Barack and Michelle Obama are reportedly looking for alternatives to Spotify as their three-year deal nears its end.
The former president and first lady are said to be shopping around their production company Higher Ground Audio after struggling to get shows green-lit at the streaming giant, according to three industry sources quoted by Insider.
They’re also interested in putting forward “young new voices” rather than hosting podcasts themselves, according to Vanity Fair.
Obama, 60, hosted an eight-episode podcast with Bruce Springsteen in 2021, Renegades: Born in the USA, while Obama, 58, hosted a podcast that ran for about three months in 2020.
While Higher Ground has produced other podcasts with different hosts, the team reportedly complained about the difficulty of getting “additional shows off the ground”, Vanity Fair reported.
Spotify has been aggressively competing in the podcast market with the signing of the world’s most popular podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
The company backed the comedian after musician despite Neil Young giving an ultimatum to kick him off the platform or lose his music.
Others removed their music and podcasts such as Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, India.Arie, Crosby, Stills and Nash, and Mary Trump.
Prince Harry and Meghan Markle expressed concern over the platform hosting opinions they disagree with but refused to remove their podcast from the platform.
It should be noted, that Prince Harry and Meghan Markle signed a multi-million dollar deal to produce podcasts and have only submitted only one in 2020.
Rebecca Sananes was hired by the couple in July 2021 to be Head of Audio at Archewell to produce podcasts.
