Meghan and Harry’s Spotify contribution slammed by author

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Royal commentator Richard Eden discussed the latest Spotify row with Prince Harry and Meghan Markle after the platform came under fire for COVID-19 misinformation claims. But Mr Eden noted that while Prince Harry was a strong campaigner against misinformation, his decision not to pull out of his deal with the streaming giant showed he picked “money” over “principles” in his view. Mr Eden then discussed the work ethic of Joe Rogan who works on hundreds of podcasts with a small team and wondered if paying the Sussexes millions was truly value for money.

Speaking on Mail+ Palace Confidential, Mr Eden shared his thoughts on the Spotify row and believed the Sussexes has been put in a tough position.

He said: “Well, this is a nightmare for Harry and Meghan because for years they’ve gone on about the dangers of misinformation.

“It’s become a real sort of pet cause of theirs, I think Harry’s even become a commissioner [of the Aspen Institute’s new Commission on Information Disorder] or something like that.

“And then here they are with Spotify, accused of spreading misinformation through Joe Rogan’s very popular podcast, but they’ve signed a very lucrative deal with Spotify… which is meant to be worth £18million or something.

“So between the principles and money, it’s always a question of which will they go for and seems they’ve gone for the money.

“They put out a rather sort of mealy-mouthed statement about the dangers of misinformation but they’ve made clear they’re sticking with Spotify.

“So it looks like sort of Joe Rogan’s won really.”

Mail on Sunday’s Charlotte Griffiths was also on the show and believed the Sussexes would not hand the money back in the future but had heard there were technical issues behind the scenes which explained why the couple has not created podcasts.

Prince Harry opens up about his experience with burnout

Mr Eden remarked Joe Rogan was a really hard worker and created hundreds of podcasts every year.

But the royal expert added: “My goodness, we’ve only had one from Harry and Meghan for £18million so they’re hardly providing value for money.”

The panel also joked that Joe Rogan should “ask for a pay raise”.

Spotify has been hit with huge criticisms from celebrities and respected scientific figures to crack down on Covid misinformation being spread on Joe Rogan’s podcast.

Joe Rogan addressed the criticisms head-on in a video and said the people he invites on had strong credentials and that he wanted to offer an alternative view to the mainstream narrative.

The podcaster said he would try to make amends and invite people on to offer criticisms of guests to be more balanced.

Despite this, musicians Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and Nils Lofgren demanded their music be taken off the platform in protest.

Prince Harry and Meghan released a statement addressing the misinformation concerns.

It read: “Since the inception of Archewell, we have worked to address the real-time global misinformation crisis.

“Hundreds of millions of people are affected by the serious harms of mis- and disinformation every day.

“Last April, our co-founders began expressing concerns to our partners at Spotify about the all too real consequences of Covid misinformation on its platform.

“We have continued to express our concerns to Spotify to ensure changes to its platform are made to help address this public health crisis.

“We look to Spotify to meet this moment and are committed to continuing our work together as it does.”

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