I keep waiting to write this story because it feels like as soon as we stop anticipating a new Spotify podcast from the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, that’s when they’ll drop something for New Year’s. That happened last year too, they surprised everyone with a professional-sounding Sussex pod just before New Year’s. Will the same thing happen now? Perhaps. It doesn’t change the fact that the Sussexes did not do much of anything with or for their Spotify contract in 2021. In early December, we heard sources claim that Spotify executives gave Harry and Meghan a “gentle nudge” to produce some content, which I kind of believe. Still, all of the claims about “Spotify is losing money on H&M” and “H&M got paid $500K per minute” are just… not what this business deal actually looks like. Meanwhile, the British media has found an opening:
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed an £18million deal with Spotify in December 2020 but have since only produced just one 35-minute podcast episode. Speaking to Express.co.uk about the deal, media lawyer Ian Penman, who specialises in music streaming contracts, claimed that the podcasts are likely to have been less popular than Spotify and the royal couple expected.
He said: “It would not be an unfair assumption that perhaps their popularity was not as great as maybe they or indeed Spotify initially felt. I think you could draw a conclusion that if [Spotify] haven’t exercised the option on the next episode of the podcast, then maybe they did not have the popularity that either Meghan and Harry expected or indeed Spotify anticipated.”
But the media lawyer explained that Spotify is unlikely to have lost out. He said that they are unlikely to have paid the full £18million upfront and are instead likely to have paid the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a small advance, retaining the right to back out of the contract if the first episode was not popular.
He told Express.co.uk: “It’s famously the case in music deals, this goes back decades, that when people talk about a large deal, like Robbie Williams signing a deal for £15m or something, it does not mean he gets £15m on day one. So the problem you have here, I would imagine, is that when they talk about an £18m Spotify podcast deal, it probably means that they have signed their first product, in this case a podcast – they then have many, many options for further products. All those options are in Spotify’s favour. Make no mistake, they’re not in Meghan and Harry’s favour. If all those options are exercised, and we don’t know how many podcasts that relates to, it may be that the total money spent by Spotify is £18m.
Yeah, this is BS. Harry and Meghan didn’t *stop* producing pods in 2021 because they were suddenly unpopular. If the Sussexes did pods with any regularity, they would be some of the most-listened-to podcasts in America, and probably abroad too. The stuff about the Spotify contract is pretty tortured too – of course Spotify didn’t pay them upfront, it was never about any of that. My guess is still that Spotify has given some gentle nudges, no one is threatening to sue anyone, and that Harry and Meghan have kept Spotify apprised of their plans to produce content. I genuinely hoped that Harry and Meghan would do their own pod, but now I’m wondering if they’ll produce some pods hosted by other people.
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red.
I said it before but if Spotify had any issues with H&M, it would be reported in The Hollywood Reporter/Variety/Deadline/even NYTimes. Even if they did a “gentle nudge”, I imagine People or even PageSix would have got a hold of that – not a tabloid like the Express. Spotify aren’t idiots, they didn’t just hand H&M the cheque and said “have fun!”. There’s probably a structure as to when they’ll get paid and for what but I doubt the Express are privy to it.
Look, I AM surprised that we didn’t get a podcast this year and thought we would have gotten some by now but since I’m not hearing any grumblings from genuine sources, I’m going to assume Spotify aren’t bothered by it – right now at least.
Completely agree. Maybe Spotify gave them a nudge, maybe they didn’t. But Spotify is NOT sending someone to the Express to complain about the Sussexes. They have a contract and since none of us have seen it, we have no idea the terms of it, whether both sides are keeping to those terms, etc.
And Lili probably did change things. If they signed the contract when M was pregnant last summer, she probably thought she would take mat leave maybe early winter 21 and then have the rest of the year to work; as it stands, the loss and then subsequent pregnant probably did push things back a few months and I guess Spotify is okay with that.
Can we just address the issue at hand with this complete and utter idiot of stupidity and incompetence for a moment. IF Harry and Meghan were NOT popular, they would not have scored an agreement with Spotify for any amount!!
As to why they have not produced a consistent stream of episodes could be due to many outside factors, such as we are entering the stage of another year in this pandemic. In addition to the fact that Meghan and Harry have just welcomed Lili this past summer.
The pandemic has created havoc on everyone’s lives!!
Weddings have been delayed.
Funerals are not held in-person, or have been streamed on-line.
Many children have been out of schools for over a year and are still not safe.
Professional sports teams have been creating bubbles and daily testing just to try and resume their professions.
The Olympics were delayed for a year, and it was limited to only the athletes.
Close to 900k people have died, in the United States, and we are still trying to reach out to those who are too selfish to vaccinate to become vaccinated.
People are relying on working from home, IF they have the luxury to do so, as so many do not.
Millions of families have been evicted.
Plus, we had the worst threat of homeland terrorists in our entire history committed by thousands of people trying to destroy the Democracy that our country was founded upon.
I have come to the conclusion that these trashloids find the most egregious person of a professional specialty and will use them as their “source” of proof to sell their lies and continue their smear and hate campaign.
The Salty Island of Petty and Jealous have nothing more to do than to try and tear Harry and Meghan down on a day-to-day basis, coming up with the most ridiculous and asinine theories each day.
Get over it Britain!! The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are perfectly well!! They have and will continue to be extremely successful in every endeavor that they participate in, within the US and worldwide!! You deserve the Royals that you are left with.
Now piss off!!
^^ +1,000 Exactly @BothSidesNow!
My theory is that M&H have been working on ideas for podcasts, and may even have already recorded a few that are being edited. Or else they have been sampling an overall approach, and figuring out a consistent schedule.
For sure, Meg’s miscarriage; the court case; their pandemic-related initiatives; Philip’s funeral; the Diana statue unveiling; and the new pregnancy; along with the crazy attacks against the Sussexes that have continued to emanate from Salty Isle, are all factors in how long it has been taking. Not to mention all the other work M&H are doing with Archewell and Netflix, along with Meg writing the children’s book, and Harry working on his memoir and the Apple TV documentary, plus his other corporate jobs — combined of course with taking time out to care for two active and growing kiddies. That’s more than a full plate!
If they were really that unpopular Spotify would have dropped them lol. I do think they kind of jumped the gun by releasing that holiday episode. It takes time to produce content but i think it would have been better if they had waited, did the holiday special this year and then regularly started uploading pods in January/ February. It would have made more sense.
I listen to several podcasts, and I have a couple of friends who podcast, and it’s a lot of work. I think many people have a picture of the person just talks for the time, posts it, and it’s done. There’s way more work in (professional level) podcasting. H and M just had a baby. I’m cool with waiting until they have the theme, staff, research, etc.
I used to think of myself as such a great speaker until I had to speak on a podcast. I was a mumbling mess,i sounded ill prepared,stummered and uninformed. The complete opposite of how i am away from a hot mic. So it takes time,research and prep to produce a podcast and keep people engaged. I also thought whats the biggie its just talking.
Same. I look forward to some new content from them but I’m not checking my watch. Caring for Meghan during her pregnancy after a recent miscarriage and then welcoming baby Lili would of course be their focus over the last year and a half.
Their history as individuals and as a couple show that they are always working towards their goals and they share that work when everything is good and finished. The Sussexes can take their time.
Well more b.s. because the Spotify podcast they did was hugely popular. Thanks Express for another interview from someone who has no real idea what’s going on and is just speculating.
I think things probably got pushed back a bit by Lili. You can only work on so many things at a time and Lili would have become their priority. Given their track record, I would say that they pretty much always have at least a handful of projects in the works at any given time. The podcast was probably the least developed and they put it off for a bit.
Clearly this lawyer the express spoke to career is dead in the water, if he had clients or people knew who he was , he won’t have time to talk crap to the express. Enjoy your 1 second of fame looser, but you know who’s names people can’t keep out of their mouth? That’s right Harry and Meghan.
This is stupid. They have a contact. I’m sure there is a timetable and Spotify is updated. They probably haven’t released any podcasts because they weren’t scheduled to. If Meghan and Harry were behind news probably would have leaked.
Yeah, this is nonsense. They only hired a producer in August. I imagine that was a long process involving many interviews. Furthermore, I’m sure the pandemic, Meghan’s pregnancy which was high risk, and the MoS lawsuit slowed things down considerably. People are forgetting that the Christmas special was just that it was not the beginning of regular programming. The British press are just eager for material from the podcast so they can attack Harry and Meghan.
Sure, they’re eager for material – everything coming out of the Cambridges is deadly dull and sinks like a stone.
I don’t know about all the rest, but this lawyer is right about the part that nobody gets their money up front. I remember some articles in the BM where they added up all the Sussex deals and said H&M had “made” a half billion dollars.
Why do they care? The Sussexes don’t live in the U.K., don’t take taxpayer money, etc. Why the constant harassment.
Why aren’t they reporting on Kate’s abysmal 1.52 television views on itv in which public money went onto procuring and advertisement? That’s public interest.
With all of the major life events the Sussexes have had over the last two years, it doesn’t surprise me at all that they aren’t rolling out any new podcasts at the moment. They’ve shown that they only share their projects when they’re finished & up to certain standards, and that takes time that they’ve of course been spending on their young family.
I think timing-wise it DOES work out well that they haven’t released any pods this year. Amidst all the heat of Meghan’s case against the Mail, anything public the Sussex’s did was dragged into the vortex of that nonsensical, exploitative conversation.
Now that particular issue is done & dusted. The Mail has to take their armfuls of L’s and move on. At least in that sense 2022 is a clean slate for some new Sussex/Spotify content.
My guess is that the podcast is tied to some other content or event that they are planning and that there is no surprise to Spotify on the timing. They have a lot of initiatives out there, and based on their past strategic moves, everything is pre-planned and coordinated. I doubt they were ever going to just randomly record their thoughts for the podcast.
Why are the uk media and brf, so concerned about the Sussexes business?. They need to mind their affairs, and leave the irrelevant ones alone.
Those clowns, stirring the pots, and pushing the Sussexes to do things on their timeliness is just that. They don’t know the intricacies of the contracts, so that they can complain about what is or is not done. What a bunch of pathetic clowns.
I’m looking forward to hearing what H&M have to say via their podcasts.
Sooo . . . Kate Middleton’s stunt to make Christmas all about her, failed with low viewership, and now we get a story about how Harry and Meghan are the unpopular ones? Ahahaha! That made my day. (Wipes tears of mirth from eyes). Thank you, Daily Express, I needed that laugh.
Duchess Meghan and Prince Harry only release completed projects. They do not half-ass or hastily put together programming to satisfy some media (BM) talking points. I’ll like to point out that Gayle King mentioned the amazing pictures earlier this year when the BM was f..ing over Lilibeth’s name. The holiday card picture was taken in the summer, the public didn’t get to see/hear about them until the Sussesxes release it to a charity. More examples of their stealth move: Archewell website; The Bench; VaxLive; 40 x 40 just to name a few.
Prince Harry and Duchess Megan are on their mark, ready, set, and they will go! on their own schedule. Standby and watch folks.
I wonder if they’re going to use the podcasts to promote Harry’s memoir. Wouldn’t that be fun?! They could use the podcasts to hype release of the memoir in the weeks before by slowly dripping out information. The royal family would hate it. And I would love it!
Are they this concerned about Michelle Obama’s podcast deal? She didn’t produce anything on Spotify either after one April episode. Barack’s podcast with Bruce Springsteen was released back in the spring and we’ve heard nothing else since then.
I guess I am the only one who thinks that Spotify is still making bank off Harry and Meghan without them publishing a single other podcast. Like Just having their name mentioned whether it be positive or negative brings ad revenue and paid listeners.
^^ _+1 Exactly! I became a regular Spotify listener because of Meghan and Harry. I remain a Netflix subscriber because I’m interested in seeing the content that Meghan and Harry will be producing for the streaming giant!
The british media need to stop talking about meghan and harry activities they should talk about kate instead. Here your story
:kate successfully produce a holiday concert in a few weeks with so much viewers,
people were so amaze and couldn’t stop talking about her solo piano recital.
And kept meghan and harry name away from your mouth. Kate is soooooo popular than them anyway. Write about her.
I doubt whatever they do is going to be a sit and chat, off the cuff kind of podcast, likely it’s something that is being worked on, researched, etc.