Remember how one of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s first charitable partnerships was with the World Central Kitchen? Well, WCK has completed construction on one of their first centers in partnership with Archewell Foundation. The kitchen has been constructed in Dominica… a Commonwealth nation. LMAO!! Petty Betty thought she would take away their Commonwealth positions and they were like “hahaha, we’re still doing more to support the Commonwealth, you hateful old woman.”

WCK’s Felix on the ground in the Caribbean island nation of Dominica, where we’ve installed our first Community Relief Center with the Archewell Foundation. The kitchen equipment includes refrigerators & freezers that can work entirely off the electrical grid using solar power! pic.twitter.com/5aKZMEdqaM

— World Central Kitchen (@WCKitchen) February 24, 2021

It’s worth noting that Archewell seems to be completely up and running, and Harry and Meghan must have already put some of their own money – likely a percentage of their Netflix and Spotify deals – into Archewell. I would also assume that they are taking donations, or perhaps grants from well-meaning rich people who want to give away a million dollars and think that Harry & Meghan will know how to spend it properly. Speaking of the money the Sussexes are making, did you guys see that an MP was trying to make some kind of dumbf–k “point” during a hearing with a Spotify executive? This is insane.

Spotify has been criticised over its reported £30million podcast deal with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex by an MP who said it ‘sticks in the craw’ of struggling artists. Winchester MP and former junior health minister Steve Brine made the claim as a senior executive from the audio streaming service faced MPs last night and defended the agreement with the royal couple that was announced in December.

Horacio Gutierrez, the platform’s head of global affairs, told the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Committee that ‘there is a market for certain talent because they command a certain amount of consumption’. He said that podcasts and music streaming have a ‘completely different set of economics’ but said that investing in podcasts like that of Harry and Meghan helped the musical side of the business.

Spotify has been criticised by some well-known musicians including Taylor Swift over the amount it pays musical artists for every stream of a song on the platform. Mr Brine told Mr Gutierrez their pay deal ‘sticks in the craw of some of the artists who are driving Uber cars right now to pay the rent’.

Mr Gutierrez said: ‘Like a lot of our services, there is a market for certain talent because they command a certain amount of consumption. We don’t get to negotiate directly with artists the way we negotiate with podcasters or people who create podcasts so the structure of that market is very different. The product is valued based on how many users it can attract, how many streams it will attract, which in turn determines how many advertisers are willing to advertise on the podcast which determines the economic opportunity, there’s a market that’s emerging for talent in that regard.’

When asked by Mr Brine whether Harry and Meghan have saved the music industry, Mr Gutierrez responded: ‘That seems a bit premature. They’re not the only act that we’ve signed, we’ve signed dozens of those and we’ll continue to do that.’

[From The Daily Mail]

This line of questioning is not only mindnumbingly stupid, it just shows that this MP doesn’t have the faintest idea about the industry he’s supposedly regulating? Is it really that difficult to understand the subscription-based business model? Is it that difficult to understand that Harry and Meghan are not solely responsible for Spotify’s content, and that Spotify does not exist as an exercise in zero sum gain? I.E., just because Harry and Meghan are getting paid, that does not mean there’s less money to pay musical artists or they’re taking money away from musicians. Harry and Meghan’s deal drives subscriptions, which means more money for everybody.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, WENN and Avalon Red.