Heardle
The business, the turning points, and the decisions behind them.
01 / WHAT IT BUILT
What the company did
Heardle was a music-based Wordle clone: a web game in which players guessed the artist and title of a songs by listening to progressively longer snippets of its intro, with six attempts. Launched in early 2022 and peaking at 69M monthly visits in March 2022, it was acquired by Spotify in July 2022 for an undisclosed sum. Spotify planned to keep it free and integrate it into music discovery, but shut the standalone game down on May 5, 2023 to focus its efforts on other music discovery features such as its redesigned app feed and AI DJ.
02 / Heardle FAILURE REASONS
Failure factors
Spotify spokesperson said it would sunset Heardle to focus efforts on other music-discovery features; article states Heardle was no longer central after in-app discovery redesign and did not sufficiently advance Spotify's discovery goals (parent product shutdown).
say goodbye to Heardle as we focus our efforts on other features for music discovery.
Heardle did not ultimately help Spotify achieve its goals around improved music discovery; engagement/visits had declined.
03 / EVENT HISTORY
Events in the structured record
- Launch and peak
Heardle launched in early 2022 as a music-guessing game and peaked at 69M monthly visits in March 2022.
- Acquired by Spotify
Spotify acquired Heardle in July 2022 for an undisclosed sum, planning to keep it free.
- Shut down
Spotify shut down Heardle on May 5, 2023 to focus on other music discovery features.
04 / CONTEMPORARY REBUILD ASSESSMENT
Difficulty of rebuilding this project today
Material for this section is being gathered and checked. It will appear here once ready.
Overall assessment: Not completed
05 / CAUSAL CHAIN
How the factors connect
- 01
Heardle launched in early 2022 as a music-based Wordle clone in which players guessed a song from progressively longer snippets of its intro.
- 02
Spotify acquired Heardle in July 2022 for an undisclosed sum, saying it would remain free to play.
- 03
Spotify shut down Heardle on May 5, 2023 to focus its efforts on other music discovery features.