The British media has been running the same old tired hate-campaign plays against the Duchess of Sussex all year. It feels like people are just ignoring it? I hope that’s the case. If anything, this year, it feels easier to just tune out the forced negativity because there’s so much positive stuff coming from Meghan and her team. I still say that the organized review-bombing of With Love, Meghan failed because Meghan was so proactive on social media and mainstream media. The same is true of her As Ever launch and the launch of her new podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder. Plus, I think people have genuinely caught on that haters are going to pour scorn on every little thing Meghan does and says anyway, so it’s easier to just shrug it off as white noise.
So, let’s talk about the COAFF podcast. It’s Meghan’s first pod under her Lemonada contract. COAFF streams on Lemonada, Apple, Amazon Music and Spotify. I theorized last week that Spotify seemed to be suppressing Meghan’s streaming numbers on their charts, and the Daily Mail is currently running a big story about how COAFF “is struggling to reach the success of the Duchess’s previous show Archetypes amid criticism of her interview style.” At long last, they’re admitting that Archetypes was a huge success for Spotify! Weird. Archetypes got to #1 on Spotify’s charts, repeatedly dethroning Joe Rogan. But the Mail & the Daily Beast are obsessed with the Spotify charts:
Meghan Markle’s latest podcast, Confessions of a Female Founder, made a relatively quiet entrance on Spotify’s global stage Sunday. According to rankings published by the streaming giant, the show sits at number 10 on Spotify’s general top podcast chart in the United States—a respectable position, although arguably a little disappointing for such a high-profile launch. The first episode featured Markle in conversation with Whitney Wolfe Herd, the founder of Tinder and Bumble. Critics generally panned it. Markle’s previous podcast, Archetypes, debuted at number one in its launch week back in 2022, although it quickly slipped down the rankings in the weeks that followed as listeners tired of the formula that saw Markle interviewing famous friends.
So… Spotify had to admit that Meghan’s new pod still got into their Top Ten, despite the fact that people were clearly streaming COAFF on other platforms? Because that’s exactly what’s happening – people love COAFF, but they’re just listening to it on Apple:
Meghan Markle’s podcast Confessions of a Female Founder debuted this week, and the numbers are in.
The Duchess of Sussex’s new series from Lemonada Media about women in business premiered on April 8 and ranked high on multiple charts at the end of the week. As of April 11, Confessions of a Female Founder hit second on Apple Podcasts’ Top Show chart and was the number one show in the platform’s business category. PEOPLE understands that Apple Podcasts’ charts are constantly updating.
Confessions of a Female Founder was the number two show on Spotify’s The Podcasts Charts in the business category in the U.S. It is also number 19 on the streamer’s general Top Podcasts chart in the U.S.
Meghan’s new series is also trending in Amazon Music’s Business podcasts list as of April 11.
So… a great debut, especially considering only one episode has been released? When more episodes come out, people will go back and listen to the older episodes, etc. That’s how it works. Personally, I hate the Taylor-Swiftification of Meghan’s numbers. Like, yes, I want her to be successful at everything, but the numbers aren’t the only measure of success. Meghan has put out a polished, interesting podcast which people are listening to and enjoying. The rest is white noise.
Photos courtesy of Netflix, Meghan’s IG and Netflix.
