This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Digital Media
Spotify podcaster Jemele Hill comments amid reports her exclusivity deal is ending
By Chris Cooke | Published on Monday 5 June 2023
Podcaster Jemele Hill has commented on reports that her exclusive content deal with Spotify is coming to an end. Sort of. She’s mainly commented on reports about reports that her exclusive content deal with Spotify is coming to an end.
Sports journalist and former ESPN presenter Hill allied with Spotify in 2019 as the streaming firm was really ramping up its in-house podcasting operations. That led to the launch of the podcast Jemele Hill Is Unbothered, in which – the official blurb states – the journalist “shares her unbothered, nuanced opinions on news, pop culture, politics and sports”.
Spotify then worked with Hill to develop other podcasts under the banner the Unbothered Network. That venture describes it mission as seeking “to elevate the voices, stories, agency, and nuance of black women by producing high-quality audio experiences that centre us”.
But, Bloomberg reported last week, the Unbothered Network and Spotify are now set to part company as the latter “reconsiders its expensive podcasting strategy” now that it’s “under pressure to rein in costs and deliver profits”.
“Hill and Spotify are negotiating the terms of her separation”, the newswire added, “which will result in the end of her show and network – at least at Spotify, said the people, who asked not to be identified because the negotiation is ongoing”.
Among those responding to the Bloomberg reports was OutKick, the now Fox-owned sports website which has its own series of podcasts that combine sports, culture and politics, and which brags that it publishes sports journalism and other content that, among other things, is “questioning the consensus and exposing the destructive nature of ‘woke’ activism”.
Its report on Spotify ending its exclusive content partnership with Hill noted comments she made when her business partner was in the news last year because of controversies surrounding its highest profile podcast star Joe Rogan. He, of course, was criticised for airing unchallenged COVID conspiracy theories and for using racist language, with various artists and subsequently podcasters boycotting Spotify in protest.
As that controversy was building, the New York Times noted that Hill had stated that “Spotify’s defence of Mr Rogan had created problems with her audience, and raised questions about the sincerity of the company’s dedication to minority talent”.
The newspaper then noted how Hill had said in an interview: “What I would like to see is for them to hand $100 million to somebody who is black”. That was a reference to the $100 million Spotify had reportedly paid Rogan (although subsequent reports suggested Rogan’s deal was worth more).
In its report last week, OutKick honed in on that past statement. “The divorce also comes after Hill tried to extort money from Spotify in the name of equality. In 2022, she dared Spotify to give her – or another black host, but probably herself – the same money as Joe Rogan”.
In that statement, OutKick claimed, Hill was hoping Spotify would conclude “we better pay a black host Rogan-money or we’ll be called racist”. However, it went on, “Spotify didn’t comply. See, there is not a black podcaster worth a Joe Rogan-type salary. Nor is there another white podcaster worth $100 million. There is only one podcaster who is, and it’s the only podcaster who does: Joe Rogan”.
The sports website may well be right about the value of Rogan and his weirdly popular podcast, though – of course – that’s not what Hill was saying last year, and those remarks are nothing to do with the current negotiations between her and Spotify.
“A lot of what’s been reported just isn’t true. My podcast hasn’t been cancelled. I never asked Spotify for $100 million. This shit is truly comical”, she wrote on Twitter this weekend, before plugging upcoming editions of her podcast. As for her Spotify deal, “When I have something to say, I’ll say it”, she added.
When challenged by a Twitter user about her 2022 Rogan related statement, she remarked: “You should probably comprehend better or maybe read the original piece – which was about me wanting to see Spotify make that investment in prominent black podcasters. I never told Spotify or the NYT that I deserved $100 million. My deal at Spotify is pretty fair. This was about investment and growth”.
So there you go. Though, of course, what’s really interesting here is the reconfiguring of Spotify’s podcasting strategy, and the seeming move away from splashing mega-cash on in-house productions and exclusivity deals. It remains to be seen what further changes are in the pipeline.
