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And Finally Business News Deals Digital
Spotify buys Heardle
By Chris Cooke | Published on Wednesday 13 July 2022
If you had that musical Wordle rip off Heardle down for a quick acquisition by Spotify, well done, you win a prize. We’d put our money on the daily ‘Name That Tune’ style quiz – which seemingly pulled in its music from SoundCloud Go previews – being sued quicker than anyone could buy it. But then, you know, we live for pop litigation, so that was probably just wishful thinking on our part. Maybe it was fully legit licensed by the music industry from the off. But that seems very unlikely.
“If you love that you can recognise hundreds of songs within a few opening bars, you’re not alone”, declared Spotify yesterday. “Passion for music runs deep – and so does showing off those skills in musical trivia. Millions do just that with Heardle, a daily music game. And at Spotify, we love all things music – and all things music trivia – which is why we’re excited to announce that the beloved interactive music trivia game will be joining Spotify”.
“We see Heardle as more than a trivia game: It’s also a tool for musical discovery”, Spotify’s official statement added, even though, surely, to successfully identify each Heardle track from just a few seconds of listening you need to have already discovered said track?
But, I suppose, if – after using up all six goes to spot the song – you discover you were, in fact, unsuccessful because you’ve never heard of it, then I guess that’s music discovery going on right there. Plus, Spotify went on, “playing Heardle might just help you to rediscover old tracks you may have thought you’d forgotten”. Yeah, maybe.
“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans”, says Spotify’s Global Head Of Music Jeremy Erlich.
“Heardle has proven to be a really fun way to connect millions of fans with songs they know and love and with new songs”, he adds, “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”.
Spotify was also keen to stress to existing Heardle players yesterday that the game will carry on working as it always has and will remain free to play. It’s just that at the end of each game, players will now be directed to the full featured track on Spotify.
Oh, and playing the game will be restricted to the US, UK, Ireland, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, in the short term at least. Oh, and some players have reported that all their previous gameplay stats have been lost following the Spotify acquisition.
Still, “Heardle bought by Spotify” is more fun than “Heardle sued by the majors”. For Heardle, that is. Definitely not for CMU.
