[HN Gopher] Spotify to acquire Heardle
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Spotify to acquire Heardle
Author : HieronymusBosch
Score : 105 points
Date : 2022-07-12 14:15 UTC (8 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (pr-newsroom-wp.appspot.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (pr-newsroom-wp.appspot.com)
| salicideblock wrote:
| The transition is rocky. I seem to have lost my stats - more than
| 100 days of results...
|
| Good for the devs, but sucks for me and the group of friends who
| were informally competing
| dzonga wrote:
| instead of fixing the broken web ui, while also removing features
| that used to exist. they go on acquire a company to boost user
| numbers and sessions. why have companies lost their way. it seems
| companies these days try their damn hardest to lose users who
| give them money and just want a product that gets out of their
| way.
| [deleted]
| silentsysadmin wrote:
| Agree! The web-player not including features from the desktop
| application is unacceptable.
|
| I just canceled my Spotify subscription for similar reasons
| this week. Discovery has become a pain, and I found myself
| listening to the same 50 or so songs throughout the day from
| the playlists generated by Spotify. On top of that, the
| constant push for podcasts has become annoying.
|
| So far I've found great satisfaction using Apple Music.
| loveLvbuMiao wrote:
| You didn't have the chance to use Release Radar or a tones of
| other new features, maybe you don't even know! Don't try to
| hide your true reason because Apple Music gives you several
| free months on the crappy subscription.
| silentsysadmin wrote:
| Release radar recommended songs that I just couldn't get
| into honestly. Tried listening to new songs from RR for
| several weeks without anything too gripping.
|
| What other new features are you talking about? The
| mix/match with a friend is a fun feature but again, all top
| 50 songs I've listened to in that playlist for the last few
| weeks.
|
| > Don't try to hide your true reason because Apple Music
| gives you several free months on the crappy subscription.
|
| On the contrary, I pay for Apple Music monthly :P
| rfw300 wrote:
| And the desktop application is itself missing a bunch of
| features from the mobile app!
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| This is pretty crappy as the more open nature of soundcloud that
| powers it will be lost to lame spotify I'm assuming. But I guess
| they're saying no noticeable effect for now since playing first
| min of a song probably no biggie if swapping in Spotify, but hard
| to believe they'll just leave it be. Bah.
|
| I guess they just stole it away from soundcloud who missed the
| opportunity to make it official, prob don't have the budget/too
| out of scope.
| heresaPizza wrote:
| maybe unrelated, but if you have an apple music sub you can find
| a similar game in the shortcuts gallery that uses songs from your
| library
| dotty- wrote:
| Weird URL. The official URL seems to be
| https://newsroom.spotify.com/2022-07-12/spotify-to-acquire-m...
| nixcraft wrote:
| The HTML source code has a canonical link that points to
| http://pr-newsroom-wp.appspot.com/2022-07-12/spotify-to-acqu...
| and which does HTTP/301 to HTTPS version. Weird indeed, and it
| might need fixing.
| ehPReth wrote:
| huh, I didn't even know it was possible to run WordPress on
| AppSpot.. I wonder how they deal with image uploads in
| WordPress
| throwthroyaboat wrote:
| Interestingly enough, I can't send the appspot link in FB
| messenger, it thinks its spam and blocks the message.
| dehrmann wrote:
| Isn't that an app engine URL? I know Spotify is on GCP.
| [deleted]
| Coolerbythelake wrote:
| Just another way to pipeline people into robbing Musicians and
| composers.
| [deleted]
| concinds wrote:
| I don't get it at all.
|
| Music quiz games are fun.
|
| But why limit to 1 a day? They're going for Wordle-style
| "cultural trendiness", maybe hoping to draw people to Spotify if
| a daily Heardle trends on Twitter.
|
| Not gonna happen. Wordle was a flash in the pan. It's already
| dying.[0][1][2][3] And I doubt a "mee too" product will go as
| viral.
|
| Spotify bought Heardle, kicked a few countries out that could
| previously play, and now can't, and took away people's stats.
| Heardle isn't trending on Twitter, and the Spotify subreddit
| literally isn't talking about it.
|
| Compare:
|
| https://www.similarweb.com/website/heardle.com/#overview
|
| https://www.similarweb.com/website/wordle.com/#overview (they
| abandoned that domain name, switched to nytimes.com months ago)
|
| It's not credible to spend (presumably) millions on this, when
| they're struggling to roll out Hi-Fi (7+ months overdue), their
| share price is down 73% from ATH, and YouTube Music and Amazon
| Music are gaining ground.
|
| Spotify's CEO announced last month to investors that subscription
| price increases "are part of the strategy", though they're
| unlikely to do it in the next few months since they saw how it
| backfired for Netflix. Why not focus more on core service/social
| features, not gimmicks?
|
| [0]: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/entertainment/games-
| puzzle...
|
| [1]: https://www.thestreet.com/technology/why-wordle-is-losing-
| po...
|
| [2]: https://subredditstats.com/r/wordle (see posts per day,
| comments per day)
|
| [3]: https://trends.google.com/trends/explore?q=wordle&geo=GB
|
| edit: deleted the 400 tweets claim; seems that website was
| misleading
| demopathos wrote:
| Interestingly enough, I concluded Wordle was definitely not
| dying when I looked at its Google trends just yesterday. A
| linear decrease in popularity from 100 to 50 is amazing staying
| power. Of course it's not going to be as popular as it's peak,
| but the fact that it avoided an exponential death means it's
| sticking around.
| xeromal wrote:
| I love heardle, but damn if this doesn't bum me out. For sure
| we're going to have to use a spotify login to use features now.
| krallja wrote:
| The only thing you get for logging in is that you can listen to
| the whole song, rather than the first 30s, once the game ends.
| marricks wrote:
| Right now yes. Who knows what will come but it'll probably be
| annoying.
| shagie wrote:
| One of the things that I believe I see now is that the guess
| library is _much_ larger... which I (again) believe suggests a
| much larger library of songs to draw from.
| xeromal wrote:
| That's definitely a positive!
| showerst wrote:
| Good for them! Heardle is my favorite of the wordle clones,
| although some of the recent UK-focused one hit wonders have been
| brutal =P.
| francisofascii wrote:
| The UK-focused one hit wonders are the only ones I get. :)
| afraidamphibian wrote:
| And now I am greeted with 'Heardle isn't available in your
| location...'. (Germany)
|
| I guess it's related to copyright, but Spotify is available? Not
| sure how that works.
|
| Kinda sad anyway, Heardle was good fun.
| looperhacks wrote:
| A friend reported the same, but I can access heardle just fine
| (both Germany). I wonder what's up with that ...
| Tevias wrote:
| Also cannot access from Germany.
| 4ggr0 wrote:
| I can't acces it either from Switzerland, doesn't matter if I
| connect to it normally or via US/German VPN...
|
| PR hug of death?
| xeromal wrote:
| I'm pretty perturbed at this too, but I find it funny that
| Spotify wouldn't be available in Germany. I remember years ago
| being jealous of Europeans that they had Spotify and we (the
| US) didn't.
| blockwriter wrote:
| I do not find the game fun or interesting. All I got was a drum
| track that could have been pretty much anything for the first 4
| attempts, and then the song was obvious the moment the singer
| started singing.
| joshuaissac wrote:
| It probably depends on the distinctiveness of the song, how
| used you are to it and how many other songs you know with a
| similar start.
|
| I only knew that one song that starts with that drum beat, so
| to me, it could not have been anything else. But if you are
| familiar with a wider selection of songs, the chance of
| multiple matches (and hence wrong answers) is higher.
| wsinks wrote:
| As much as I want to like Heardle - I'm with you. The problem
| with the game is their database though. They only have up to 4
| songs per artist and it looks like they acquired the songs
| before thinking about what songs would make up a good game.
|
| Good on you as well though - most people don't know how to
| match singers with their voices still.
|
| This game suffers from an odd difficult curve. It's not robust
| enough for the well versed music lover (who should be the
| target market) and is too difficult for the unversed music
| lover (who seems to be who they targeted)
|
| EDIT: I just played today's Heardle, and it's maybe the worst
| one they've ever had. I totally get what you mean.
| bfdm wrote:
| This is hugely subjective. Today's was instantly recognizable
| for me allowing me to guess with just the 1s clip. Other days
| I am familiar with the song but not the opening so I would
| never be able to guess.
|
| Most days are fun to guess, but some I have no idea. It
| depends on your personal music history.
| djhworld wrote:
| I've played the game on and off a few times, it can be quite
| fun if you recognise the song within the first two.
|
| Today's was an unfortunate example of how not fun it can be
| though
| andrewinardeer wrote:
| My wife is on a 50+ day streak. I don't know how she does it.
| Even today's she got it in one second. I watched her do it
| too.
|
| It has happened a few times where the song is not permitted
| to be played in my country (Australia). A notable one was
| Wonderwall by Oasis.
|
| Heardle apologised and allowed her to guess it "correctly" to
| continue her streak.
| sandyarmstrong wrote:
| It may just not be your game, but I suggest giving it a few
| days. There are definitely some tracks where I feel the same as
| you, but this happens to be one where I got it on my first try.
|
| Another aspect of the game is the guessing itself. It auto-
| complete so you can narrow down based on the limited library.
| For example, if you think it's a particular band but can't
| remember the track, you might be tempted to skip. Instead, type
| in the band's name and maybe there are only a couple of tracks
| to choose from, helping you narrow it down further.
|
| I'm curious if that will expand (and therefore become harder)
| with this acquisition.
| vlunkr wrote:
| It might be more interesting if it wasn't just the beginning of
| the song.
| krallja wrote:
| I knew the artist on the very first drumbeat, just couldn't
| remember which song it was, so I got it in 3.
| jkubicek wrote:
| I only know one song by that artist, so my choice was
| obvious.
|
| Funny enough, my first guess was "Bleachers" but they weren't
| a choice, so I went with "fun." Until today I had no idea
| Jack Antonoff led both bands.
| xeromal wrote:
| Yeah, it's pretty rewarding when your brain knows a 1 second
| drum sound. haha
| lijogdfljk wrote:
| Interestingly, that is how normal people can end up with
| "perfect" relative pitch. Many people can almost instantly
| remember the notes of their favorite songs and so using
| those as anchors give people without perfect pitch the
| ability to determine chord/key/etc via relative pitch.
|
| A second or two of a song is shockingly good at triggering
| your memory of songs you know well.
| xeromal wrote:
| I didn't realize that's how perfect relative pitch works.
| That's super cool.
| lijogdfljk wrote:
| There's probably other ways, i'm far from knowledgeable.
| But the way i described is quite approachable for normal
| people
| aidos wrote:
| It is a slightly binary game for me in terms of knowing it or
| not. But it's one second out of my day for something that I
| enjoy in those cases and there are a few where I struggle to
| put my finger on it but get there eventually.
|
| Nonetheless I tend to listen to the song on that day anyway,
| which is always nice.
|
| Today's one is kinda weird in that there's not a lot to go on
| for most of the song, and even then, the _song_ is kinda weird
| in that the chorus, that people know, is very detached from the
| rest of the song.
| xeromal wrote:
| The game is differentiating the drum tracks to find the song.
| It's kind of the point. I have a lot of fun with it and do
| solidly well from time to time.
| aidos wrote:
| To be fair, it's mostly not just drum tracks. That's a bit of
| an exception.
| francisofascii wrote:
| I agree. Today's first 4 seems repetitive. You either knew it
| on 1 or had to skip to 5. I hope they improve the game a bit.
| dllthomas wrote:
| The funniest like that, IMO, was "Jolene" - 2-4 added
| basically no info to what was obvious in 1, then 5 was
| "JOLENE JOLENE JOLENE"
| gardenhedge wrote:
| I played Heardle for awhile during the Wordle craze. I stopped
| playing both about a month ago. I wonder how many users each
| still has? Congrats to the Heardle devs for successfully selling
| a Wordle-inspired clone. Who is going to make Movdle to let
| people guess Movies next? "<honk> Hey - Imma walkin' 'ere!"
|
| I've also moved on from Spotify. Since I am WFH I no longer need
| music streaming for commutes.
| K7PJP wrote:
| > Who is going to make Movdle to let people guess Movies next?
|
| You're looking for https://framed.wtf/ - today's was
| particularly easy.
| Tarantanon wrote:
| Funny you say that since I created movlie [1]. But it uses
| screenshots of movies instead since that was easier to source
| than manually cutting out scenes from movies.
|
| [1] https://movlie.org/
| mikerathbun wrote:
| That was a lot of fun. Thanks!
| blfr wrote:
| _Heardle isn 't available in your location..._
|
| _But, you can listen to millions of full songs and podcasts for
| free on Spotify._
|
| (I have Spotify Premium.)
| falcor84 wrote:
| Well, I suppose this will not be a problem after the
| acquisition, once they share a catalog.
| [deleted]
| dehrmann wrote:
| I'm pretty sure I had this idea 5+ years ago, but I'm not sure if
| it would have had any traction without Wordle paving the way.
| schnevets wrote:
| I always felt that streaming services had untapped potential in
| "playing" with content. Previously, a trivia game would need
| specific rights to use movie clips, but if the user has an HBO
| Max subscription and already could access all of those films,
| there isn't much harm in using clips (other than unrealized
| licensing fees).
|
| In the same way, I hope Spotify is thinking of every way people
| may hear music. Not just active listening but trivia (like
| Heardle), radio shows, amateur documentaries, etc. The underlying
| technology is already there. I'm sure designers have many more
| ideas, but there is always the looming threat of Cease & Desist.
| nwsm wrote:
| The problem many complain about though is that this shifts the
| point of the Spotify product. Those who want a clean interface
| for listening to music, often specifically out of one's library
| of "liked" albums and playlists, now deal with a UI encumbered
| with podcasts, social features, and I guess now games.
|
| At some point soon there will be room for a "just your music"
| streaming service.
| blowski wrote:
| I quit Spotify a few months back for this reason.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| I've used Spotify for ~9 years years exclusively for music
| streaming and I guess I get a podcast suggestion on the
| homepage every once in awhile but I just ignore it and move
| on. You can permanently hide the "friend" view in settings,
| no one I know has used it since college.
|
| Aside from moving some small things around so they take 2
| taps instead of 3 or 4, their UI has barely changed at all.
| It has a working Linux client. It has boundless capability to
| help you discover new music.
|
| I don't know why people on here act like Spotify is an
| abomination, you can still just buy and own your music if you
| insist.
|
| Literally the only thing I would change is for them to pay
| the artists more. And I'd happily pay triple the price to
| make that happen.
| blowski wrote:
| Frustrations with Spotify:
|
| 1. I used to actively look forward to my weekly
| recommendations. By the end, they were recommending music
| that was already in my most played. And lots of generic
| indie folk crap that all sounded the same. I didn't seem to
| be able to convince it that I didn't like it.
|
| 2. I'd search for specific albums by specific artists and
| get guided instead to playlists.
|
| 3. Forcing it to play an album in the original order was
| strangely difficult when playing on a smart speaker.
|
| 4. Downloaded music wouldn't play on a device with poor
| internet. Sat on a train enough times unable to listen to
| music that I used VLC instead.
|
| 5. It sometimes took 20-30 seconds (and even a restart of
| the app) to get it to play a track. On a newish iPad (same
| on iPhone) and decent internet.
|
| Spotify's whole mission seems now to be less about
| appealing to music lovers, and more about generating a
| constant background noise.
| nivenkos wrote:
| I think the recommendations are still great, just this
| week I discovered Hallas for example.
| skrtskrt wrote:
| > I used to actively look forward to my weekly
| recommendations. By the end, they were recommending music
| that was already in my most played. And lots of generic
| indie folk crap that all sounded the same. I didn't seem
| to be able to convince it that I didn't like it.
|
| This is the way of the Discover Weekly, it recommends
| music that is sonically similar to what you listen to
| most. Eventually you run out of music that is actually
| good that is sonically similar to what you already listen
| to.
|
| You can also do
|
| * song/album/artist radio on any song/album/artist you
| hear, which will be matched to that song/album/artist and
| not your personal pref.
|
| * release radar - new song release weekly by your
| favorite artists or similar artists
|
| * automatic mix playlists with a friend that bring in
| their music preferences
|
| * daily mixes - 90% songs you like and already listen to,
| separated by genres, with a handful of new ones mixed in
|
| ... and that's just a small percentage of what is or can
| be automatically generated by Spotify. There are endless
| user-created playlists to explore.
|
| > I'd search for specific albums by specific artists and
| get guided instead to playlists.
|
| The search can be filtered by whether you want songs,
| albums, artists, playlists, podcasts, or profiles. It's
| the top, most obvious option on search, right below the
| search bar.
|
| Their search has also improved massively in the last few
| years to where you don't need to filter and can just type
| the song name and artist/album name in the same search to
| filter out all the similarly named songs by other artists
| - it no longer indexes the search on just a single
| attribute.
|
| The rest sound like device issues. Never encountered them
| across Androids, iPhones, Ipads, Macbooks, Linux laptops,
| etc.
| blowski wrote:
| I suspect Spotify have taken a similar approach to
| devaluing all complaints about their UX/UI, thus why
| people like me have deleted their account.
| yepguy wrote:
| Yeah, I actually found a lot of great music from
| Spotify's suggestions that I wouldn't have listened to
| otherwise. However, their suggestions for me are now
| stuck in such a specific (and frankly kind of weird)
| musical niche that they've become useless.
|
| A big part of it is probably because I try to only use
| Spotify for discovering new music. Anything that I know I
| actually like gets added to my local music library
| instead and is never played through Spotify.
|
| edit: Is there a way to tell Spotify to forget what it
| thinks it knows about my taste in music? I think I'd
| prefer starting over from scratch instead of trying to
| feed it more information about what I already listen to.
| saghm wrote:
| Ideally they could make each of these separate apps. There's
| no technical reason why multiple apps couldn't be published
| by Spotify that all use the same IP.
| gardenhedge wrote:
| If they do this they will not have the same uptake on those
| apps as the main one. Eventually someone will have the
| bright idea to merge them.
| jlarocco wrote:
| No thanks.
|
| I'm already annoyed that UI on iPhone is too "busy" and there's
| no way to turn off the lyrics display.
|
| If they want to add extra crap, they should put it in a new
| app.
|
| Even more so now that libspotify is gone.
| stingraycharles wrote:
| As we're adding single data points, I like to submit that I'm
| fairly interested in seeing what this has to offer.
|
| Just today I was pleasantly surprised I was seeing some music
| videos while playing Spotify content and I actually
| appreciated watching them while exercising, because frankly,
| there's no other way I would ever watch a music video any
| other way nowadays.
| ChrisArchitect wrote:
| Please fix this url, would have taken you two seconds to find the
| proper link, where did it even come from:
|
| https://newsroom.spotify.com/2022-07-12/spotify-to-acquire-m...
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