Skip to main content

Spotify acquires Heardle, the popular music-based Wordle clone

Spotify announced on Tuesday that it has acquired Heardle, the music trivia game version of Wordle.

According to a press release, the music streaming platform said that purchasing Heardle — the cost of which Spotify declined to disclose — will help improve the discoverability of songs old and new. In other words, it will help players rediscover their old favorite hits and introduce them to new artists, as well as link them to their music on Spotify whether they guessed the songs correctly or not.

Spotify and Heardle logos.
Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto/Getty Images

“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” said Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s global head of music. “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. Since its debut, the game has quickly built a loyal following, and it aligns with our plans to deepen interactivity across the Spotify ecosystem.”

Recommended Videos

If you’ve been playing Heardle up until now, it used Soundcloud as a music player. Now, Heardle‘s logo font has changed to match Spotify’s, along with integrating the platform’s music player, but the game remains the same.

Please enable Javascript to view this content

Heardle will remain a free game and a standalone website — at least for now. Players will get to try out the new Heardle in the U.S., U.K., Canada, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealand before it expands to other countries and languages.

Spotify said it plans to integrate Heardle “more fully” into the app, but it didn’t say how or when that will happen. Considering that it has integrated Genius trivia cards underneath some songs, Heardle and Spotify are a match made in music heaven.

Cristina Alexander
Cristina Alexander is a gaming and mobile writer at Digital Trends. She blends fair coverage of games industry topics that…
Spotify apparently exploring addition of music videos to Now Playing screen
Spotify logo on a phone.

Spotify is reportedly thinking about adding music videos to its platform, according to code found in the current version of the streaming service's app.

The potential feature was discovered by tech blogger Jane Wong, who is known for seeking out new and hidden features of apps and services, and posted on Twitter.

Read more
Apple Music still trails Spotify as growth continued for music streaming in 2019
Spotify logo on a phone.

Apple Music may have made great strides in 2019, but Spotify remains on top of the music streaming industry that saw a significant boost in subscriptions last year.

Online music streaming subscriptions across the world increased by 32% in 2019, for a total of 358 million subscribers, according to the latest findings of Counterpoint Research. The firm attributed the steady growth of the industry to factors that include exclusive content such as podcasts, and promotions such as reduced subscription prices and bundle offers from carriers.
Spotify vs. Apple Music
Spotify continues to dominate, with 31% of the music streaming industry's total revenue and 35% of total paid subscriptions. Counterpoint analyst Abhilash Kumar said that Spotify was able to maintain its top spot due to promotions such as a free three-month trial for Spotify Premium, discounts, customized campaigns, and a focus on providing exclusive content to subscribers.

Read more
PlayStation had a better 2024 than it should have. Now it needs to focus
Astro Bot climbs on a DualSense controller.

This time last year, PlayStation had given us a roadmap for the brand's direction moving forward. It made grand commitments to live-service titles, put heavy investments in a mobile initiative, and continued to launch new hardware. If one were to judge PlayStation's 2024 on the rubric it set for itself, it would have been a failure. But that doesn't tell the full story.

PlayStation's 2024 felt like a restructuring phase. On the software side, we saw PlayStation embracing young players again, a decision that netted it a big Game of the Year win. Behind the games, we saw even bigger changes, specifically with the appointment of two new co-CEOs, Herman Hulst and Hideaki Nishino, that may have radical implications for the brand going forward. All of this sets the stage for a needed pivot for a brand that flirted with disaster in 2024. The only problem? That new vision hasn't been communicated yet, and fans' good will may be in short supply after a year of ups and downs.
Shifting strategy
Sony had a lot of pots on the stove this year, which made it a rollercoaster ride for fans. If there was one message PlayStation wanted to communicate as clearly as possible in 2023, it was the commitment to finding a live service hit. At the time, 12 such titles were reportedly in development and scheduled to be released between 2024 and 2026. So far, that effort has struggled to get off the starting blocks. Naughty Dog made the wise decision to cancel its Last of Us Online project to focus on single-player IPs such as the upcoming Intergalactic: The Heretic Prophet, but the real casualty was Concord.

Read more