Obamas Won’t Renew Exclusive Podcast Deal with Spotify and is Looking for New Multiplatform Deal Elsewhere – We at BCNN1 Believe That One of the Main Reasons the Obamas Are Doing This Is Because They Do Not Appreciate What Harry and Meghan Are Doing to the Royal Family. They Do Not Roll With That Kind of Foolishness and They Probably Don’t Want Harry and Meghan to Think They Are on the Same Level With Them and It Is Probably One of the Reasons Why Barack Obama Did Not Invite Harry and Meghan to His Birthday Party. We Believe That Oprah Ought to Follow the Obamas in Dealing With Harry and Meghan – Cut Them Loose

Higher Ground, President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama’s media company, is ending its exclusive podcast deal with Spotify and is shopping for other partners in the podcasting space, Variety has confirmed.

The Obamas are exiting their exclusive pact with Spotify, originally inked in 2019, after being frustrated with the company’s exclusive terms — primarily, they want to have their podcast programming distributed as widely as possible, according to two sources familiar with the situation. Higher Ground also has disagreed with Spotify over how many of its shows would feature the former president and first lady, as first reported by reported by Bloomberg.

Higher Ground’s current deal with Spotify runs through October 2022. According to one source, Spotify declined to make an offer to renew the agreement.

Reps for Spotify and Higher Ground declined to comment.

Podcasts that Higher Ground has produced for Spotify will continue to launch on the streaming platform through the fall, according to the Bloomberg report. But the company is currently in talks with other audio distribution companies, including Amazon-owned Audible and iHeartMedia, in hopes of reaching a nonexclusive deal for its podcast content.

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SOURCE: Variety, Todd Spangler