Spotify has ended its podcast deal with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, in what the two parties have described as a mutual agreement. The lucrative deal, inked in 2020, has been estimated to be around $20 million(opens in a new tab) (around £15.6 million).
The platform has confirmed it won’t be renewing “Archetype”, Megan’s podcast, for a second series. The podcast, which won the People’s Choice Award(opens in a new tab) this past December, has spanned 12 episodes since August 2022, with celebrity guests like Mindy Kaling, Trevor Noah, Paris Hilton, Jameel Jamil, and Serena Williams. Meghan has described the podcast as a “labour of love”(opens in a new tab).
Markle’s talent agency WME confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that the Duchess will continue to “develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform”. Archewell, the organisation founded by The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, will retain the intellectual property rights(opens in a new tab) to all existing content. The episodes that have already released will remain on Spotify.
Meanwhile, Spotify has recently cut 2 percent of its workforce in the podcast division, despite rapid growth in this space.
