Brené Brown resigns Spotify partnership ends as podcast contract ends
The host released the final platform-exclusive episode of ‘Unlocking Us’ this week and ‘Dare to Lead’ at the end of December.
Brené Brown, author and podcast host, has posted the final episodes of her Spotify-exclusive podcasts Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead, as her contract with the audio giant has expired.
The final episode of Unlocking Us with Spotify was released on Wednesday, while Dare to Lead ended on December 26. Brown announced the end of her Spotify deal on the penultimate episode of Unlocking Us, saying she planned to take a vacation from podcasting. “I have no plans for a future podcast. I’m not sure what will happen. “I’m taking a sabbatical, at least for the first quarter of 2023, but this is the conclusion of a season, the end of a chapter,” Brown explained.
Brown has relocated her podcast Unlocking Us exclusively over to Spotify in Jan. 2021 as part of a two-year deal with Spotify’s Parcast studio. The deal was first announced in 2020 and followed other major exclusive partnerships that Spotify entered into with talent like Joe Rogan, Esther Perel, and the Obamas’ Higher Ground — the latter of which moved to Audible last June for a first-look deal. Brown’s partnership also included the launch of a new show, Dare to Lead, based on her book of the same name.
According to a company representative, with Brown’s initial contract expiring, Spotify did not pick up the option for series. “Spotify is extremely proud of the series we created with Brené Brown. “We wish her the best and look forward to seeing what she creates next,” a Spotify spokeswoman stated.
Existing episodes of Unlocking Us and Dare to Lead will stay on Spotify, and future episodes of her shows will be available on Spotify and other major platforms when Brown and her team return from their vacation.
Despite the fact that Brown’s podcasts did well when exclusive to Spotify, with Unlocking Us frequently appearing on Spotify’s top podcast list, Brown has spoken out about Rogan’s platforming of COVID misinformation on his Spotify-exclusive show and described Rogan’s comments targeting the trans community and about race as “dehumanizing” and “often degrading.”
As major musicians such as Neil Young withdrew their music from Spotify in protest of Rogan last February, Brown temporarily paused the release of new podcast episodes to learn more about the audio giant’s misinformation policy and its application across the service; she later resumed posting episodes due to her contract with Spotify, though she described “sharing the table with Rogan” as a “tremendous values conflict with very few options.”
Brown informed listeners in her final edition of Unlocking Us this week that they might receive updates via social media and her newsletter “on what’s happening and if we decide to do any podcasts again, which I can assume will be in the future.”