obispo.

Many users who weren’t familiar with the Central Coast said they were confused by their “sound town”. One took to social media asking, ”what does San Luis Obispo mean?”

KCBX music director Neal Losey is not sure why the central coast college town is high on the list.

“I don't exactly understand it…why this would turn up. I’m not completely convinced that spotify wouldn’t massage information to sort of get a response that they want, that they can run with to run with. Why would they want San Luis obispo? I don't know, maybe someone from Spotify wants to move here? I don't know,” Losey said.

Other places included Berkeley California, Cambridge Massachusetts and Burlington Vermont.

San Luis Obispo Spotify users’ music taste included Taylor Swift; The Strokes; Freddie Gibbs; The Growlers; boygenius; and Harry Styles among others.

Kim Foster Carlson is an award-winning broadcast journalist with decades of experience in radio and television news. She came to KCBX as a substitute announcer in 2021 after many years at stations such as KCBS, KGO and KQED. Kim occasionally contributes interviews to Issues & Ideas When she's not traveling, visiting her grown kids or hanging out with her dogs, you will likely find her in a swimming pool. She was a six-time division I All-American swimmer at Florida State University and Cal Poly, San Luis Obispo.
Gabriela Fernandez came to KCBX in May of 2022 as a general assignment reporter, and became news director in December of 2023. In September of 2024 she returned to reporting full time.
Related Content