Confessions of a Female Blogger: I think alliterative titles are cheeseball AND I do not understand how podcast charts work. To be fair, I don’t completely understand the math involved in ANY charts in the age of streaming. Musical charts make no sense to me either, all I know is that Taylor Swift has figured out the voodoo math to stay at #1 forever. Tell me the number of streams, for sure. That’s data I can understand, if you say “so-and-so’s podcast was streamed one million times in the first 48 hours.” But charts? Why is there such a wide discrepancy between “Duchess Meghan’s new podcast is #1 on Lemonada, top ten on Apple and not even the top 100 on Spotify?” That’s what we’re dealing with here, with Meghan’s Confessions of a Female Founder pod.
Meghan Markle’s new girl boss podcast was fourth in the Apple podcast charts, but failed to make the top 100 on Spotify, two years after an executive at the streaming giant called her and her husband, Prince Harry, “grifters.”
The Duchess of Sussex released the first episode of Confessions of a Female Founder on Tuesday, April 8, and it featured an interview with Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder of dating app Bumble.
While the show soared into the top 10 on Apple, it failed to make the top 100 on Spotify and did not get a showing in the top 50 business podcasts.
Again, these charts make no sense unless they’re solely about the platform people are using to listen to COAFF and even then, I don’t buy it. I think people probably did seek out COAFF on Spotify, just because people understand how to navigate Spotify and they already subscribe. It was easy for me to find COAFF on Spotify on the day COAFF dropped. So are COAFF’s numbers being suppressed at Spotify? Or do I just not understand how podcast charts are calculated?
Incidentally, I didn’t want to amplify yet another review-bombing involving Meghan, but that’s exactly what happened this week. The same people who were appalled and disgusted by a cooking/lifestyle show were magically appalled and disgusted by Meghan’s podcast. It’s almost like people are always going to scream, cry and throw up over every little thing Meghan does and says, to the point where it becomes white noise?
Photos courtesy of Lemonada, Cover Images.
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- Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex at Wheelchair Curling in Hillcrest Recreation Centre during Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 Featuring: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 09 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex at Wheelchair Basketball in Vancouver Convention Centre during Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 Featuring: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 09 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex at Wheelchair Basketball in Vancouver Convention Centre during Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 Featuring: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 09 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Meghan Markle, Duchess of Sussex at Wheelchair Basketball in Vancouver Convention Centre during Invictus Games Vancouver Whistler 2025 Featuring: Meghan, Duchess of Sussex Where: Vancouver, Canada When: 09 Feb 2025 Credit: Dutch Press Photo/Cover Images **NOT AVAILABLE FOR PUBLICATION IN THE NETHERLANDS OR FRANCE**
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- Whistler Welcome Celebration at the 2025 Invictus Games Featuring: Meghan Markle Where: Whistler, Canada When: 10 Feb 2025 Credit: PA Images/INSTARimages **NORTH AMERICA RIGHTS ONLY**
Listened on Apple Podcast platform and loved the conversation. I stay away from Spotify❤️
Same regarding “Spotify” whose service I was VERY loyal to & had NO PROBLEMS paying for Premium because the algorithm was my 🥰 and I had spent COUNTLESS hours over the years curating song lists…
But after Joe Rogan & the Meghan Sussex BS…I stopped my Premium & haven’t listen to a SECOND of their app since!🤨
Yup deleted them since their bluster and full on fascist march.
I haven’t listened to Spotify since they released those nasty comments about Meghan, I stopped paying for the service and learned to navigate Apple Podcasts and audible. I’m done supporting any platform that spreads hate and nastiness.. social media apps including, why anyone is still on facebook or X is mind boggling to me…
yup, I deleted my spotify app after H&M left the platform. I listened to her pod on Apple this week.
Yes. And she was #1 in the business category on Apple. I listened on Apple so that I could rate and comment on the podcast. I loved it! (I also loved Archetypes when it came out.)
A million years later in the comments but tbh I dislike Apple, but now I loathe Spotify. For me to switch to apple pods was huge, but I did. I have zero apple things but now I’m streaming pods there.
Seems like Spotify is holding ill will that she left Spotify? Thats my belief.
So I listened to it on Pocketcast. It looks like it has 5 stars there. I’m completely disillusioned by reviews/ratings, particularly when it comes to Meghan.
Spotify is a subscription service, no? Apple is not and because I have an iPhone I automatically go there for podcasts. I have no interest in barstool sports or the incel culture machine, crypt-grifting or women-hating so the Spotty Boys are not for me.
I think Spotify is just slow to update podcasts that are not Spotify originals. Meghan’s podcast is now showing as number 24 in US top 100 and 15 in the UK in the Spotify chart. I just checked. Maybe the author of this article should have waited a few days before writing this article?
Because I followed archetypes on Spotify, I actually got a push notification that Meghan’s new podcast was available. I don’t think Spotify is doing anything nefarious here. Agree they’re slow to update charts.
Julia you are right that Spotify does update their charts later and less frequently than others like Apple. Remember how they tried to say Archetypes flopped because it wasnt in the top 100 on Spotify only for it to be at number one the next day? It looks like COAFF is now at #24 on Spotify’s overall chart and #2 in it’s category(business). It’s not being promoted on Spotify like Archetypes for obvious reasons so im not surprised it hasnt started higher but 2nd in its genre is good especially considering how well it’s doing on Apple Podcasts.
Spotify has a free account. I don’t use it a lot but it’s what comes installed on my android phone.
Oh I absolutely believe the numbers are not being reported accurately at spotify because if a podcast is number 1 on one platform, number 4 on another how is it so low on a third platform? It less effort to not report the numbers accurately then to engage in manipulation so I think thats what spotify is doing. Their grapes are almost as sour as the left behind royals.
Yeah, that’s a pretty huge difference. Suspiciously so.
I happened to listen to it on Spotify on my Android phone and when I went to rate it I saw mostly 5’s and 1’s. The comments on the ones were the typical Meghan hate comments. I then went to apple podcast on my iPad and listened to it again and rated it and there were some of the negative but just not as many.
I wonder if all of the Meghan haters are listening on Spotify.
Living well is the best revenge. Meg and Harry are living WELL!
I think a lot of the Squad is still boycotting Spotify. I know I deleted the app after Meghan left and they said those sh*tty things about her. Why give Spotify any coins now? They have JoE RoGaInE.
Not even top 100 smells like a mélange of b.s. and eau de sour grapes.
This article is out of date. It is now to top 30 the US and top 20 in the UK on Spotify. I just checked the updated chart!
I listened on Amazon music, because I couldn’t find it on Podbean, so it could just be spread across many platforms. Either way I’m sure the people who need to figure out how successful it is has, same as the do with Netflix streaming. Outside of that I only care about my enjoyment.
And yes, the BM definitely wanted to review bomb it. They were literally describing a conversation as insane. Like she was calling for a strike from the Deathstar. But I think either social media or other media in the U.S. has learned their lesson about overreacting to her projects because I haven’t seen the same vitriol that followed WLM.
Yes, I think some US media outlets might have realised how silly they looked for overreacting to WLM. Especially after her show got season 2, her products sold out and Netflix spoke up for her.
Star ratings on any app can’t be trusted on any app ever. I once worked for a shithole company that got several scathing employee reviews on Google and had every member of the toxic office staff post glowing 5 star reviews to improve their rating immediately. Browse around any entertainment apps and the review bombing of any media featuring poc, women and LBGTQ community is consistent across the board and very toxic. It is especially noticeable on all Amazon subsidiaries (Audible, imdb.com, unlimited, et al).
like everything else related to Meghan, they decide that no matter what it is she does, they are going to give it a negative review. reverse engineer the outcome.
I refused to listen to it on Spotify. They are dead to me. I love Cillan Murphy and his crazy music choices. He used to air on BBC6 or BBC sound. Even him is not enough for me to listen to him on Spotify.
The BM obsession with ratings is insane. They did the same thing with Spare. It killed them that it was a bestseller for so long and week after week they would struggle to find some way to diminish that accomplishment. Even being in the top ten was considered a sign of failure. Anything the Sussex’s do has to be number one or it’s a bomb. Just so stupid. No one but the BM would have expected the Netflix shows about polo or Invictus to be blockbuster chart toppers. They’re doing the same here. If the show is being heard and enjoyed and gets enough momentum to be renewed that’s all that matters.
But Meghan’s Archetypes was #1 in many countries AND she knocked Joe Rogan off his perch and won awards and STILL the yucky British media routinely describe that podcast as “a failure”. So being #1 means nothing to them. They will lie regardless of how successful any project created by Meghan and Harry (but especially Meghan) create.
Stopped my Spotify subscription after they dropped the negative stories about her and Harry. Will never use Spotify again.
I wonder how many of us there are?
Big mistake Spotify- huge!
I downloaded Spotify for Meghan. When she left, I deleted it. I use Youtube Music, but it didn’t show up there. I listened to it through lemonada website, then added it to Youtube Music through feed url. I think, people would listen to it through a variety of apps now, if it isn’t exclusive to one platform. So, that would affect platform specific numbers.
I really enjoyed the first episode. Whitney Wolfe Herd was a great choice as a first guest. Very well spoken and so intelligent. I’d actually never heard of Bumble before, and it isn’t something I need in my life, but her story and her success is amazing.
I listen on Apple Podcasts..
As a Meghan supporter I would never use Spotify