It could have been Taylor Swift or any mainstream singer. Still, music app Spotify recently ties up with Hollywood A-lister and socialite Kim Kardashian for a podcast involving criminal justice reform. Kardashian also had her singing projects, though.
Variety recently reported Kim Kardashian West signing a deal with the app for an exclusive podcast series on reforming the criminal justice. This is partly in relation to the ongoing protests against racial injustice after the killing of George Floyd in the hands of Minnesota police.
Podcast with Kardashian-West
A spokesman for Spotify inked the deal with the Hollywood celebrity and television producer Lori Rothschild Ansaldi for this upcoming project, available on the music app and platform. Both the celebrity and the producer will co-host and co-produce the podcast with the Parcast studio of Spotify.
This latest podcast deal is a month after the company landed a deal with Joe Rogan, worth $100 million to create The Joe Rogan Experience, which is airing later this year. Partnerships of these kinds will include acquisitions of Bill Simmons' The Ringer, Gimlet Media, Parcast and Anchor, and the multi-year partnership with former U.S. President Barack Obama and Michelle Obama for exclusive podcasts.
The Wall Street Journal also detailed this deal in which, the podcast series will follow the investigation of the case of Kevin Keith, by investigator Rothschild Ansaldi. Keith was convicted of three murders in the 1990s and sentenced to execution in the state of Ohio. In 2010, the governor of Ohio commuted this death sentence, after new evidence showed the attorney's doubts about this guilt.
Criminal justice reform
This is one of the cases that argue against the flawed criminal justice in the country. Spotify sees it best to have this podcast with the reality television store. It is also because Kardashian-West is invested largely in criminal justice reform over the previous years. According to the report, she is studying law and has worked with a non-profit that advocates for the clearing of wrongly convicted persons through DNA testing. The group is the Innocence Project.
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The female celebrity also petitioned in 2018 how Donald Trump may plead for clemency in the case of Alice Marie Johnson for being imprisoned 22 years as part of a life sentence due to a non-violent alleged drug offense.
Kardashian-West specifically cited the case of Johnson in one of her advocacies. Her statements were aired in the documentary Kim Kardashian West: The Justice Project.
Meanwhile, Spotify also stated how COVID-19 quarantines had decreased podcasts followers, but they said they wouldn't have big changes in the format. In the first quarter of this year, about 19 percent of active users within a month listened to podcasts, increasing from 16 percent from the previous three months.
The demand continues to grow at triple-digit rates yearly. The app now hosts more than a million podcasts, Spotify said in April.
