• Spotify govt Invoice Simmons is asking out Prince Harry and Meghan Markle for being “grifters.”
• Spotify’s head of podcast innovation made the feedback on his podcast.
• Simmons’ criticism got here a day after it was introduced the Sussexes and Spotify had parted methods. 

A Spotify govt labeled Prince Harry and Meghan Markle “grifters” simply 24 hours after it was introduced the Sussexes and the streaming platform had parted methods.

Invoice Simmons, Spotify’s head of podcast innovation and monetization, criticized Meghan and Harry throughout Friday’s episode of his personal podcast known as The Ringer. About 19 minutes in, Simmons’ visitor Joe Home describes the host as somebody who “does numerous enterprise offers.”

“I do? I want I would been concerned within the Meghan and Harry go away Spotify negotiation,” Simmons responds. “The f—ing grifters. That is the podcast that we should always’ve launched with them.”

Simmons then described a name he as soon as had with the Duke of Sussex: “I gotta get drunk one evening and inform the story of the Zoom I had with Harry to attempt to assist him with podcast concepts. The grifters.”

Representatives for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex didn’t instantly reply to Insider’s request for remark, made outdoors regular working hours. 

Simmons’ feedback got here after Spotify mentioned on Thursday that “Archetypes,” Meghan’s podcast, was not being renewed for a second season.

Archewell Productions, the couple’s manufacturing firm, and Spotify mentioned in a joint assertion that they’d “mutually agreed to half methods and are pleased with the sequence” they produced collectively.

“The podcast will now not be produced at Spotify as we’re mutually parting methods,” a consultant for Archewell Audio informed Insider. It is unclear but whether or not there are plans to proceed producing the present on one other platform.

The Wall Road Journal reported that the Sussexes wouldn’t get the complete $20 million payout from their cope with Spotify, citing folks accustomed to the matter. Archewell didn’t produce sufficient content material to be eligible for the complete payout, the New York Publish reported, citing an unnamed supply.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed the cope with Spotify in late 2020, shortly after they determined to step again from royal duties, sharing a need to grow to be “financially unbiased.”

Moreover their partnership with Spotify, the Sussexes additionally signed a cope with Netflix in September 2020 that was reportedly value $100 million.

The “Archetypes” podcast was the one challenge Archewell Audio accomplished for Spotify, in line with the Journal, though it isn’t clear what number of different initiatives they deliberate to ship.

“Archetypes” debuted in August 2022 and shot to the highest of Spotify’s charts within the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and New Zealand. It additionally received accolades, together with a 2022 Individuals’s Selection Award.

Over the course of 12 episodes, which featured high-profile friends such Serena Williams, Mariah Carey, and Paris Hilton, Meghan mentioned and aimed to dismantle labels that maintain ladies again.

Meghan and Harry aren’t the one huge names to chop ties with Spotify not too long ago. In April 2022, Barack and Michelle Obama’s manufacturing firm, Greater Floor, additionally parted methods with the streaming platform.