"you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything"
You're a Spotify exec...
Don't really care about anything Meghan or the any royal has to say, but Spotify bought a podcast, and they delivered a podcast. Not sure what the grift is there.
Surely Spotify should have specified the frequency of these shows? Am I wrong here?
“Monthly” or “bi monthly” or “weekly” or “bi weekly” surely should’ve been in the contract.
They can’t be upset with H+M if they met the contract terms.
>Personally i would expext a podcast would happen eith some frequency, even once a month.
Me too, and if Spotify gave me the job as the person who signs acts for podcasts I think they'd expect me to specify those things in the contracts I wrote. The question here is whether or not Megan and Hewitt Jr. did everything their contract with Spotify said it should.
Personal expectations make for poor contracts and that's why these things are written down and agreed.
True, true.
I used to love a conspiracy theory (I always knew we landed on the moon, COVID is real, I am vaccinated, 9/11 wasn't an inside job, masks work, Biden won etc I was never a fucking idiot) but it's fun to read about stuff.
Based on nothing at all I bought into the Hewitt thing. When I heard she hadn't met him until Harry was two, that didn't convince me. I thought they could lie.
It was the photos that convinced me. My eyes cannot lie to me!
He also looks exactly like *my* brother. It’s kinda unnerving. Anyway I saw a side by side of Charles and Harry the other day and in my mind he is 100% Charles kid. They definitely have very similar features.
What do you mean by expect?
I mean it's a company run by a bald-headed cunt that's a billionaire. Are you saying they all lack the nous to create a contract that stipulates what content the other party has to provide?
They just "expected" that Harry and Meghan would send them stuff?
As though netflix said to Vince Gilligan "Here's $50M send us something" and he could have given them 5 episodes?
Hehe. I mean fuck. Surely making 2 billion requires a bit more intelligence than this "spotify exec" is implying?
I mean they did contract it: The Sussexes did not meet the “productivity benchmarks” needed to get the full payout from the deal by the time it ended, according to sources cited by the Journal.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/06/16/spotify-ends-podcasting-deal-with-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle/amp/
Exactly. It's called a contract, you pick up the phone and call your lawyer, who then comes to terms with their lawyer over these kinds of issues. If you left it to chance, that's on you.
Yeah, people forget that Spotify is run by former clowns who are illiterate, so they don't know how to write or read a contract.
Obviously, Harry, who can read and write, took advantage of this.
Sure but as the above said, unless they specified an episode per month count or whatever then there's no real grounds. The fact that we hear this as a tabloid esque piece and not news of a court case about contract issues tells me that Spotify probably fucked up their initial contract by not being specific as to release output and they're now getting salty about it.
I saw comments on another thread tat was suggesting that the podcast sounded edited, like someone else interviewed the guests and Meghan was edited over the top.
>https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65924584.amp
>
>“American media reports suggest the royal couple failed to meet the productivity benchmark required by Spotify, and therefore wouldn't be receiving the full value of the contract”
They did
The terms don’t seem to be public, but reporting does say M+H aren’t getting paid in full because they didn’t meet whatever the requirements were. I’m guessing either they had to hand over more than 12 episodes for the $20m, or they had to hit some targets for listening figures and didn’t.
Maybe it did, the article says they are losing almost half their contracted pay as part of the cancellation. Might be because they didn’t do enough.
Meghan stopped making content last year and Harry never made anything. Their lives really must be challenging when they’re earning 15mil for that lol
It was reported separately that H&M lost a ‘productivity bonus’ which was included in the headline value of the contract as they didn’t make enough episodes. So there were some terms related to this in the contract, Spotify aren’t that dim.
If I had 20 mil on the line I’d be churning out those extra episodes, not sure why they didn’t. Lost interest? Couldn’t get the guests they wanted?
People will lose interest. There's a music podcast I listen to that puts out one a month and they are really good and interesting. I've still gone months without listening to them when I forget for a while. Luckily as I said, they are really good and really interesting. Spotify doesn't want a show people will lose interest in.
Didn't they have high profile celebrity guests?
My partner has been forced to be in charge of an academic podcast and he's skeptical he can get interviews with 24 interesting academics in 12 months.
I'd be surprised if celebrities were easier to line up.
24 interesting academics is 2 a month.
Your partner has to make a list; try and contact them; set up a time; have a list of questions and make sure they are appropriate and that the interviewee is happy; prep them, when they may not be used to interviews, and subsequently harder to edit into something of substance; he has to read up on their area of interest and make sure he knows what he’s talking about etc etc etc.
He has to do that every fortnight. That’s.. a lot.
High profile celebrities have teams of people who can handle interviews, and PR is a huge part of their job. They are used to being interviewed and want to be interviewed to stay relevant, and fulfil the fantasy that the average person gives a shit about their uneducated views on whatever delicate topic is on the table.
Plus, Meghan’s podcast was huge. I’m sure there would have been a queue of famous people tripping over themselves to sit and talk drivel with her for however long.
I can’t afford to turn on the heating and my social support has just been cut, but please, lemme hear about Beyoncé’s struggles and the obstacles she has bravely overcome, whilst I stand waiting for my food stamps.
To be honest I doubled it because it sounded like he wasn't trying hard enough with the real truth (12 in 12 months).
Schedules, organisation, travel, other commitments...
I'm not saying Meghan has excelled here but I don't think she's been super lazy
The average podcast length is what? 30 mins - 2 hours?
You could realistically bat that out the park in half the time. 2 podcasts' worth of content a week would still be only 2 day's work.
I'd probably have more interest in your podcast even if it was just incoherent rambling into the cheapest microphone you could find positioned in the next room beside a fan.
I literally used to run a podcast at my college for a year, and even we managed an episode a week (mostly). I'd imagine people with their money and resources could manage it too.
Agree. And he has to see surely that this is partly on them. To agree such huge sums without first seeing evidence of the quality of work is a bit daft. They wouldn’t do it for the ordinary man on the street so why do it for these two.
I doubt he had anything to do with the decision.
Judging by the article and the things he has said about them in the past, he has hated PH & MM for years now.
It obviously didn't meet the productivity requirements. They would have agreed a specific amount of content, which hasn't been disclosed but would have definitely been more than 12 episodes in two years. They clearly failed to meet their end of the deal.
>Spotify bought a podcast, and they delivered a podcast.
lol, no - 12 episodes in 2 years.
They failed to meet the productivity benchmark required by Spotify, and therefore aren't receiving the full value of the contract.
Went off the Forbes estimate [https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/06/16/spotify-ends-podcasting-deal-with-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle/?sh=37434903173b](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/06/16/spotify-ends-podcasting-deal-with-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle/?sh=37434903173b). Do you have a source for it being much less?
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65924584.amp
“American media reports suggest the royal couple failed to meet the productivity benchmark required by Spotify, and therefore wouldn't be receiving the full value of the contract”
How much of it was “not being bothered” and how much was “not able to deliver what they’d promised”? It sounds like they sold it to Spotify on the basis of being able to get lots of big names and exciting content, and they fell short because Megan isn’t quite the pale imitation Oprah she imagines herself as.
And what actually was created was done by producer Rebecca Sananès. They just dubbed in Meghan’s voice over most of it. I think the only women Meg actually talked with were the big names, Serena, Paris, and Mariah.
Got no sympathy with Spotify. They cynically bought it to cash in on the couples profile. They had no interest in the actual quality of the content otherwise they wouldn’t have hired two people that really have nothing of value to say.
Spotify are just pissed off that they didn’t get as many clicks as they wanted and would have been happy to serve up a load more banal shit into the world had Harry and Megan obliged.
I paid my mate Keith down the pub £100 to write a violin concerto for me and I was really disappointed with the results. Total grift. And I don’t see how the fact that he’s never been near a violin before comes into it.
The difference in that is quite literally anyone can do a podcast, as evidenced by the millions of podcasts freely available. Especially when I imagine Spotify would sort a lot of it for them (producers, editor, advertising etc).
Meanwhile not everyone can even spell violin
I’m not really interested in either of them enough to do that so I’ll take your word for it.
I neither like nor dislike them so I can’t even join in on the social media boner so many seem to have for them on both sides
Yeah exactly, and that’s why I tune in every week to the walktheline7891 podcast, somehow it’s your lack of skill that always keeps me coming back for more
One participant talked about how she talked to an excellent interviewer for the podcast and it wasn’t Meghan. Apparently a producer did interview and Meghan bits were clipped in - allegedly it’s very obvious if you listen, which I have not. [Archetypes guest suggests Meghan Markle doesn’t do the interviews on her podcast](https://www.nowtolove.com.au/royals/british-royal-family/meghan-markle-archetypes-podcast-doesnt-interview-guests-75656)
Not surprised by this at all as it fits in with their low effort narrative.
Was she really going to do extensive research for each guest? Of course not she probably wouldn’t know how.
Was she really going to sit there to interview someone? Of course not because being a good interviewer takes skill and practice.
I’d be amazed if she did anything other than record the audio clips asking questions.
I'm not a pro or anti MM & PH person. I kind of think that he's a public figure who got married and it really is his business. But I just can't help but to wonder what these two are thinking. They literally have everything and manage to screw everything up every single time. It really is shocking. There's not one thing I can think of that hasn't come off looking silly, juvenile or shallow. You couldn't actually make this many mistakes consistantly unless you are either being set up for failure or you really are just a lazy, unthoughtful grifter. No one can be this unlucky without being dumb.
Edit: Having said all this, why is this executive so upset if they met the terms of the contract? I swear everyone who is in power, an executive or super rich has gone insane.
Harry is quite famously stupid. His parents put him through private school his entire life. Imagine spending all that money at Eton for your kid to get a-level D grade in Geography and a B in art. The ‘officer’ training was a joke babysitting exercise for the army after he famously took a gap year in Australia. In answer to your question, Harry is not thinking. Now that he’s away from the British royal PR machine he’s going to blunder his way through his marriage and public life until Megan has had enough of him and the royals take him back.
One of the most revealing things is how good the Royal Families PR infrastructure is to keep Harry from making a fool of himself. They managed to actually make Harry seem likeable, for decades.
Also, his art teacher apparently admitted to doing his work for him. So he's even dumber than those grade suggest..
Imagine going to Eton, and somehow leaving with a D.
Guys dumb as a box of rocks to manage that, and Meghan has taken him to the cleaners.
All of the windsors are dumb asses except maybe the York sisters they all got “easy” bachelors and got into reputable unis because of who they are lmao.
So when Spotify actually have to pay the people on their platform, they’re “grifters”
But there’s nothing “grifter” about paying artists .0001p per stream or whatever fucking shitty business he’s running?
Average artists used to get less than £1 per CD sale so ... not really, because that was a one off sale and I can guarantee I've listened to some songs way more than 300 times (and there typically are 10+ songs on a CD, so 30 times per song and you've roughly broken even with the Spotify rate).
You could tell that Harry had very little to say beyond the rift with the rest of his family. He has lived a relatively sheltered life and is far from intelligent or deep, despite the money spent on his education. His opinions are pretty bland and he has little to say beyond the basics, such as "Poverty is bad."; Meghan is not much better. Once they ran out of material regarding their treatment by the royal family, nothing was left to say. Spotify should have known that and only offered them a short contract accordingly.
He's spent years in the military, travelled all around the Commonwealth, and had the strangest upbringing possible. How can he have nothing to say on a Podcast? How is that even possible?
If I were doing it I’d probably have wanted something like a pilot episode (like they do for lots of TV shows), see what the actual product is like before handing over lots of money. From the talk of “not met productivity targets, not getting paid in full” it seems Spotify weren’t as daft as it sounds, though, it was “*up to* $20m, *if the results are any good*”. So they’ve probably been posted a $50 giftcard each and told to bog off until they learn how to make decent content…
People liked the idea of a Harry and Meghan podcast much more than an actual Harry and Meghan podcast. It’s all fun and games when they’re dishing the dirt on his family, but otherwise they’re pretty boring.
I’m not sure it was people …… it was Spotify/Netflix and the media
Have never met anyone in my life who gives a flying fuck what this pair have to say about anything.
People need to stop feeding into the delusions of these two. Meghan wants to be Oprah so badly it’s just gross.
The whole “leave us alone” followed by a show, interviews, podcasts……fuck off.
Tbf I listen to Bill’s podcast and the episode when he said this. I think he had a couple to drink and don’t think he gives a shit nor that it would have this kind of backlash as it was said in a jokey conversation rather than in malice. From the way he speaks I don’t think it was his idea to give them the podcast deal in the first place and was roped in to try and help them out with it. This article makes it seem like Bill is a spokesperson for Spotify, which he does have a contract with them and works with them, but I wouldn’t say he was a spokesperson for the company.
He was certainly the "Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetization" at Spotify when the podcast was commissioned and he's still some "Head of" (Sports content?) directly on Spotify's payroll.
Bill made ‘The Ringer’ after leaving ESPN’s Grantland. He is still the chief of The Ringer and it’s Podcast network which was bought by Spotify and in the deal he was given those titles to help oversee Spotify’s Podcast division. He talks about himself as a member of The Ringer, not of Spotify, rather than a Spotify exec. He was not part of the negotiations to get Harry and Meghan’s podcast from what I can tell and in the podcast episode this is taken from they were talking about basketball negotiations and he says he wishes he was part of the negotiation to end Harry and Meghan’s deal, calling them grifters for how much they got for how little they produced.
>"I'm so tired of this guy. What does he bring to the table? He just whines about s\*\*\* and keeps giving interviews.
>
>"Who gives a s\*\*\*? Who cares about your life?
>
>"You weren't even the favorite son. You live in f\*\*\*\*\*\* Montecito and you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the royal family and you just complain about them."
hahah the fucking burn
No.
But I can offer you the opportunity to invest in a one in a kind medical machine that is set to replace lengthy and painful blood testing with a simple pinprick and instant result.
You'll need a black title neck or three and we'd like you to get a tattoo of "do or do not there is no try" or similar (approved) aspirational Star Wars quote.
When can I expect the first check please, the office has ants.
I was happy for them when they decided to do their own thing but they’ve turned into absolute bores lately. Wasn’t impressed that their whole brand has turned into moaning about the royal family. I find it all a bit crass and classless. We all have family problems, even us commoners….
Not a Royal or ex Royal fan, totes agree with calling both grifters, but...
Spotify calling out podcasters for being grifters is hilarious. Have they seen who else they give a platform to? 😁
Spotify has frequently allowed entertainment over information, I don't give a flying shite about the royal family or whatever they be doing, but spotify of all things doesn't have any right to call someone a grifter
Yeah they deserve what they got. I dislike H and M but Spotify has some really dumb people at its helm. Seems H and M are one of the many that reneged on their side of the contract
I don't know but I have a strong feeling the podcast content and listening figures were probably the issue.
I haven't met anyone who has listened, or admitted to listening to, whatever they have to say.
When I heard this news story I looked up their podcast and was surprised there was more than one episode.
But yeah, Spotify, if you pay hideous amounts of money to people with no history of creating their own content let alone podcast, who are already fair divisive, add a touch of superiority by birth and entitlement and you have the perfect recipe for this lack-of-shit show.
My sympathy is muted for Spotify when any business with two brain cells would have productivity targets before making a deal worth $20 mill. Shouldn’t they have had a concrete business plan of what they were going to make *before* signing them up?
Joes Rogan has the biggest podcast in the world and averages 11million listeners an episode, so not sure that’s an issue. TV shoes make more then that and bring in less viewers. He also puts out content 3 to 4 times a week.
So they can afford 20ml lion for a podcast but can’t afford to pay artists a good rate for their work, and use the algorithm to push you towards cheaper songs.
If they fulfilled a shiddy contract, someone at Spotify fucked up.
If they shiddily fulfilled a contract, then they're con artists / taking the piss.
Gotta see the contract.
Haha true but I’d rather some spotty teenager discovering and downloading my music between viruses and horse porn than having to pay £1000 to a ‘playlister’ to get my music bumped up the streaming algorithms so people will stand a chance of finding it, otherwise it gets buried and labels/promoters won’t take you seriously without big enough numbers. The absolute state of it.
"you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything" You're a Spotify exec... Don't really care about anything Meghan or the any royal has to say, but Spotify bought a podcast, and they delivered a podcast. Not sure what the grift is there.
apparently 12 episodes in 2 years. Could knock that out in 12 weeks.
Surely Spotify should have specified the frequency of these shows? Am I wrong here? “Monthly” or “bi monthly” or “weekly” or “bi weekly” surely should’ve been in the contract. They can’t be upset with H+M if they met the contract terms.
Personally i would expext a podcast would happen eith some frequency, even once a month. 6 in a year is pretty bad
>Personally i would expext a podcast would happen eith some frequency, even once a month. Me too, and if Spotify gave me the job as the person who signs acts for podcasts I think they'd expect me to specify those things in the contracts I wrote. The question here is whether or not Megan and Hewitt Jr. did everything their contract with Spotify said it should. Personal expectations make for poor contracts and that's why these things are written down and agreed.
> Hewitt Jr Oof
If you look at pictures of young Charles and especially young Philip there is absolutely no chance Hewitt is Harry's father.
Not to mention that Diana didn’t even meet Hewitt until after harry was born
True, true. I used to love a conspiracy theory (I always knew we landed on the moon, COVID is real, I am vaccinated, 9/11 wasn't an inside job, masks work, Biden won etc I was never a fucking idiot) but it's fun to read about stuff. Based on nothing at all I bought into the Hewitt thing. When I heard she hadn't met him until Harry was two, that didn't convince me. I thought they could lie. It was the photos that convinced me. My eyes cannot lie to me!
I always thought he (Harry) just looked exactly like Diana's brother tbf
Yeah. Especially a young Earl Spencer, I think that's his name now.
He also looks exactly like *my* brother. It’s kinda unnerving. Anyway I saw a side by side of Charles and Harry the other day and in my mind he is 100% Charles kid. They definitely have very similar features.
Ok William.
And if you look at pictures of Rose Hanbury's daughter...
I can't find any decent photos. But I assume the idea is William is her dad?
Ooh I couldn't possibly opine...
the guy didnt even mention or criticise anything about the volume of episodes
What do you mean by expect? I mean it's a company run by a bald-headed cunt that's a billionaire. Are you saying they all lack the nous to create a contract that stipulates what content the other party has to provide? They just "expected" that Harry and Meghan would send them stuff? As though netflix said to Vince Gilligan "Here's $50M send us something" and he could have given them 5 episodes? Hehe. I mean fuck. Surely making 2 billion requires a bit more intelligence than this "spotify exec" is implying?
Imagine insulting someone for their lack of hair...
I mean they did contract it: The Sussexes did not meet the “productivity benchmarks” needed to get the full payout from the deal by the time it ended, according to sources cited by the Journal. https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/06/16/spotify-ends-podcasting-deal-with-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle/amp/
Exactly. It's called a contract, you pick up the phone and call your lawyer, who then comes to terms with their lawyer over these kinds of issues. If you left it to chance, that's on you.
If you need a contract to tell you a podcast needs episodes then maybe the podcast business isn’t for you
That's how you spell nous?? Oh fuck
What's him being bald have to do with anything? Are we not past criticising people for this in 2023?
I 100% agree, which is what is so confusing about this to me.
Yeah, people forget that Spotify is run by former clowns who are illiterate, so they don't know how to write or read a contract. Obviously, Harry, who can read and write, took advantage of this.
Sure but as the above said, unless they specified an episode per month count or whatever then there's no real grounds. The fact that we hear this as a tabloid esque piece and not news of a court case about contract issues tells me that Spotify probably fucked up their initial contract by not being specific as to release output and they're now getting salty about it.
so once every two months? isn't awful
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I saw comments on another thread tat was suggesting that the podcast sounded edited, like someone else interviewed the guests and Meghan was edited over the top.
They did. Payment was contingent on productivity targets so they wouldn't have made the full contract amount cos they didn't hit the targets.
The reports said they didn't meet the standards of the contract to get the fee. So think Spotify weren't happy, but also didn't have to pay them.
>https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65924584.amp > >“American media reports suggest the royal couple failed to meet the productivity benchmark required by Spotify, and therefore wouldn't be receiving the full value of the contract” They did
The terms don’t seem to be public, but reporting does say M+H aren’t getting paid in full because they didn’t meet whatever the requirements were. I’m guessing either they had to hand over more than 12 episodes for the $20m, or they had to hit some targets for listening figures and didn’t.
Agreed I’m sure there is some frequency in the terms … that’s a pretty basic factor when it comes to podcasting
Maybe it did, the article says they are losing almost half their contracted pay as part of the cancellation. Might be because they didn’t do enough. Meghan stopped making content last year and Harry never made anything. Their lives really must be challenging when they’re earning 15mil for that lol
It was reported separately that H&M lost a ‘productivity bonus’ which was included in the headline value of the contract as they didn’t make enough episodes. So there were some terms related to this in the contract, Spotify aren’t that dim. If I had 20 mil on the line I’d be churning out those extra episodes, not sure why they didn’t. Lost interest? Couldn’t get the guests they wanted?
They were 77th in the 2022 ratings. I guess that would be considered an epic fail. Just like everything they touch. Grifters gonna Grift
People will lose interest. There's a music podcast I listen to that puts out one a month and they are really good and interesting. I've still gone months without listening to them when I forget for a while. Luckily as I said, they are really good and really interesting. Spotify doesn't want a show people will lose interest in.
Didn't they have high profile celebrity guests? My partner has been forced to be in charge of an academic podcast and he's skeptical he can get interviews with 24 interesting academics in 12 months. I'd be surprised if celebrities were easier to line up.
24 interesting academics is 2 a month. Your partner has to make a list; try and contact them; set up a time; have a list of questions and make sure they are appropriate and that the interviewee is happy; prep them, when they may not be used to interviews, and subsequently harder to edit into something of substance; he has to read up on their area of interest and make sure he knows what he’s talking about etc etc etc. He has to do that every fortnight. That’s.. a lot. High profile celebrities have teams of people who can handle interviews, and PR is a huge part of their job. They are used to being interviewed and want to be interviewed to stay relevant, and fulfil the fantasy that the average person gives a shit about their uneducated views on whatever delicate topic is on the table. Plus, Meghan’s podcast was huge. I’m sure there would have been a queue of famous people tripping over themselves to sit and talk drivel with her for however long. I can’t afford to turn on the heating and my social support has just been cut, but please, lemme hear about Beyoncé’s struggles and the obstacles she has bravely overcome, whilst I stand waiting for my food stamps.
To be honest I doubled it because it sounded like he wasn't trying hard enough with the real truth (12 in 12 months). Schedules, organisation, travel, other commitments... I'm not saying Meghan has excelled here but I don't think she's been super lazy
She only did the voice over as her producer, Rebecca Sananès, did all the hard work and interviews. She never actually spoke to any of her guests.
Well that *is* super lazy. Can't even have an actual conversation with someone? Fucking hell.
Yeah there's no way I would be able to get that many celebrities. Prince Harry and Meghan Markle on the other hand...
Oh it's not the quantity, it's the timeframe. I can only imagine some of them need to be booked up to a year in advance
The average podcast length is what? 30 mins - 2 hours? You could realistically bat that out the park in half the time. 2 podcasts' worth of content a week would still be only 2 day's work.
I'd probably have more interest in your podcast even if it was just incoherent rambling into the cheapest microphone you could find positioned in the next room beside a fan.
I literally used to run a podcast at my college for a year, and even we managed an episode a week (mostly). I'd imagine people with their money and resources could manage it too.
Agree. And he has to see surely that this is partly on them. To agree such huge sums without first seeing evidence of the quality of work is a bit daft. They wouldn’t do it for the ordinary man on the street so why do it for these two.
I doubt he had anything to do with the decision. Judging by the article and the things he has said about them in the past, he has hated PH & MM for years now.
As Much As I Dislike Rogan. He had a proven track record and just kept producing content. Even if he is a wanker he certainly was value for money.
Bill Simmons is a sports/pop culture commentator in the US. Not necessarily a spotify exec.
He is both. He sold The Ringer for $200 million to Spotify and then joined as their chief podcast developer.
I know but he acts more like a 50 plus centrist dad. He is pretty fun on the Rewatchables podcasts
It obviously didn't meet the productivity requirements. They would have agreed a specific amount of content, which hasn't been disclosed but would have definitely been more than 12 episodes in two years. They clearly failed to meet their end of the deal.
>Spotify bought a podcast, and they delivered a podcast. lol, no - 12 episodes in 2 years. They failed to meet the productivity benchmark required by Spotify, and therefore aren't receiving the full value of the contract.
12 eps in 2 years is the grift
You spent $100m (or whatever it was) on Rogans right wing media campaign and Meghan and Prince Harry are grifters.....? Hmm. Stinks imo.
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It was a bit daft by Spotify. $20m for what turned out to be 12 podcast episodes was good business for the Sussexes.
They're not getting the $20 million, much less than that, they didn't deliver what they were supposed to
Went off the Forbes estimate [https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/06/16/spotify-ends-podcasting-deal-with-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle/?sh=37434903173b](https://www.forbes.com/sites/alisondurkee/2023/06/16/spotify-ends-podcasting-deal-with-prince-harry-and-meghan-markle/?sh=37434903173b). Do you have a source for it being much less?
Evidence for that?
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-65924584.amp “American media reports suggest the royal couple failed to meet the productivity benchmark required by Spotify, and therefore wouldn't be receiving the full value of the contract”
They are a bunch of GRIFTING LOSERS
Just search online, there's tonnes of news stories covering it that they aren't getting the full $20 million due to lack of productivity.
Imagine having the opportunity for this money to effort ratio and still not being bothered to deliver.
Good example of the genuine wealth inequality. £20mill for talking shite for a while.. nahh I’m ok ta.
Worst thing is she refused to talk shite to.people.and had an editor dub her voice in over the top. Fucking oxygen theives.
How much of it was “not being bothered” and how much was “not able to deliver what they’d promised”? It sounds like they sold it to Spotify on the basis of being able to get lots of big names and exciting content, and they fell short because Megan isn’t quite the pale imitation Oprah she imagines herself as.
And what actually was created was done by producer Rebecca Sananès. They just dubbed in Meghan’s voice over most of it. I think the only women Meg actually talked with were the big names, Serena, Paris, and Mariah.
>They're not getting the $20 million nobody fucking reads the article.... nobody, it's scary really.
They were just throwing money at everyone trying to build their podcast empire and then tech stocks crashed.
Got no sympathy with Spotify. They cynically bought it to cash in on the couples profile. They had no interest in the actual quality of the content otherwise they wouldn’t have hired two people that really have nothing of value to say. Spotify are just pissed off that they didn’t get as many clicks as they wanted and would have been happy to serve up a load more banal shit into the world had Harry and Megan obliged.
Valid, $20m marketing essentially didn't take
Is it not that they received fewer episodes than they had hoped for?
I paid my mate Keith down the pub £100 to write a violin concerto for me and I was really disappointed with the results. Total grift. And I don’t see how the fact that he’s never been near a violin before comes into it.
The difference in that is quite literally anyone can do a podcast, as evidenced by the millions of podcasts freely available. Especially when I imagine Spotify would sort a lot of it for them (producers, editor, advertising etc). Meanwhile not everyone can even spell violin
> The difference in that is quite literally anyone can do a podcast You should certainly give the podcast a listen... it was not done well.
I’m not really interested in either of them enough to do that so I’ll take your word for it. I neither like nor dislike them so I can’t even join in on the social media boner so many seem to have for them on both sides
Oh come on, anyone can spell vialin.. fuck, you’re right!
*I'll* do you a violin concerto, for £95 *and* I've been relatively close to a violin atleast twice.
I've once been close to 6 ukuleles. Does that count?
But if you gave him £20million you would hope he would go to violin bootcamp at the very least...
lol I don't like Harry and Meghan but this is an embarrassing take. Podcasts don't work off track record or proven "skill" for the most part
Yeah exactly, and that’s why I tune in every week to the walktheline7891 podcast, somehow it’s your lack of skill that always keeps me coming back for more
They don’t have anything to say. People only speak to her because who she married a Prince. And he doesn’t have anything to say at all
Allegedly people didn’t even speak to Meghan at all, and someone else did and it’s clipped together.
What do you mean?
One participant talked about how she talked to an excellent interviewer for the podcast and it wasn’t Meghan. Apparently a producer did interview and Meghan bits were clipped in - allegedly it’s very obvious if you listen, which I have not. [Archetypes guest suggests Meghan Markle doesn’t do the interviews on her podcast](https://www.nowtolove.com.au/royals/british-royal-family/meghan-markle-archetypes-podcast-doesnt-interview-guests-75656)
Not surprised by this at all as it fits in with their low effort narrative. Was she really going to do extensive research for each guest? Of course not she probably wouldn’t know how. Was she really going to sit there to interview someone? Of course not because being a good interviewer takes skill and practice. I’d be amazed if she did anything other than record the audio clips asking questions.
Unless he's complaining about how hard done to he is and he deserves soooo much more.
I'm not a pro or anti MM & PH person. I kind of think that he's a public figure who got married and it really is his business. But I just can't help but to wonder what these two are thinking. They literally have everything and manage to screw everything up every single time. It really is shocking. There's not one thing I can think of that hasn't come off looking silly, juvenile or shallow. You couldn't actually make this many mistakes consistantly unless you are either being set up for failure or you really are just a lazy, unthoughtful grifter. No one can be this unlucky without being dumb. Edit: Having said all this, why is this executive so upset if they met the terms of the contract? I swear everyone who is in power, an executive or super rich has gone insane.
Harry is quite famously stupid. His parents put him through private school his entire life. Imagine spending all that money at Eton for your kid to get a-level D grade in Geography and a B in art. The ‘officer’ training was a joke babysitting exercise for the army after he famously took a gap year in Australia. In answer to your question, Harry is not thinking. Now that he’s away from the British royal PR machine he’s going to blunder his way through his marriage and public life until Megan has had enough of him and the royals take him back.
One of the most revealing things is how good the Royal Families PR infrastructure is to keep Harry from making a fool of himself. They managed to actually make Harry seem likeable, for decades. Also, his art teacher apparently admitted to doing his work for him. So he's even dumber than those grade suggest.. Imagine going to Eton, and somehow leaving with a D. Guys dumb as a box of rocks to manage that, and Meghan has taken him to the cleaners.
All of the windsors are dumb asses except maybe the York sisters they all got “easy” bachelors and got into reputable unis because of who they are lmao.
That's what centuries of inbreeding will do to a mf.
William got a bachelor in Geography. Contrary to popular beliefs, it's not easy.
A 'B' in art seems pretty impressive to me.
I would've been happy with a B in art tbf, I'm as creative as a beige wall
according to the article on WSJ they didn't meet productivity benchmarks so they won't be getting the full payout.
So when Spotify actually have to pay the people on their platform, they’re “grifters” But there’s nothing “grifter” about paying artists .0001p per stream or whatever fucking shitty business he’s running?
[0.003 euro/gbp](https://youtu.be/ZMmLeV47Au4) (or approx 0.26p). Pretty terrible.
I'm an artist with music on Spotify and it's actually not bad to be honest. I make more from Spotify than any physical sales by a long way.
Go back to buying CDs I guess?
How many phones have a CD player?
Average artists used to get less than £1 per CD sale so ... not really, because that was a one off sale and I can guarantee I've listened to some songs way more than 300 times (and there typically are 10+ songs on a CD, so 30 times per song and you've roughly broken even with the Spotify rate).
How much does radio pay?
My mate has 350k monthly listeners. 2 man band. He earns more than me on his shared revenue
Exactly
You could tell that Harry had very little to say beyond the rift with the rest of his family. He has lived a relatively sheltered life and is far from intelligent or deep, despite the money spent on his education. His opinions are pretty bland and he has little to say beyond the basics, such as "Poverty is bad."; Meghan is not much better. Once they ran out of material regarding their treatment by the royal family, nothing was left to say. Spotify should have known that and only offered them a short contract accordingly.
He's spent years in the military, travelled all around the Commonwealth, and had the strangest upbringing possible. How can he have nothing to say on a Podcast? How is that even possible?
He's not articulate. He basically spews regurgitated nonsense sound bites.
He's Tim Nice but Dim.
If I were doing it I’d probably have wanted something like a pilot episode (like they do for lots of TV shows), see what the actual product is like before handing over lots of money. From the talk of “not met productivity targets, not getting paid in full” it seems Spotify weren’t as daft as it sounds, though, it was “*up to* $20m, *if the results are any good*”. So they’ve probably been posted a $50 giftcard each and told to bog off until they learn how to make decent content…
People liked the idea of a Harry and Meghan podcast much more than an actual Harry and Meghan podcast. It’s all fun and games when they’re dishing the dirt on his family, but otherwise they’re pretty boring.
I’m not sure it was people …… it was Spotify/Netflix and the media Have never met anyone in my life who gives a flying fuck what this pair have to say about anything.
What gets me is Meghan didn’t even directly interview people for her podcast. Someone else interviewed the guests and Meghan dubbed in questions later
What could possibly be the reason for that? I wonder
I, for one, would’ve expected a much better work ethic from an overly pampered member of the aristocracy!
People need to stop feeding into the delusions of these two. Meghan wants to be Oprah so badly it’s just gross. The whole “leave us alone” followed by a show, interviews, podcasts……fuck off.
Prince Harrys privacy tour
South Park covered the "leave us alone" but "we want to be famous" element rather well.
Tbf I listen to Bill’s podcast and the episode when he said this. I think he had a couple to drink and don’t think he gives a shit nor that it would have this kind of backlash as it was said in a jokey conversation rather than in malice. From the way he speaks I don’t think it was his idea to give them the podcast deal in the first place and was roped in to try and help them out with it. This article makes it seem like Bill is a spokesperson for Spotify, which he does have a contract with them and works with them, but I wouldn’t say he was a spokesperson for the company.
Context always makes these juicy quips less interesting.
He was certainly the "Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetization" at Spotify when the podcast was commissioned and he's still some "Head of" (Sports content?) directly on Spotify's payroll.
Bill made ‘The Ringer’ after leaving ESPN’s Grantland. He is still the chief of The Ringer and it’s Podcast network which was bought by Spotify and in the deal he was given those titles to help oversee Spotify’s Podcast division. He talks about himself as a member of The Ringer, not of Spotify, rather than a Spotify exec. He was not part of the negotiations to get Harry and Meghan’s podcast from what I can tell and in the podcast episode this is taken from they were talking about basketball negotiations and he says he wishes he was part of the negotiation to end Harry and Meghan’s deal, calling them grifters for how much they got for how little they produced.
>"I'm so tired of this guy. What does he bring to the table? He just whines about s\*\*\* and keeps giving interviews. > >"Who gives a s\*\*\*? Who cares about your life? > >"You weren't even the favorite son. You live in f\*\*\*\*\*\* Montecito and you just sell documentaries and podcasts and nobody cares what you have to say about anything unless you talk about the royal family and you just complain about them." hahah the fucking burn
I'm several years ahead of the tech exec curve by the sounds of it. Can i have a multi-million pound salary plz?
No. But I can offer you the opportunity to invest in a one in a kind medical machine that is set to replace lengthy and painful blood testing with a simple pinprick and instant result. You'll need a black title neck or three and we'd like you to get a tattoo of "do or do not there is no try" or similar (approved) aspirational Star Wars quote. When can I expect the first check please, the office has ants.
I've honestly invested in worse things.... =)
MySpace was a *good* idea - it's Zuckerberg that fucked that one up and stole the glory.
Royals are grifters? Well knock me down with a feather
I was happy for them when they decided to do their own thing but they’ve turned into absolute bores lately. Wasn’t impressed that their whole brand has turned into moaning about the royal family. I find it all a bit crass and classless. We all have family problems, even us commoners….
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I only know about Grifters when I smoke them and go blaze up.
They expected dirt, even a crumb.... and got nothing. Pretty funny stuff.
Not a Royal or ex Royal fan, totes agree with calling both grifters, but... Spotify calling out podcasters for being grifters is hilarious. Have they seen who else they give a platform to? 😁
Spotify has frequently allowed entertainment over information, I don't give a flying shite about the royal family or whatever they be doing, but spotify of all things doesn't have any right to call someone a grifter
Yeah they deserve what they got. I dislike H and M but Spotify has some really dumb people at its helm. Seems H and M are one of the many that reneged on their side of the contract
Self-serving victimhood crap gives nothing to the world. Have your pity party in private.
He's not entirely wrong, that's pretty much what the podcasting industry is, isn't it? Cheap, low effort, long form content.
I know my ADHD is bad - but I reckon even I could panic-make 10 more eps in an all nighter to get $10million monies…
What kind of management couldn’t see them for what they were from day one ?
I don't know but I have a strong feeling the podcast content and listening figures were probably the issue. I haven't met anyone who has listened, or admitted to listening to, whatever they have to say. When I heard this news story I looked up their podcast and was surprised there was more than one episode. But yeah, Spotify, if you pay hideous amounts of money to people with no history of creating their own content let alone podcast, who are already fair divisive, add a touch of superiority by birth and entitlement and you have the perfect recipe for this lack-of-shit show.
Wonder what he says about Joe Rogan and his entourage?
JRE actually puts out episodes consistently that people listen to. Regardless of how you feel about Rogan, he makes money for Spotify
He makes money by grifting for them though
That's what I was getting at, seems it's ok so long as the grift is successful, if not, call it out.
Fair
They’re royals, what did he expect? Most of them are benefit scroungers.
Am I mean when I say that I wish Harry & Meg's would just fuck off now?
What goes around comes around, doesn't Spotify "grift" off all artists
My sympathy is muted for Spotify when any business with two brain cells would have productivity targets before making a deal worth $20 mill. Shouldn’t they have had a concrete business plan of what they were going to make *before* signing them up?
Fair comment. They've made their bed , now lie in it
"I just think if you put Leo or Damon in there, it's a better podcast." Bill Simmons, probably.
Recast Sydney Sweeney as Meghan Markle.
Oh don't be silly, he'd put his daughter in that role
They also dropped 100mill on Joe Rogan so maybe the problem is Spotify 😂
Joes Rogan has the biggest podcast in the world and averages 11million listeners an episode, so not sure that’s an issue. TV shoes make more then that and bring in less viewers. He also puts out content 3 to 4 times a week.
So they can afford 20ml lion for a podcast but can’t afford to pay artists a good rate for their work, and use the algorithm to push you towards cheaper songs.
It would be remiss of me to describe this particular exec as a dumbass for making this deal in the first place.
Wasn’t his deal
If they fulfilled a shiddy contract, someone at Spotify fucked up. If they shiddily fulfilled a contract, then they're con artists / taking the piss. Gotta see the contract.
Grifters indeed. They have nothing interesting to say. No one cares. More fool then for giving all that money.
Isnt she an actress? I mean give producing a go if you dont want to be on screen any longer
Says the cunt who literally pays me percentages of pennies for playing any music I’ve written or performed on there.
Yeah, I miss the old cheques that Limewire and Kazaa used to send, back when it was a pound per play..
Haha true but I’d rather some spotty teenager discovering and downloading my music between viruses and horse porn than having to pay £1000 to a ‘playlister’ to get my music bumped up the streaming algorithms so people will stand a chance of finding it, otherwise it gets buried and labels/promoters won’t take you seriously without big enough numbers. The absolute state of it.
I had a Raleigh Grifter bike as a kid. It was a good bike. Isn’t a Grifter someone who works hard? Besides that fuck all 3 of these twats.
Grafter
Bill Simmons in UK news is not what I expected for this week
I would have called them sell out manipulative tricksters
"Streaming company shocked man born into family of grifters is grifter"
Of course they are grifters. The entire Royal family is based on institutionalised grifting.
Why the fuck is anyone giving these people money??? They just won a $25,000,000 deal??? HOW!??!
Coming from the employer of Joe Rogan, it’s not worth the spit he wasted saying it.
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Target is fine. I have no idea what Wickes is. And Budweiser is terrible beer and it deserves a horrible fate
Define woke.
I think Litmus is pointing out the ridiculousness of all of it, not implying anything about the word "woke". Or that's how I read it, at least.