LONDON: Spotify announced on Tuesday that it had acquired Heardle, the popular music guessing game inspired by the five-letter word guessing game Wordle.
“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery, and help artists reach new fans,” said Jeremy Erlich, global head of music at Spotify.
“Heardle has proven to be a really fun way to connect millions of fans with songs they know and love, and with new songs and a way to compete with their friends as to who has the best musical knowledge.”
Heardle players are tasked with guessing a song based on its opening notes. They get six guesses, with each hint giving a few more seconds of music to inform their next answer.
Ultimately, players get a chance to discover the song in its entirety, whether or not they guessed it correctly.
Spotify hopes the new acquisition will facilitate users’ discovery of new music.
The music giant revealed that the look and feel of the new Heardle app will not change. However, the acquisition was met with mixed reactions from Heardle fans.
Some players took to social media to express outrage at the buyout, with some claiming that the app had been blocked in their country following the Spotify takeover.
Thank you so much I can't play in Spain... I hope you fix it soon. I was lucky to do today's one before but this is so lame pic.twitter.com/VJNqT24zoQ
— Careless Garcia (@cgl7th) July 12, 2022
Others complained that their scores had failed to transfer to the new app, resulting in losses of long winning streaks in the game.
Guess I'm done playing #Heardle - it was just acquired by #Spotify. I lost my game history, and the link to get it back only exists for a microsecond. Also the skip function is now super glitchy, making the game unplayable. Nice while it lasted...https://t.co/KvOv28sW9H
— Marissa DeWeese (@MarissaDeweese) July 12, 2022
Too bad #heardle had to be ruined by big #spotify. pic.twitter.com/hcKBQC9pia
— joeykapi (@joeykapi) July 12, 2022
Spotify responded to the complaints, suggesting that users head over to the Heardle app to transfer their stats.
“We know that stats aren’t carrying over for everyone. We are actively working on the issue so that you can keep your winning streak alive,” Spotify claimed.
Although Heardle might be a small purchase compared to some of Spotify’s other acquisitions, it adds to the music giant’s expanding offerings beyond music streaming.
