By: Nick Gambino
Heardle, like many of the daily trivia games inspired by Wordle, has become a source of joy for many who look forward to playing every day. With the announcement that Spotify has just acquired the popular game, we’ll have to see if those player numbers go up or down.
When Wordle took the internet by storm earlier this year, it didn’t take long for a million versions of the same format to pop up. There’s Framed for movies, Worldle for geography and, of course, Heardle for music. This latter has proven to be one of the most popular with a reported 41 million people visiting the site in June alone.
The OG Wordle was acquired by the New York Times for seven figures, and while that was criticized by some, it appears the number of users has grown exponentially. The same will most likely happen with Spotify’s acquisition.
The music streaming behemoth has 422 million active users who will be able to play right through the app, an app they already fire up multiple times a day. I’ve never played Heardle, but now that it’s coming to Spotify, I’m sure I’ll start playing it every day, because why not.
Not only is it fun to test your knowledge and earn bragging rights, it’s also a way to discover new music. This is part of Spotify’s reasoning behind the purchase. They want more reasons for people to not only visit the platform but stick around and listen to music.
“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” Jeremey Erlich, the Global Head of Music for Spotify said. “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.”
I wouldn’t mind if they also picked up Ya Heardle!, an offshoot that focuses on 90s rap and R&B. I play that every day but with all the other daily trivia games I’m currently playing in my browser (Wordle, Framed, Filmdle, Moviedle, Posterdle), it’s getting a bit unwieldy. Stick it in my Spotify app and I’ll be happy.
Heardle will remain free for everyone to play and you won’t need a Spotify account to access it. You’ll also be able to listen to the entire song on Spotify after you guess (or fail to guess) the answer. It’s not clear if you’ll need an account to do that.
