Harry and Meghan's podcast was axed for 'underperforming,' executive reveals

When the Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed an exclusive deal with Spotify in 2020 worth a reported £15.6m ($29m), hopes were high the couple would succeed in their new venture.

Prince Harry, 38, and Meghan Markle, 41, had resigned as senior working royals and set up shop in the US, quickly announcing a number of commercial arrangements including with audio streaming service under their new brand Archewell Audio.

Instead, they would release just one podcast, Meghan's Archetypes, which dropped in August of 2022.

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Twelve episodes later, the podcast would end and the project was cancelled. It is understood Archetypes was part of a cull of underperforming projects.

In a joint statement Spotify and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex said they were "proud" of the content they had created.

Despite Harry and Meghan's notoriety, the podcast reportedly failed to find a large enough audience to justify it's continuation on Spotify.

This is despite high-profile guests including Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, Candice Bushnell and Andy Cohen.

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Spotify's strategy seems to be less on lucrative deals with big names and more on producing quality content that thrives.

The company's deal with Barack and Michelle Obama's production company also wasn't renewed at the end of 2022.

Spotify's chief executive Danny Ek spoke about the audio streamer's $1bn spending spree in 2019, agreeing they had been "overpaying and overinvesting."

"We're going to be very diligent in how we invest in future content deals," he told financial analysts. "And the ones that aren't performing, obviously, we won't renew.

"And the ones that are performing, we will obviously look at those on a case-by-case basis on the relative value."

The company is still investing in big names that are also big performers, continuing their highly successful deal with Joe Rogan, despite calls for the controversial host to be cut.

Rogan is a prolific podcaster, one of the early success stories of the new medium. He releases several hours of episodes each week and attracts an audience of 11 million people.

It could be that Harry and Meghan were stretched too thin.

In addition to Spotify, the couple were also creating content for Netflix, raising two young children, attending events and Harry released his memoir Spare in January, embarking on a grueling publicity tour in support of the best-seller.

The royal has also been flying back and forth from the UK for legal matters.

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There is speculation Harry and Meghan's Netflix deal may also be dropped. Their docuseries Harry & Meghan was released in 2022 however Meghan's animation project Peal was dropped.

Crisis communications manager Mark Borkowski told BBC Business the couple's value as a media brand may be waning and they have to "think hard" about what they will work on next.

"It's a thread that's been pulled out of the brand," he says of the Spotify break-up.

"If they want to stop it unravelling they've really got to think hard. The biggest question is are they going to learn from this setback or are they going to ignore it as just a blip."

A spokesperson for the Hollywood talent agency now representing the duchess told the Wall Street Journal this week: "Meghan is continuing to develop more content for the Archetypes audience on another platform."