Meghan Markle Meets With Spotify's Rival to Potentially Relaunch Her Audio Brand
Are Meghan Markle and Prince Harry planning their comeback? The duo dealt with public failure after they parted ways with their once-celebrated collaboration with Spotify.
It was reported that the Sussexes are looking to find a new home for their audio projects — including Meghan's "Archetypes."
A source claimed Duke and Duchess of Sussex were speaking to Amazon-owned brand Audible, and their potential deal could be worth millions. The Sussexes' partnership with Spotify failed to be worth the heavy investment, but Audible's audience could be interested in the American royals.
"Harry and Meghan are retooling, retrenching and preparing to change course in their efforts to establish themselves and their production company Archewell as serious players across multi-media platforms," an insider told an outlet. "Expect them to come out swinging in the new year."
Spotify's CEO, Daniel Ek, vaguely discussed the decision to pull the plug on various celebrity Spotify originals.
"We thought new innovation was needed to happen here," Ek said on BBC. "We thought we could come in and offer a great experience that both makes consumers very happy and allows new creators new avenues."
Spotify executive Bill Simmons added insult to injury when he slammed the duo during a June episode of his podcast.
“The f------ grifters. That’s the podcast we shoulda launched with them,” he said. “I gotta 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.”
During Simmons' lengthy rant, he talked about Harry's inability to create his own concept despite Spotify's demands.
“Shoot this guy to the sun,” Simmons groused. “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," he added.
The June cancelation of "Archetypes" opened the door for entertainment professionals to attack Meghan and her work.
"Turns out Meghan Markle was not a great audio talent, or necessarily any kind of talent," United Talent CEO Jeremy Zimmer told a publication during the Cannes film festival. "And, you know, just because you’re famous doesn’t make you great at something."
One of the grievances experts had was the lack of content the Sussexes' produced within a three-year period.
"It was reported Harry and Meghan were going to be making content together, but I think innately both Harry and Meghan are incredibly boring," Kinsey Schofield told an outlet. "It's hard to hear a woman preach about feminism when we know she elevated herself through marrying a prince. The reason she has the platform she has to preach down at you is because she married a man and that's the only reason she has that opportunity."
"I think at their core Harry and Meghan aren't very interesting," she explained. "They don't want to share about themselves and being more relatable to the American public or the world. People are just over millionaires complaining about their 16 bathrooms."
The source spoke to The Express.
Schofield spoke to Sky News Australia.