The title of this blog post should really be: Harry and Meghan Pop Out For 20 Seconds And Everyone Loses Their Minds.
That literally what happened.
Spotify hosted their first Stream On an event where they highlighted various artists and also announced some future plans – we’ll get to that in a moment.
While the Derrangers will continue to act like our faves don’t matter and are irrelevant, in an event that lasted over one hour and forty minutes, you’d think Harry and Meghan were the only ones who featured based on the reaction to the brief clip.
The pair spoke briefly about what Archewell Audio will bring to the platform. Hit the 38:35 time mark to watch their part. The clip opened with drone shots of sunny California, the couple’s new home. A clear message for those who still don’t get it; this is our base, our home, our office, our center for creation and creativity.
So far, we’ve only heard one episode of Archewell Audio – the Christmas Special. Given everything that has happened the last few weeks, it makes sense perhaps, that we haven’t heard anything since. When you’re running a brand, you want to release things in a steady and controlled succession, carefully spacing out each announcement and project. Everything Harry and Meghan do gets wall-to-wall coverage, so they wouldn’t want one thing taking attention from the other.
Some other interesting news that came from the Spotify event: Spotify is expanding their global reach as noted by the media site Bandwagon;
“…Spotify plans to continue expanding and making its content accessible to more audiences around the world. Currently, Spotify is on track to be launched in over 85 new markets, including countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and Latin America, a move that will extend its reach to 1 billion more potential users and introduce 36 new languages to its platform.”
So anyone that wasn’t already using a VPN (lol) can now listen to Spotify, but think about that level of reach for a moment; Africa, Asia, The Caribbean, so basically….THE COMMONWEALTH and beyond.
In this new age, Royal Tours and occasional TV addresses are not enough to give you global reach, especially if you’re trying to attract a younger and more diverse audience that is increasingly turning away from institutions like the Royal Family. Whatever the Royal Rota want to claim, outside of diplomatic pageantry, the world is fast losing interest in the British Royals and has been for some time. For a brief moment, Meghan revived that interest, and they hounded her away. This is what makes the departure of Harry and Meghan so much more damning. The opportunity to reinvent The Firm in a world that was already questioning its relevance has been lost.
We live in a fast-paced, information age, so you need the platforms and creative capabilities to get your message out and get it out quickly. The Royals are still bound to the rules of The Rota, to the rules of protocol, and so they lack the ability to act with speed.
Harry and Meghan now have in their arsenal two of the most influential platforms of our time – Spotify and Netflix – to deliver their message and work through. One can safely assume that they will also eventually, have some kind of social media presence.
Also notable in Harry and Meghan’s Spotify clip: Meghan’s fashion!
Meghan wore a sleeveless Oscar De La Renta dress. She is a big fan of the label and has worn if often. Our Queen knew we were thirsty for lewks and she delivered.
The dress is a soft pastel blue mid-length number and is adorned with hand-sewn lemon embroidery.
When life gives you lemons…make lemonade.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but that’s the first thing thought when I saw the dress, and I wasn’t the only one who thought it too.
Listen, we can have conversations about capitalism and wealth inequality, but as Professor Maynard pointed out in a previous podcast, we’re NOT going to start that conversation with Meghan Markle, a biracial woman, part descendant from slaves. Not today, Satan, not on our watch, especially when non-black women are not given the same level of scrutiny.
Meghan is going rock up in Oscar dresses, and anything else she pleases to make all the girls on that island mad. She’s purchasing those items with her OWN money, not taxpayer funds. She can walk around in Haute Couture ball-gowns for all I care.
When right-wing British media criticize black women for wearing expensive clothes, the only purpose it serves to is to reinforce their belief that she is not worthy of life’s finer things.
As expected, the dress has almost sold out. you can click here to see if there are still any left in your size. The Meghan effect is still strong.
God, let it be March 7th already, we’re dying.