Spotify has acquired music trivia game Heardle for an undisclosed sum to use it as a tool for music discovery.

Inspired by popular word-guessing game Wordle that took the world by storm, Heardle gives players six chances to guess the song by playing the first few seconds of the opening – increasing the length played after each successive guess.

Soon after it went viral, Wordle was bought by the New York Times for a ‘low seven-figure sum’. Now, Spotify has snapped up the musical version of the game, promising to keep its look and feel intact and well as keep it free.

“We are always looking for innovative and playful ways to enhance music discovery and help artists reach new fans,” said Spotify’s music chief 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… and a way to compete with their friends as to who has the best musical knowledge.”

Erlich said that Heardle has quickly built up a loyal following since it was first launched earlier this year and it aligns with plans to “deepen interactivity across the Spotify ecosystem”.

“Playing Heardle might just help you to rediscover old tracks you may have thought you’d forgotten, discover amazing new artists, or finally put a title to that wordless melody you’ve had caught in your head forever,” Spotify said in a statement.

Heardle is one of a string of new games that have cropped up in the wake of Wordle’s popularity, such as Quordle, where players must guess four words instead of one, and Nerdle, a version of the original game for maths enthusiasts.

Starting with users in Ireland, the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK, Spotify has now enabled a feature that will allow them to listen to the full song on Spotify after the game is over. Heardle was previously integrated with SoundCloud for this feature.

“Further down the road, we are also planning to integrate Heardle and other interactive experiences more fully into Spotify to allow music lovers to connect more deeply with artists and challenge friends – and have some fun in the process.”

However, some users have complained of losing their game history and other glitches since the acquisition, according to a BBC News report.

The acquisition of Heardle makes strategic sense for Spotify. The game’s website was visited by 41m people last month, according to TechCrunch. Following its purchase of Wordle, the New York Times attracted tens of millions of new users to its website.

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