Heardle will be shut down by Spotify after buying it less than a year ago
TechCrunch reported earlier today that Spotify is shutting down its Wordle-themed music game Heardle on May 5th.
The message says, “Thanks for playing Heardle, but unfortunately, we have to say goodbye. From May 5th, Heardle will no longer be available.”
In spite of Heardle’s inspiration coming from Wordle – the internet sensation that took word guessing to a whole new level – it’s still a pretty unique game that pits your music knowledge against the music of others. During the game, you listen to progressively longer snippets of the song to guess its name.
After guessing the song (or giving up), Heardle gives you a link to listen to the track on Spotify. If you don’t know the name right away, you can continue listening until you can identify it.
In an emailed statement to The Verge by Spotify spokesperson Grey Munford, he said, “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.”
For those who want to take screenshots of their stats to keep as a memory of the game, Spotify says they have until May 4th. It is possible that fewer players are playing Heardle now that the buzz surrounding The New York Times-owned Wordle has died down a bit, even though Spotify acquired the game last year.
Heardle’s shutdown may also be related to Spotify’s failure to integrate it into its app. If it had been available at users’ fingertips rather than on a standalone website, maybe it would have lasted.
