After leaving the White House in 2017, the Obama family built a media empire under the name Higher Ground Productions. Barack and Michelle Obama have produced films, television series, and Oscar-nominated documentaries since founding the company in 2018. The former first lady has even hosted Spotify’s fourth-most popular podcast, according to a 2020 infographic by Spotify.
But the Obama media empire may be coming to an end.
On Thursday, insiders told Bloomberg that Higher Ground had ruled out signing a new deal with Spotify.
The Obama family began negotiations with Spotify, but the streaming giant refused to make an offer, according to three insiders’ anonymous statements to Bloomberg.
Bloomberg reported that Higher Ground is looking at other distributors, including iHeartMedia and the Amazon service Audible.
In other words, the Obama family is looking to cash in. They could make tens of millions of dollars from this new deal, according to speculation by Bloomberg.
Under the current deal, The Michelle Obama Podcast remains available only Spotify, and so does Renegades, the former president’s podcast with Bruce Springsteen. In other words, it’s not possible to listen on other services like Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.
Now, Higher Ground would like to distribute the podcasts over other platforms, in addition to just Spotify.
The Obamas are parting ways with Spotify at a volatile time in the streaming industry. Netflix has seen its stock price plummet amid password sharing. CNN is killing its own streaming service, CNN+, at the end of April, less than two months after launching it.
Even Spotify has endured scandals recently. In 2020, the streaming service reportedly paid $100 million to become the sole distributor of The Joe Rogan Experience.
The next year, podcast host Joe Rogan admitted to accidentally making false statements about the COVID-19 vaccines on his podcast, describing himself on the podcast as a “f***ing moron” and “not a respected source of information.”
In protest, rock musician Neil Young ordered his music to be pulled from Spotify, and recording artist Joni Mitchell soon followed.
Even Barack Obama has tech giants for platforming “potentially harmful content.”
The former president said in a speech on Thursday:
Now, some companies have been taking the next step in managing toxic content, experimenting with new product designs that, to use just one example, add friction to slow the spread of potentially harmful content. And that kind of innovation is a step in the right direction. It should be applauded, but I also think decisions like this shouldn’t be left solely to private interests. These decisions affect all of us, and just like every other industry that has a big impact in our society, that means these big platforms need to be subject to some level of public oversight and regulation.
It’s no wonder that Spotify wants nothing to do with him!
Watch the former president’s speech here —
The Horn editorial team