Embattled music streaming service Spotify has reportedly dealt Prince Harry and wife Meghan Markle a blow, dumping the former royals.
The move, which comes as Spotify sheds staff, means the Duchess of Sussex’s podcast won’t get a second season on the service.
It also follows rumours Netflix has decided to part way with the California-based former royals.
Signed at the end of 2020, the Sussexes’ $36 million deal with Spotify was one of their triumphs in the months after they quit royal duties and moved to North America.
It promised “inspirational stories” as they built their new life, and was to be produced by their newly formed production company, Archewell Audio.
Since then, however, there have been only 12 episodes of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast. It shot to the top of Spotify’s charts and scored a People’s Choice Award.
Neither the former royals nor Spotify has confirmed the axing. But there are multiple reports in entertainment media, including Deadline, which said on Friday it had confirmed the “separation”.
“The team behind Archetypes remain proud of the podcast they created at Spotify. Meghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform,” a representative for WME, which represents Meghan and Archewell, told The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the news.
Spotify has recently laid off 200 staff as it restructures to face tougher economic times.
Among those to leave was Dawn Ostroff, who was key in signing pricey and prolific talent deals, including Harry and Meghan. In all, Spotify shelled out more than $US1 billion on such acquisitions in her time.
“We have made the difficult but necessary decision to make a strategic realignment of our group and reduce our global podcast vertical and other functions by approximately 200 people, or 2 per cent of Spotify’s workforce,” head of podcast business Sahar Elhabashi said in a statement.
Meanwhile, Harry and Meghan’s Netflix deal also appears to be shaky, with the prince’s signature Heart of Invictus documentary long delayed.
The Sussexes signed a lucrative but unspecified deal with Netflix in mid-2020, just months after they confirmed they were stepping away from royal duties. They said they would make documentaries, docu-series, feature films, scripted shows and children’s programming.
“Our focus will be on creating content that informs but also gives hope,” the couple said at the time.
“As new parents, making inspirational family programming is also important to us.”
Since then, however, there has been only the Harry & Meghan Netflix series, which was highly critical of the royal family.
Heart of Invictus, which was to follow competitors at the 2022 Invictus Games, was supposed to be their first project. But it is yet to hit screens, prompting rumours it had been cancelled.
Netflix has been largely silent on the documentary since confirming in January that it would finally debut in the northern hemisphere summer.
There has been no further update – until this week, when Netflix told US magazine Newsweek that the information remained “correct” and “accurate.”
However, it is still to announce a screening date.
