Prince Harry and Meghan Markle are consciously uncoupling (from Spotify)
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle have "mutually agreed to part ways" with Spotify after a $20 million deal
It’s the end of the road for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle…’s Spotify deal. This match made in heaven, or somewhere, came into being in December 2020 and spawned Markle’s successful podcast series Archetypes. Yet despite that show hitting the top of Spotify’s podcast charts, the ex-royal couple and the streamer have decided to call it quits.
“Spotify and Archewell Audio have mutually agreed to part ways and are proud of the series we made together,” the two parties said in a joint statement (via CNN).
As for why the reported $20 million deal was discontinued, it’s a bit of a he-said-she-said behind the scenes. According to one source for Variety, Harry and Markle wanted to open up the relationship. That is to say, the duo “have wanted to move away from exclusive Spotify distribution to find a new home for their audio projects.” (A similar reasoning was given for why Barack and Michelle Obama ended their Spotify exclusive deal.)
Archetypes in particular may live on in another form elsewhere. The show was designed to “investigate, dissect and subvert the labels that try to hold women back” and featured conversations between Markle and celebrities such as Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, Mindy Kaling, Paris Hilton, and Trevor Noah. “The team behind Archetypes remain proud of the podcast they created at Spotify,” a spokesperson for Archewell Productions said in a statement to The Wall Street Journal. “Meghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform.”
However, it’s a slightly different story on the Spotify side of the equation. Another Variety insider says, “Spotify expected more content from Archewell Audio,” while sources for the WSJ claim that “The couple hasn’t met the productivity benchmarks required to receive the full payout from the deal.” The fact is, Archetypes is the only series Archewell put out in the last three years, plus one measly holiday special.
The deal flaming out with a whimper will surely inspire a lot of gleeful schadenfreude with a certain segment of Internet denizens. But Harry and Meghan are far from the only celebrities to waste a lot of a streaming service’s time and money. Expensive first-look deals with celebrity creators that ultimately bear little fruit are actually all the rage right now: just look at Phoebe Waller-Bridge at Prime Video or J.J. Abrams at WarnerMedia. It’s all a part of doing business these days, even if doing business that way seems extremely silly from the outside! Best of luck to Meghan and Harry getting launching their podcasts elsewhere.