Harry, Meghan Unlikely To Receive $25 Million From Spotify After First Episode Didn’t Make The Cut?

Prince Harry and his wife Meghan Markle might not get 18 million pounds ($25 million) from Spotify after the unpopular first episode of their podcast.

The deal was signed in December last year which led fans of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex to expect a steady stream of content from the pair, reported Daily Star. But only one 35-minute episode has been produced so far.

The first episode of the podcast is likely to have been less popular than Spotify and the couple initially expected, media lawyer Ian Penman, who is an expert in music streaming contracts. He said that it would not be an "unfair assumption that perhaps their popularity was not as great as maybe they or indeed Spotify initially felt." He added that people could draw a conclusion that if the company hasn't asked for the next episode of the podcast, then maybe "they did not have the popularity that either Meghan and Harry expected or indeed Spotify anticipated."

Representatives of the couple are yet to comment on it. Meanwhile, Penman said that the streaming giant is unlikely to have lost out on a huge amount of money. According to him, Spotify most likely paid the couple a small advance and retained the right to back out of the full $25 million if the first episode didn't make the cut.

Giving examples of music deals, he said that "this goes back decades, that when people talk about a large deal," like singer Robbie Williams signing a deal for 15 million pounds ($2,01,51,000) or something, it does not mean he gets that amount on day one. So the problem in case of Harry and Meghan, the media lawyer would imagine, is that when they talk about a $25 million Spotify podcast deal, it "probably means that they have signed their first product, in this case a podcast - they then have many, many options for further products." According to him, those options are in the company’s favor, and not in Meghan and Harry's favor.

The couple had issued a statement last year about the podcast saying that what they love about "podcasting is that it reminds all of us to take a moment and to really listen, to connect to one another without distraction."