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Name-that-tune game Heardle dropped by Spotify after a year

The company did not give further details on why it was ending the game, and it's not clear whether Heardle may continue life elsewhere

Published: Sun 16 Apr 2023, 2:40 PM

Updated: Sun 16 Apr 2023, 2:41 PM

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  • AP

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The Spotify app on an iPad is pictured, March 20, 2018, in Baltimore. — AP file

The Spotify app on an iPad is pictured, March 20, 2018, in Baltimore. — AP file

Heardle, the name-that-tune game inspired by the Wordle craze, is being dropped by Spotify less than a year after the music-streaming giant acquired it.

“After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to say goodbye to Heardle," Spotify said on Saturday in a statement. A similar announcement was posted on the Heardle homepage.

First appearing in February 2022 amid a surge of games that used the format of Wordle, which the New York Times bought in January of that year, Heardle plays fleeting moments of a song and challenges users to see how quickly they can guess it. Saturday's mystery song was (spoiler alert) 1998's “Why Don't You Get a Job” by the Offspring.

After Spotify bought Heardle in July, users could go from revealing the song to playing it on the app. That sort of music discovery, or rediscovery, was Spotify's intention in acquiring the game from its creators, according to the blog post announcing the acquisition.

But the statement on the game's end said Spotify plans to "focus our efforts on other features for music discovery.”

The company did not give further details on why it was ending the game, and it's not clear whether Heardle may continue life elsewhere. Spotify did not identify the apparently publicity-shy creator and seller when it announced the purchase.

Variety identified the man as a “London-based web and app designer” in a May 2020 interview, but he declined to be identified further.



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