Most relationship apps ask you to compress your self right into a quippy bio and a handful of pictures, which undoubtedly results in infinite swiping and trite “Hey, how are you?”s that go nowhere. Vinylly is a relationship app that begins someplace extra revealing: What music you hearken to, the way you hear and why it issues to you.
Music has lengthy functioned as social shorthand. It is transferring and highly effective and brings individuals collectively in deep, generally sudden methods. A favourite artist can sign your values, feelings and even worldview. Vinylly treats these alerts as knowledge. In doing so, it positions itself as each a cultural experiment and a change from the standard relationship app playbook, being the one relationship app that’s 100% centered on music compatibility.
AI is seeping into practically each nook of the world, together with trendy relationship. And now, as dating apps eagerly adopt AI to automate small discuss and create prompts for you, Vinylly is taking a lighter and extra imaginative strategy, debuting a function known as the Digital Cocktail Lounge, which makes use of AI to encourage precise human connection based mostly on style — in music or in drinks. But all of the whereas, it’s nonetheless sustaining its focus in your most well-liked tunes to create a love match.
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Courting past the fundamental bios and prompts
Most mainstream relationship apps, from Hinge to Tinder, depend on a well-known mixture of pictures, prompts and self-description. The result’s quick judgment and sometimes superficial engagement. Vinylly deliberately strips a lot of that away.
Rachel Van Nortwick, the app’s founder, mentioned Vinylly does not have bios. As a substitute, you sync your streaming knowledge and reply questions concerning the position music performs in your life. The app combines quantitative listening knowledge with qualitative intent, then weighs these inputs to supply matches.
What makes Vinylly distinct isn’t just that music is included, however that it buildings the complete expertise. As soon as an account is created and also you sync your music streaming service, you may be prompted to reply some questions on favourite genres, listening habits, live performance anecdotes and different music-related questions. From there, Vinylly’s algorithm analyzes your music knowledge to seek out suitable matches, and these matches are ordered by what the app calls “quantity,” which is admittedly only a measure of compatibility based mostly on music style. You’ll be able to then flick through these matches’ profiles, which all revolve round music style, and hearken to a possible match’s advisable songs earlier than deciding whether or not to attach.
“For lots of people, music is their identification,” Van Nortwick mentioned. “Displaying your self by your music DNA results in deeper, extra emotional conversations sooner.”
That is the place Vinylly diverges most clearly from conventional apps like Hinge. On Hinge, prompts are designed to spark banter. On Vinylly, dialog starters pull straight from every individual’s listening habits. The outcome, in accordance with Van Nortwick, isn’t just extra dialog however higher dialog.
What the information is displaying
Vinylly’s strategy has generated a rising pool of behavioral knowledge — and the patterns are revealing. Vinylly’s consumer base, with about 100K downloads because the app’s launch in 2019, skews between 18 and 45, however it additionally contains customers properly into their 70s throughout the US, UK and Canada. An internal analysis of 5,000 customers over the previous yr reveals clear variations in how women and men use the app and what they gravitate towards musically.
Amongst ladies, prime artists embrace David Bowie, Fleetwood Mac, The Beatles and Billie Eilish. Amongst males, Taylor Swift, Drake, Radiohead and Kendrick Lamar lead the checklist. Some artists bridge the divide. Taylor Swift and Radiohead seem prominently for each teams, as does Sleep Token, a heavier band Van Nortwick refers to as a “bridge artist.”
These overlaps matter. They recommend that shared musical touchstones can operate as connective tissue even throughout style or gendered listening habits.
“Music’s a common language,” Van Nortwick mentioned. “That half is not stunning.”
The science of sound and connection
The concept that music can deliver individuals collectively is intuitive, however Vinylly’s thesis can also be grounded in analysis. A 2013 paper published by German researchers shows that when teams hearken to music collectively, they report stronger cohesion and higher emotional well-being. Another paper published in December 2024 found that shared music style is among the strongest predictors of relationship closeness and may improve intimacy. There’s additionally evidence that listening to music sparks social imagery within the mind, making us take into consideration connection and interplay with others.
Van Nortwick described how she has at all times been a music lover, however by no means had any expertise with app growth when she bought the concept to create Vinylly. As a substitute, she got here from a client and tech advertising background and used her data to identify a spot within the relationship app market. As a nontechnical founder, she teamed up with builders and her now CTO to actualize her concept — one based mostly on science and analysis displaying the connecting energy of music.
“Music improves communication inside relationships,” she mentioned. “It lowers the stress hormone cortisol, and it drives dopamine once you share music with somebody.”
In different phrases, music isn’t just a shared curiosity. It actively shapes how individuals really feel and talk. Vinylly is attempting to place itself as a facilitator of that course of fairly than a substitute for it.
“It is an innate factor for us,” Van Nortwick mentioned. “We simply assist pull it out of customers.”
The place AI suits in and the place it does not
Synthetic intelligence has change into the latest promoting level in relationship apps, typically elevating issues about over-automation and lack of company. Vinylly takes a notably restrained strategy.
The app built-in OpenAI’s ChatGPT in 2023, however to not write profiles or auto-message matches. As a substitute, AI seems first in a function known as the Digital Cocktail Lounge, which simulates shopping for somebody a drink. The function means that you can mix two music genres, and the AI generates a customized cocktail recipe that may be shared as an icebreaker.
“It brings it from a digital expertise to one thing that feels extra actual life,” Van Nortwick mentioned.
Extra bold makes use of of AI are coming, however with guardrails. Vinylly is growing an opt-in function that means matches outdoors your self-imposed filters, based mostly on patterns that result in precise dialog. The key phrase is opt-in.
“I strongly consider AI needs to be a copilot,” Van Nortwick mentioned. “Not one thing that is compelled on customers.”
That philosophy stands in distinction to many conventional relationship apps, the place algorithmic choices are opaque and unavoidable, and AI is becoming more ingrained in the platform. Vinylly’s strategy displays a broader skepticism amongst People who will not be anti-AI however cautious of shedding management.
As a substitute, Vinylly locations emphasis on one thing that transcends boundaries, connects individuals throughout house and time, and stirs our souls: music.
