“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to half methods and are pleased with the sequence we made collectively,” Spotify mentioned in an emailed assertion Friday, with out offering any additional particulars.
The deal between Spotify and Prince Harry and Meghan’s manufacturing firm, Archewell Audio, was announced in late 2020 as a multiyear, unique partnership that will see Harry and Meghan internet hosting and producing “podcasts that construct neighborhood by shared experiences and values.” It started with a 2020 holiday special, and a primary full sequence was anticipated in 2021, Spotify mentioned on the time.
The couple’s first podcast sequence, “Archetypes,” which ended up launching in August 2022, was described as “a podcast the place we examine, dissect, and subvert the labels that attempt to maintain girls again.”
The primary episode topped Spotify’s ratings lists, though the podcast didn’t appear among the many platform’s record of its prime podcasts of 2022. Whereas the podcast sequence generated important press protection, some commentators argued that the media was extra concerned about revelations about Harry and Meghan’s life whereas they had been working royals, than the interviews with the podcast’s high-profile visitors.
The explanation behind the choice to finish the partnership stays unclear, but it surely comes weeks after Spotify announced job cuts of 200 folks, or 2 % of its workforce, as the corporate outlined its technique for a “strategic realignment” of its work and world podcasts.
The Wall Road Journal, which first reported the deal ending, cited folks conversant in the matter as saying the couple had failed to satisfy “the productiveness benchmarks required to obtain the total payout from the deal,” which it mentioned was value roughly $20 million.
A consultant for WME, the expertise company that represents Markle, told the Wall Street Journal: “The staff behind Archetypes stay pleased with the podcast they created at Spotify. Meghan is constant to develop extra content material for the Archetypes viewers on one other platform.”
Since stepping again from the royal household in 2020, the couple have signed plenty of profitable offers, together with a six-hour documentary sequence they produced for Netflix, entitled “Harry and Meghan,” and Harry’s controversial memoir “Spare,” which was launched in January. Netflix described “Harry and Meghan” as its most-viewed documentary debut when it launched, whereas “Spare” grew to become an instant bestseller.
Different prime names have additionally signed — and later ended — unique offers with Spotify. Former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama introduced a cope with Spotify in 2019, however ended their unique podcast deal in April 2022. Bloomberg reported that the couple had been leaving the platform as they hoped to make their content material accessible on multiple platform.
