Spotify Snaps Up Wordle Spinoff Heardle in Interactive Push

Spotify is always looking for new ways to help music lovers connect with and discover songs. Some of these include tailored playlists and discovery voyages, which help listeners expand their musical horizons or find throw-back tracks that make them smile.

Heardle was one such tool, and the company snapped it up last year. It’ll keep its look and feel, but now users will click a song to play it on Spotify (previously, songs linked to SoundCloud).

It’s a game

The streaming giant is looking for new ways to attract music lovers and Heardle, a musical Wordle spin-off, seems like a natural fit. The game asks users to guess songs from a fleeting opening note, with each correct answer adding a few more seconds of music.

Spotify hasn’t disclosed how much it paid for Heardle, but the company says it will keep the look and feel of the game intact and will continue to be free for players. It may also integrate Heardle into its own app.

The acquisition of Heardle comes less than 10 months after the company purchased Wordle, a game that challenged players to identify words in a sentence. The acquisition is part of a push by Spotify to add more interactive experiences. It recently rolled out an AI DJ feature that learns the kinds of music users listen to and provides suggestions for new tracks. It has also redesigned its mobile app to add TikTok-style discovery feeds and other features.

It’s a discovery tool

Streaming giant Spotify is trying to beef up its offerings to keep music lovers playing. It has snapped up Wordle spinoff Heardle and will integrate it more fully into its app. Heardle tasks players with guessing the daily mystery song by its opening notes. Users are given six attempts, and each incorrect guess reveals one second of the song’s intro.

In addition, Spotify announced a new tool called Discovery Mode. This lets artists and labels identify tracks to prioritize, and the platform will include them in personalized sessions such as Auto play and Radio. Artists and labels don’t pay anything upfront, but they must agree to a lower recording royalty rate in exchange for increased exposure.

The Future of Music Coalition, a nonprofit geared toward artists, criticized Discovery Mode as “brazen payola.” It could encourage a race to the bottom in which record companies and artists accept lower rates to compete in an already competitive music environment.

It’s a way to connect with fans

Music streaming companies need to think beyond their’music-on-tap’ roots and become enablers of fandom and connection between musicians and fans. Spotify has already started to do this by allowing artists to promote their latest songs and albums in the platform’s algorithmic playlists. But this can be expensive for smaller artists, especially when they only get a few seconds to grab listeners’ attention.

Heardle is a spin-off of the Wordle word game that gained popularity last year, but instead of words it uses song intros. It gives players six tries to guess the song and artist based on snippets of the intro.

It’s a simple idea that could be used on other parts of Spotify, such as the search typeahead or results page. Spotify could also introduce paid promotion into its existing ‘Fans Also Like’ section. The ad wouldn’t feel interruptive as users might not even know it’s a sponsored track or artist. This would be a good way to attract new listeners and increase the number of songs that people stream on the service.

It’s a way to monetize

As a premium member, you can listen to Spotify on any wifi-enabled device including smart TVs and speakers. You can also stream via your home audio receiver, head unit in your car and Bluetooth headphones. Spotify Connect is a big selling point as it allows you to play music throughout the house or on the go.

Heardle was bought by Spotify last July and is a musical guessing game, similar to the word puzzle Wordle made famous by The New York Times. It gives players six tries to identify a song by hearing the intro.

The app has gained a following of tens of millions of users. It is part of Spotify’s plans to deepen interactivity on the platform, a company statement said. That would make sense given the popularity of Spotify Wrapped, a colourful and social media-worthy roundup of the songs you have listened to over the past year. It goes viral every December and gives artists a share of the ad revenue generated by the streamer. needs read more hear