Did Spotify Terminate/Cancel The Harkles?
The desperate duo seek gullible rich companies to give them cash
Are you okay? As predicted, Spotify has been finally been ‘markled’ —is Netflix next? The news wasn’t exactly a shock as the rumours that Spotify had been trying to terminate the contract had been around for more than a year, and this was confirmation of the rumours.
When Spotify declared they had scored a win by signing the Harkles back in 2020 with an alleged $20 million multiyear deal, the public responded by ditching their Spotify subscriptions and muttered it would be a matter of time before they were ‘markled’. In less than 2.5 years, Spotify appear to have terminated the multi year contract with the Harkles—for those who doubted the Markle curse, well, that can be an expensive lesson. When the court of public opinion is right, perhaps BP should start to listen to the People?
The duo, with the help of a huge team of professionals only managed a cheaply rustled up holiday special (which was just clips of interviews) with some scripted banter that was supposed to be amusing. TOS didn’t know how to pronounce Archewell, the name of the company and foundation, and there was some attempt at singing too. I’m sure Spotify would prefer to forget the dreary attempt at a podcast, while the sound of the cackling baby was enough to give you nightmares.
Allegedly, the content proposals submitted to Spotify were inferior and ridiculous, and after a year there when there was no sign of any content being produced, Spotify sought to extricate themselves from the contract as the company was losing money during the Covid pandemic. Come January 2022, Archetypes was ‘created’ but was managed by Spotify staff who had been hired to oversee the project. According to those in the know, the Harkles received the advance and nothing more, as any payments had to be used to pay the staff, and the advertising costs to complete the project.
What is does show is that the duo are talentless (their talent is to possess a gifted title) and have no creative ideas either, therefore, they were a poor investment. Having a title wasn’t enough as Spotify thought, and the poor PR they received didn’t help either. People listened to the podcast to criticise it and the guests on the podcasts didn’t gain any positive PR from it either. A few shared the podcast on their 24 hour Instagram stories, and others never even mentioned it, probably hoping no one would notice.
Although the joint statement claimed it was mutual, we all know that is an attempt to save face and less than 24 hours later, Bill Simmons, a Spotify executive spoke out and stated that the duo had no ideas for content, and that all they have to offer is nothing but whimpering, and moaning about the RF and no one is interested. The Harkles were an overpaid mistake, and a deal appeared to been struck with Archetypes being delivered in lieu of the advance payment having to be returned with interest (according to a source).
If you recall, they ‘mutually agreed’ with BP and the late Queen that they would not use ‘Sussex Royal’ in their commercial dealings, but then proceeded to publish a rant on the website stating that they could use it because of the Monarchy and Cabinet Office did not have jurisdiction over the use of the word ‘royal’ overseas, but said they chose not use it (trying to look respectful while throwing a tantrum). In short, they had to agree to not use the word ‘royal’ if they wanted to keep their Sussex titles. The same goes for Spotify— they had to agree to the deal because they had not produced any content (breach of contract), and had not fulfilled the terms of accepting the advance payment. A court case for breach of contract would have gone in Spotify’s favour, and would have been made public, meaning they would have to find the funds to repay Spotify and the legal fees.
It was apparent there were production issues when Gimlet had to advertise for staff to work on the project in January 2022, and they were having to pay and manage the project for Archewell Audio. The podcast was released in August 2022 and ended in November, when Rebecca Sananes resigned from the company the following week. From that, many gathered that all was not so rosy at Archewell Audio, and Sananes also deleted some social media posts about Archetypes on her personal accounts.
No one expected another series of the podcast, especially as the main team had jumped ship. Why would staff jump ship from a successful project? Others followed a few months later when their contracts had expired, and were probably waiting it out to make a swift exit too.
The best that WME (TW’s new agent) can do is say that Archetypes is still being developed with other channels, but they can’t actually name any? Given that the contract was terminated last year and has been kept under wraps until the award season is over, it doesn’t appear that any other channels are interested in a podcast that has been mocked and criticised by the masses. Only the brainwashed cult have praised their idol, who would blindly support her if she was a donkey in disguise wearing clogs and a straw hat.
Who is next on the list to say that a contract has ‘mutually’ ended? Invictus, or Netflix. Perhaps Sunshine Sachs scarpered in September 2022, when they realised that no money was coming in from Spotify and their pile of invoices might not get paid? One wonders how much of a loss the firm made, but then again when one get’s into bed with the Devil, they eventually pay the price one way or another. The latest PR company is doing what they did, and are pushing stories of alleged exclusive contracts. Surely no one is that dim, where a major firm has just ditched them and other firms are figuring out how to extricate themselves from any agreements?
Rumours have also circulated that the Montecito mansion is up for sale (about 8 months ago) as they want to flip it for a profit before a financial crash, and given that they have lost a major financing deal that would make sense. The end result is that the Harkles have nothing to offer but their titles, and all they have done is repeat their tale of woe in different formats. Spotify and Netflix have at least shown us that the duo have no talent, that they really aren’t very popular, and any brand associated with them will be mocked and laughed at. At least Spotify can try and salvage their reputation, or can they?