{"id":30431,"date":"2023-06-21T13:20:20","date_gmt":"2023-06-21T13:20:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat"},"modified":"2023-06-21T13:39:00","modified_gmt":"2023-06-21T13:39:00","slug":"why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat","title":{"rendered":"Why Spotify\u2019s big bet on Meghan fell flat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. <\/strong><\/span>When Spotify signed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with an exclusive deal reportedly worth about $20m (\u00a315.6m) in 2020, the royal couple were taking their first steps into the commercial world and podcasts were positively booming.<\/p>\n

How times have changed. These days, Prince Harry and Meghan\u2019s brand has waned in the eyes of some and Spotify is reducing its reliance on the big celebrity signings and expensive original content that have weighed on its bottom line.<\/p>\n

Meghan\u2019s podcast became one of the most high-profile casualties this week when Spotify<\/b> and the duke and duchess\u2019s Archewell Audio announced they would be parting ways in a mutual decision. It came after Spotify\u2019s deal with Barack and Michelle Obama\u2019s production company ended last year.<\/p>\n

Spotify has let go hundreds of staff since that time, hitting the expansive podcasting division, a hotchpotch of podcasting companies it spent more than $400m acquiring just a few years ago.<\/p>\n

On a conference call with financial analysts earlier this year, Spotify chief executive Daniel Ek conceded the firm had made some mistakes during the more than $1bn spending spree that followed its 2019 push to establish itself as a key player in the industry.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019re right in calling out the overpaying and overinvesting,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re going to be very diligent in how we invest in future content deals,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the ones that aren\u2019t performing, obviously, we won\u2019t renew.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd the ones that are performing, we will obviously look at those on a case-by-case basis on the relative value.<\/p>\n

\u201d Spotify clearly still has the stomach for some expensive partnerships.<\/p>\n

Last year, it resisted calls to cut ties with its controversial star Joe Rogan, who reportedly received $200m in 2020 for giving the streamer exclusive listening rights.<\/p>\n

But Mr Rogan\u2019s show offers several multi-hour episodes each week, which reportedly command an average audience of 11 million people. Meghan by contrast delivered just 12 episodes of her Archetypes podcast last year.<\/p>\n

The joint statement announcing the split said the Sussexes and Spotify were \u201cproud\u201d of the material they made together. And a string of accolades showed why.<\/p>\n

Archetypes\u2019 debut last year hit the top of Spotify\u2019s charts in six markets, including the US and UK. The show, in which Meghan interviewed fellow celebrities such as Serena Williams, Mariah Carey and Mindy Kaling, also won a People\u2019s Choice Award.<\/p>\n

But crisis communications guru Mark Borkowski says the show may not have been compelling enough when Spotify reviewed the numbers. \u201cIt\u2019s always about the content.
\n. clearly there hasn\u2019t been a big enough audience for it,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you can\u2019t deliver your fee, no one\u2019s going to pay it.<\/p>\n

\u201d Mr Borkowski says there is little doubt that the duke and duchess still have value as a media brand. But it may not be what it once was.<\/p>\n

Polling for Newsweek earlier this year suggested the couple\u2019s popularity in the US suffered following the publicity blitz surrounding their Netflix documentary series and the publication of Harry\u2019s memoir, Spare.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe more Prince Harry and Meghan say, the less Americans like them,\u201d was Newsweek\u2019s headline.<\/p>\n

Mr Borkowski says the pair, who stepped back as working royals in 2020, will have to \u201cthink hard\u201d about what they can offer in whatever they do next. \u201cIt\u2019s a thread that\u2019s been pulled out of the brand,\u201d he says of the Spotify break-up.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they want to stop it unravelling they\u2019ve really got to think hard. The biggest question is are they going to learn from this setback or are they going to ignore it as just a blip. \u201d<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Hollywood talent agency now representing the duchess told the Wall Street Journal this week: \u201cMeghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform.
\nMax Willens, senior analyst at Insider Intelligence, says Spotify is not the only tech giant that spent heavily in recent years to sign talent who failed to live up to the promise implied by the money they commanded. Those heady days ended last year, as economic sentiment soured and share prices sank.<\/p>\n

But shares in Spotify, which continues to add users and has seen its catalogue of podcasts jump to more than five million, are up nearly 90% this year, as investors welcome Mr Ek\u2019s promises to stay focused on \u201cefficiency\u201d.<\/p>\n

In announcing the \u201cnext phase\u201d for its podcasting business this month, the company signalled it would embrace lower-cost, third party creators, while pushing investment towards \u201calways on\u201d programming.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe platforms that have gotten into [podcasting] had to take some time to figure out what constituted a good investment,\u201d Mr Willens says.<\/p>\n

He calls the decision by Spotify and the duke and duchess to part ways an \u201cunderstandable and natural part of that that process\u201d. \u201cThose were big, big deals designed to generate buzz and grab headlines and they accomplished that. Whether they made good long-term economic sense is a different question.<\/p>\n

For More News And Analysis About Lesotho<\/a> Follow Africa-Press<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. When Spotify signed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with an exclusive deal reportedly worth about $20m (\u00a315.6m) in 2020, the royal couple were taking their first steps into the commercial world and podcasts were positively booming. How times have changed. These days, Prince Harry and Meghan\u2019s brand has waned in the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":30428,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,9],"tags":[233,246,245,2267],"class_list":["post-30431","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-miscellaneous","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-spotify"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Spotify\u2019s big bet on Meghan fell flat - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When Spotify signed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with an exclusive deal reportedly worth about $20m (\u00a315.6m) in 2020, ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Why Spotify\u2019s big bet on Meghan fell flat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"When Spotify signed the Duke and Duchess of Sussex with an exclusive deal reportedly worth about $20m (\u00a315.6m) in 2020, ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2023-06-21T13:20:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2023-06-21T13:39:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/06\/sm_1687337720.617009.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"425\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Why Spotify\u2019s big bet on Meghan fell flat\",\"datePublished\":\"2023-06-21T13:20:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2023-06-21T13:39:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat\"},\"wordCount\":854,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2023\/06\/sm_1687337720.617009.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Spotify\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"miscellaneous\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/why-spotifys-big-bet-on-meghan-fell-flat\",\"name\":\"Why Spotify\u2019s big bet on Meghan fell flat - 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