Heardle To Close: Spotify Dumps Music’s Wordle

After buying the music trivia game last July, Spotify is ending Heardle next month.

Heardle, an offshoot of the popular Wordle (which The New York Times bought early last year), found success after the virality of Wordle took over. 

Unlike its word-finding counterpart, on Heardle, players hear a few seconds of a track and guess what it is based on the snippet. If the five to ten-second preview isn’t enough, players can opt for extra time (they only have six chances to guess the song). The quicker players guess correctly, the more points they gain.

Spotify said in a statement via Pitchfork, “After careful consideration, we have made the difficult decision to say goodbye to Heardle as we focus our efforts on other features for music discovery.”

Content creator That Aussie Music Guy slammed the decision as a cynical one, calling it "one of the most music industry things ever."

Spotify buying Heardle, loading it with songs paid for by labels that no one could recognise and then shutting it down a year later because people stopped playing because they didn’t recognise the songs is one of the most music industry things ever.

— That Aussie Music Guy (@aussiemusicguy) April 15, 2023

Jeremy Erlich, Spotify’s Head of Music, said at the time of purchasing Heardle last year, “We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” per Billboard.

“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.”

Heardle will end its run on Friday, 5 May. Screenshot to save your scores.

While Heardle was still very popular upon Spotify’s acquisition last July, TechCrunch reports that the number of users has drastically fallen since then. 

The publication also noted that through the app, users could listen to the whole song via Spotify, and many may have chosen not to and closed Heardle and played the game once the next track appeared on the following day.

Spotify also ended its live audio app, Spotify Live, earlier this month.