Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s failed partnership with Spotify continues to make headlines.
Daniel Ek, the chief executive of Spotify, hinted that the highly publicized deal between the royals and the most important streaming giant didn’t succeed because consumers weren’t impressed.
The Duchess and Prince’s Harry’s company Archewell Audio produced a mere 12 podcasts during a two-and-a-half 12 months span, after signing with Spotify in December 2020.
During a recent interview with the BBC, host and technology author Zoe Kleinman asked the CEO if he believed the partnership, which ended on June 15, 2023, was definitely worth the $20M price tag.
“You had some pretty big names,” she said. “You had the Obamas. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex. Was that definitely worth the £18m?”
In response Ek explained that the streaming platform goals to be open to giving latest creators a chance to succeed in their audience. “We thought latest innovation was needed to occur here,” he explained. “We thought we are able to are available in and offer an ideal experience that each makes consumers very glad and allows latest creators latest avenues.”
Despite their best intentions Ek admitted that Spotify had made some mistakes up to now. “And the reality of the matter is a few of it has worked, a few of it hasn’t,” he explained. “We’re learning from those and we’re moving on and we wish the entire ones we didn’t renew with the perfect of success they will have going forward.”
Ek just isn’t the primary Spotify exec to allude to having a difficulty with the content provided by Markle and Prince Harry. In June 2023 during an episode of “The Bills Simmons Podcast,” the titular host called the couple of being modern-day swindlers.
“‘The Fucking Grifters.’ That’s the podcast we shoulda launched with them,” said Simmons, the Ringer founder and head of podcast innovation and monetization at Spotify. “I gotta get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try to help him with a podcast idea. It’s certainly one of my best stories.”
With a mission “investigate the labels that attempt to hold women back” and “uncover the origin of those stereotypes,” Markle launched her first episode of “Archetypes” in August 2022 along with her close friend, tenis phenom Serena Williams because the guest.
“I don’t remember ever personally feeling the negative connotation behind the word ambitious until I began dating my now husband,” Markle told Williams. “And um, apparently ambition is, uh… a terrible, terrible thing, for a lady that’s – in line with some. So, since I’ve felt the negativity behind it, it’s really hard to un-feel it. I can’t unsee it, either, within the hundreds of thousands of women and girls who make themselves smaller – a lot smaller – frequently.”
Two days after it dropped, “Archetypes” was the primary podcast in the US, United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia, Latest Zealand and Canada on Spotify’s international charts.
