Higher Ground, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s media company, end podcast-exclusive deal with Spotify and shop for other podcast partners, diverse Made sure on.
The Obamas are exiting their exclusive agreement with Spotify, originally signed in 2019, after being frustrated with the company’s exclusive terms — primarily, they want their podcasts to be distributed as widely as possible, according to two sources familiar with the situation. High Ground has also disagreed with Spotify over how many of their shows will feature the former president and first lady, as first reported by Reported by Bloomberg.
Higher Ground’s current deal with Spotify runs until October 2022. According to one of the sources, Higher Ground was seeking a significant increase in financial terms to re-work with Spotify, and the broadcasting company refused to agree to the amount.
Spotify and High Ground representatives declined to comment.
Highground podcasts for Spotify will continue to be released on the streaming platform through the fall, according to a Bloomberg report. But the company is currently in talks with other audio distribution companies, including Amazon-owned Audible and iHeartMedia, hoping to strike a non-exclusive deal for its podcast content.
Spotify’s first High Ground podcast was “The Michelle Obama Podcast,” released in mid-2020, which at one point ranked as the most listened to Spotify original to date. The company also spawned a series of talks between Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen, “Renegades: Born in the USA,” which was released on Spotify last year.
In January, Higher Ground’s “The Big Hit Show” focused on transformative moments in pop culture, premiered on Spotify. The company also released “Tell Them, I Am”, a podcast collection of global stories from Muslim voices on the platform.
Spotify will retain certain distribution rights to “The Michelle Obama Podcast” and other High Ground shows in perpetuity. Additionally, wherever Obama takes his next podcast deal, these new projects will likely be distributed to Spotify on a non-exclusive basis.
Separately, there is a charter for producing movies and TV shows exclusively for Netflix. The company’s debut film “American Factory” won the 2019 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature.
Spotify has spent billions establishing itself as a podcast destination, including securing a deal worth more than $200 million with controversial host Joe Rogan to exclusively distribute the popular podcast as well as a deal worth more than $60 million with “Call Her Daddy” host Alex Cooper. Spotify has acquired several podcast content and technology companies, including Gimlet Media, Parcast, The Ringer, and Megaphone.
Spotify also has an exclusive deal with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle’s Archwell, which said earlier this year that the couple had urged the company to make changes to prevent “serious damage” from misinformation about COVID on its platform. This was a clear reference to Rogan, who was the target of a Spotify boycott at the instigation of Neil Young and was joined by other musicians and talents to protest COVID misinformation in the “Joe Rogan Experiment.” Archewell said it is pressing ahead with plans to produce Markle’s first podcast for Spotify, called “Archetypes” after the couple were encouraged by conversations with Spotify executives to address their concerns.
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