Spotify will close his Heardle, a music-like word-guessing game May 5 less than a year after first purchase. if you go to website (opens in a new tab)you will be greeted with a message informing you of the upcoming closure and reminding you to take a screenshot of your stats by May for posterity.
After this date, your data will be lost forever.
Heardle was fired in the aftermath Wordle a successful start and proved to be quite popular in its own right 69 million monthly visitors at its peak (opens in a new tab). Just like in Wordle, you have six tries to figure out what song is playing by listening to snippets. For each mistake, the game extends the passage to increase the chances of winning. Whether you guess correctly or get carried away, the game ends each session with a link to the song on Spotify for you to check out.
Refocusing efforts
The company originally bought Heardle in July 2022 (opens in a new tab) where it was introduced as a music discovery tool to help users find old, forgotten songs or “amazing new artists”. However, it seems that Heardle wasn’t popular enough to stop. A Spotify spokesperson told TechRadar: “After careful consideration, we’ve made the difficult decision to say goodbye to Heardle as we focus our efforts on other music discovery features.”
Recently, the platform has implemented a significant revamp by implementing a A TikTok style discovery channel offering an endless carousel of “music, podcast [clips]and Playlist Suggestions,” some of which contain video clips. Spotify has also implemented its novelty DJ function with the help of OpenAI technology back at the end of February. It combines “tracks based on the music you usually like” to create a personalized playlist complete with a cheesy DJ voice.
If you are worried about another round of layoffs at Spotify, you don’t have to be – at least in this case. A source close to Spotify said the shutdown would not affect any Spotify employees.
Spiritual successor
All is not lost for Heardle because he lives on Heardle’s Decades (opens in a new tab), a similar game that expands on the original by providing musical challenges based on specific decades and genres. You have one each for the 80s, 90s, and early 2000s, as well as several games made by artists. It seems that this version is not affiliated with Spotify as it seems to be run by only one person. Everything is free, but if you want to support Heardle Decades, they have a Ko-fi account available on the website where they accept donations to cover server costs.
If you’re looking for alternatives to Spotify, check out TechRadar’s list of the best music streaming services for 2023. For example, Tidal is well known for high-quality streaming and surround sound support.