Meghan Markle and Prince Harry Part Ways With Spotify
The Sussexes’s podcast will not return for another season…
In late 2020, the royals had signed a $20 million deal with the music streaming platform, Spotify. However, reported by the Wall Street Journal, sources had claimed that the couple failed to meet the productivity benchmark required, in order to receive their full payout.
Meghan Markle’s podcast, Archetypes, launched in August of 2022 and delves into the idea that labels, and different archetypes are holding women back. Instantly rising to the top of the Spotify charts the it premiered. The show consists of twelve episodes and has featured an array of iconic women such as Mariah Carey, Serena Williams and Deepika Padukone. Last year, the podcast even won the People’s Choice Award for pop podcast of 2022, beating out many viable competitors.
Megan put out a statement after this win on her Archewell site, thanking her team and listeners, as well as calling the podcast a “labor of love.”
Spotify has announced that they will be laying off around two percent of their workforce, approximately 200 members of staff, who work on their podcast teams. This is because although podcasts are highly popular with their audiences, they are extremely difficult to make profitable, and sustain.
Even though the podcast will no longer return to Spotify for a second season, Megan is not giving up on her “labor of love.” A representative for WME, which represents both Megan Markle and Archewell, had told the Wall Street Journal that she is continuing to create her content for Archetypes on another platform.