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Harry and Meghan lose out in Spotify’s podcasting cutbacks

By Chris Cooke | Published on Friday 16 June 2023

As part of Spotify’s downsizing of its podcasting operations, it’s been confirmed that the most royal of the streaming firm’s podcast partnerships is not being renewed. That being the one with a certain Harry and Meghan Windsor.

Spotify’s deal with Archewell Audio – the content company set up by the often controversial (if only to Piers Morgan) royal couple – was agreed in 2020 when the streaming firm was busy splashing the cash to try to become the dominant player in podcasting.

The exclusivity agreement was reportedly worth $20 million, though sources have told the Wall Street Journal that that was dependent on a level of output that was never achieved. So Archewell will have received a lower amount for the exclusive rights to the twelve part Meghan-hosted podcast series ‘Archetypes’ that it did produce.

As part of wider cost-cutting efforts at Spotify, the streaming firm recently rejigged its podcasting division resulting in around 200 job losses.

A general shift away from exclusive podcast content seems to be part of that rejig, which means Spotify is likely to allow other expensive exclusivity deals with podcasters to lapse. It’s also thought that programmes made in-house at Spotify will start to pop up on other platforms, to boost reach and therefore potential sponsorship income.

Meanwhile, according to a new Bloomberg article, when it comes to podcasting, Spotify is now prioritising its platforms that provide services to independent podcast producers. That includes what was Anchor, now Spotify For Podcasters, and especially Megaphone, which is aimed at media firms and higher-level podcast makers.

If true, this means that – while it will continue to make its own programmes in-house – Spotify’s real mission in podcasting moving forward will be to help other podcast producers better monetise their content.