Spotify acquired Heardle, a Wordle-inspired music trivia game, in July 2022.
Heardle challenged players to identify a song from progressively longer audio clips. Each daily puzzle began with only a brief snippet and gradually revealed more of the track, rewarding musical memory and recognition. Its format adapted Wordle’s once-a-day guessing structure to the “name that tune” tradition.
The browser game was created by London-based Omakase Studios and released in February 2022. Spotify acquired it only a few months later for an undisclosed amount, hoping to use the game as a discovery tool that could direct players toward songs and artists on its streaming platform.
The acquisition is easy to confuse with other music games. Wordle was the inspiration, not the acquired property; Framed used movie clips, and SongPop was a separate music-quiz franchise. Heardle’s Spotify era was brief: the company later shut the game down in 2023 while prioritizing other music-discovery features.