ROYAL FAIL: Spotify cuts 200 employees after Prince Harry, Meghan Markle project does not pay off

According to The New York Post, the streaming platform paid the Duchess of Sussex in excess of $18 million for her podcast “Archetypes” which launched last summer.

However, interest in the podcast on the Swedish streaming giant failed to materialize and now the company is forced to lay off a number of employees.

This is the second round of layoffs for the company this year as Spotify let go of approximately 6 percent of its 6,600 labor force in January.

According to the outlet, redundancies at the company are approaching 2 percent of its entire workforce as the company is not seeing an adequate return on investment for the billions of dollars it has spent on podcast content.

Spotify’s head of podcast business Sahar Elhabashi wrote in a blog post, “We are expanding our partnership efforts with leading podcasters from across the globe with a tailored approach optimized for each show and creator.”

Elhabashi added, “This fundamental pivot from a more uniform proposition will allow us to support the creator community better.”

“However, doing so requires adapting … As a result, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to make a strategic realignment of our group and reduce our global podcast vertical and other functions by approximately 200 people, or 2% of Spotify’s workforce,” Elhabashi continued.

Markle’s “Archetypes” debuted in August 2022 but failed to remain at the top of the charts, dropping to number 22 by November.

Meghan and Harry reportedly received $25 million from Spotify in 2021 for their audio deal.