Streaming giant Spotify’s latest take is called Heardle, a free online game in which the Internet user has six chances to guess a mystery piece by listening to his first seconds. Every day, the track changes and the player can publish the result of his quiz on social networks.
This acquisition, formalized on July 12 in a press release, is the first in the entertainment video industry for the online music listening platform. The Swedish company hopes to attract Heardle music lovers to its platform.
“We are always looking for innovative and fun ways to bring the discovery of songs and also help artists reach new fans”, said Jeremy Erlich, music director of Spotify, without revealing the amount of the acquisition. “The game has quickly built a loyal community and aligns with our plans to grow the interactivity of our ecosystem”he added.
Service made unavailable in France
Heardle remains an additional site but links will now be able to redirect players to Spotify. However, French fans of the game had the bad surprise to discover that the site had become inaccessible in France since the takeover. Only a few countries can still play it, such as the United States, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. Spotify assured that Heardle would be available ” in the future “ in other languages and countries, without giving further details.
Imagined in New York, Heardle is both a variation of the well-known concept of blind test and another from the Wordle site, a famous free online game launched by the American Josh Wardle in October 2021 and which offers a daily grid to discover a five-letter word. The principle may well be inspired by the American television program “Lingo” (the French version of which is called “Motus”), but it has had phenomenal success. The site was thus bought by the New York Times for several million dollars (the exact amount remains unknown).
Wordle has had a large number of emulators in many languages, including Japanese, French or Breton. Heardle is part of a second wave of imitators who decline the principle in different fields, including music. In the same way, a myriad of other sites – whose names generally end in “the” – thus offer other quizzes, whether for example with geographical data (Worldle), artistic (artle) or economic (Tradle).