Meghan, Duchess of Sussex is set to launch a “groundbreaking” podcast on Spotify this summer.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex set up Archewell Audio, signing an exclusive mega-money multi-year deal with the streaming giant to release a number of podcasts, and now, the first podcast has been confirmed.
Meghan and Harry – who became financially independent after they stepped down as senior members of the British royal family in 2020 – have vowed to “tackle misinformation” as they continue their partnership with Spotify, despite several high-profile musicians removing their music from the app amid calls for Joe Rogan’s podcast to be cancelled for giving false information regarding the coronavirus vaccine.
An Archewell Audio spokesperson said: “As we all continue to tackle the misinformation era, Archewell Audio has found it important to work with our partners at Spotify to ensure that the digital technologies so many of us use every day are rooted in strong principles of trust and safety.
“We are encouraged by ongoing conversations we’ve had with Spotify on this shared goal and have been working closely with their team — as well as their senior leadership — towards policies, practices, and strategies meant to raise creator awareness, minimise the spread of misinformation, and support transparency.”
Announcing Meghan’s podcast, they added: “As a result of these meetings, we are excited to announce that we are continuing production of Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex’s groundbreaking first podcast series, set to launch this summer.”
No further information about the podcast has been revealed at this time.
Former ‘Suits’ actress Meghan, 40, and Harry, 37, recently expressed “their concerns” to Spotify over misinformation spreading on the platform.
The couple urged Spotify to help stop the “global misinformation crisis”.
An Archewell spokesperson said on their behalf: “Since the inception of Archewell, we have worked to address the real-time global misinformation crisis.
“Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of mis- and disinformation every day.
“Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of Covid misinformation on its platform.
“We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis.
“We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does.”
Spotify insisted it bans “false or dangerous deceptive content about Covid-19, which may cause offline harm and/or pose a direct threat to public health.”
Neil Young was the first artist to remove their music from Spotify.
In a request to the company, the 76-year-old singer said: “I want you to let Spotify know immediately TODAY that I want all my music off their platform. They can have [Joe] Rogan or Young. Not both.
“I am doing this because Spotify is spreading fake information about vaccines – potentially causing death to those who believe the disinformation being spread by them. Please act on this immediately today and keep me informed of the time schedule.”
The streaming service later responded: “We want all the world’s music and audio content to be available to Spotify users. With that comes great responsibility in balancing both safety for listeners and freedom for creators. We have detailed content policies in place and we’ve removed over 20,000 podcast episodes related to Covid since the start of the pandemic. We regret Neil’s decision to remove his music from Spotify, but hope to welcome him back soon.”