Spotify boss suggests Harry and Meghan’s £18m podcast deal ‘didn’t work’ because it failed to ‘make consumers happy’ after Sussexes made just 12 podcasts in two-and-a-half years

The chief executive of Spotify has suggested that Harry and Meghan’s £18million podcast deal collapsed because it failed to make consumers happy after the Sussexes made just 12 podcasts in two-and-a-half years.

Daniel Ek, who was making a rare media appearance almost four months after it was announced that the Archetypes podcast would not be renewed for a second season, admitted that some of Spotify’s innovative ideas have not gone to plan. 

Meghan’s multi-million-pound Spotify deal was axed in June following a ‘mutual’ decision between the streaming giant and Archewell Audio – the Duchess and Prince Harry‘s company.

Sources close to the multi-million pound deal – which was signed by the couple in 2020 – said it was was dropped after the pair did not produce enough content to warrant the full payout. 

Shedding new light on the decision not to renew Harry and Meghan’s deal, Spotify boss Ek told the BBC: ‘We thought new innovation was needed to happen here. We thought we can come in and offer a great experience that both makes consumers very happy and allows new creators new avenues.’

He added: ‘And the truth of the matter is some of it has worked, some of it hasn’t. We’re learning from those and we are moving on and we wish all of the ones we didn’t renew with the best of success they can have going forward.’

Meghan’s multi-million-pound Spotify deal was axed in June . It was officially said to have been a ‘mutual’ decision between the streaming giant and Archewell Audio – the Duchess and Prince Harry’s company

Daniel Ek (pictured) suggested that Harry and Meghan’s £18million podcast deal collapsed because it failed to make consumers happy

Ek was speaking to the BBC’s Zoe Kleinman who had questioned him on whether 12 podcasts across two-and-a-half years from the Sussexes was worth £18million. She said his response had been ‘very diplomatic’.

Meghan’s podcast was one of the most high-profile casualties at the time. It came after Spotify’s deal with Barack and Michell Obama’s production company also ended last year.

On a conference call with financial analysts earlier this year, Ek conceded mistakes were made during a spree of more than $1billion as it attempted to establish itself as the top competitor in the industry.

After it was revealed that Harry and Meghan’s podcast would not be renewed, Spotify exec Bill Simmons described the couple as ‘f****** grifters’, an Americanism for swindlers. 

Simmons, Head of Podcast Innovation and Monetization at Spotify, condemned the pair in an episode of his own podcast.

‘The f***ing grifters. That’s the podcast we should have launched with them,’ he said.

‘I’ve got to get drunk one night and tell the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to try and help him with a podcast idea. It’s one of my best stories.’

It was reported in June that Harry was hoping to interview Vladimir Putin, Donald Trump, Pope Francis and Mark Zuckerberg about their upbringing and childhood traumas on a Spotify podcast.

Meghan’s (pictured on the podcast) Archetypes podcast only aired 12 episodes before it was axed

Meghan Markle’s Spotify podcast had guests including Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling, and Serena Williams as it looked to ‘examine and subvert the labels that seek to limit women’

Despite the podcast not being renewed, applications lodged with the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) reveal that Archewell ‘revived’ its trademark bid for the Archetypes podcast title even after the Spotify deal had already been dropped.

It was confirmed late last month, however, that the Duchess had dumped her dreams of trademarking the podcast after an application was withdrawn following an unsuccessful 17-month battle to have the title protected.

Meghan’s quest to trademark the name began in March last year when the application was first lodged. But in January USPTO rejected it because of the ‘likelihood of confusion’ with an existing trademark of the same name.

Archetypes – a word which first appeared in the English language 470 years ago – was already registered by US-based company Project Miracle IP Holdings in May 2018.

Project Miracle registered the name for ‘providing a website featuring blogs and nondownloadable publications in the nature of articles in the field(s) of nutrition, fitness, sexuality, psychological self-improvement, personality identification and matching, personal relationships and dating, spirituality, horoscopes and astrology, fashion, music, and reviews and recommendations for books.’

The Sussexes’ attorney in the matter then applied for an ‘extension’ to provide a response, which gave them until July 18 to respond to USPTO’s ‘non-final action’ of rejecting the trademark.

Harry and Meghan were seen rubbing shoulders with Hollywood A-listers Oprah Winfrey and Ellen DeGeneres at Kevin Costner’s fundraiser in September

They made a guest apearance at Costner’s benefit concert for Santa Barbara first responders in Montecito

During this time it was announced that Spotify would not renew the podcast for another season and dropped the couple.

Yet, on July 24 USPTO received a ‘petition to revive’ the trademark application.

It was argued that the Archewell ‘respectfully disagrees that there is a likelihood of confusion’ and ‘requests that the refusal be withdrawn’.

The application was revived shortly after before the couple decided to put an end to the battle last month once and for all when they withdrew by filing an ‘express abandonment’.

The podcast, which aired 12 episodes in total, had guests including Paris Hilton, Mindy Kaling, and Serena Williams as it looked to ‘examine and subvert the labels that seek to limit women’.

It also won the People’s Choice Award for Pop Podcast of 2022.

Harry and Meghan put on an extraordinary red carpet-style display of flirting and affection during the Invictus Games last month in their first official public engagements together since May.

Body language expert Judi James told MailOnline that the tactile royals were reasserting themselves as a global ‘celebrity power couple’.

Harry and Meghan put on an extraordinary red carpet-style display of flirting and affection during the Invictus Games last month

Body language expert Judi James told MailOnline that the tactile royals were reasserting themselves as a global ‘celebrity power couple’

Their public displays of affection, after it emerged Meghan has taken off her engagement ring because a setting came loose, came after friends of the couple had torn apart speculation about their future in Hollywood and rumoured strains behind the scenes.

Ms James said: ‘Meghan and Harry’s body language really does seem to signal that the Harry and Meghan roadshow is back in the room.

‘It’s been a while since the fans have been treated to some of their signature rituals of togetherness as a couple and as a professional double act but they appear here taking the applause like celebrities with Harry back in his proud, protective tow-along pose, hand-in-hand with a very excited looking Meghan.

‘Their hand clasp is mutual, with Harry’s hand on top in a gesture of dominance and Meghan’s fingers are curled upward to show reciprocal affection as Harry leans to talk to her.’

Harry had travelled to Dusseldorf alone after a stopover in London. He and his wife have carried out a large number of solo events separately this summer.

Their last public engagement was in New York in May when Meghan was given a Women of Vision Award. Doria Ragland also attended.

In early August Harry embarked on a boys-only Asian tour with best friend Nacho Figueras while his wife partied with friends watching Taylor Swift in LA and stayed at home to care for Archie and Lilibet.

But during the Invictus Games, Meghan and Harry cosied up to one another.

It came amid rumours Meghan is enforcing a brand separation from her husband after his best-selling book Spare, containing many brutal attacks on his family, seemingly damaged their popularity in the US and UK.

The Sussexes also made a surprise appearance as special guests at Kevin Costner’s star-studded One805 Live! event at his $26million polo field in Santa Barbara last month.

The Sussexes’ warm reception at the event echoed their success at the Invictus Games in Germany, when crowds in Dusseldorf were eager to meet Harry and Meghan while they watched different events at the 2023 tournament.

The Duke and Duchess mingled with Hollywood royalty at the star-studded event, and posed for photos with Costner, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia Di Rossi, and Oprah Winfrey.