Spotify Signs 'The Joe Rogan Experience' Podcast to Exclusive Multi-Year Deal

[MacRumors]

Spotify has signed a deal to pluck comedian Joe Rogan's hugely popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience from Apple's Podcasts library as part of a multi-year deal.

(Image credit: POWERFULJRE/YOUTUBE)​

Spotify's deal with Rogan means that video and audio of each episode will be listed on Spotify from September 1, with an agreement to make the show exclusively available to Spotify subscribers sometime later in the year, according to a press release.

Since its launch in 2009, the pioneering Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) has broken ground and built one of the most loyal and engaged fan bases in the world. Rogan brings his sensibilities as a stand-up comic to the show, and alongside dynamic and diverse guests, he fearlessly broaches far-ranging topics including neuroscience, sports, comedy, health, infectious disease, and our ever-changing culture--all with a mix of curiosity and humor.

In addition to the wildly popular podcast format, JRE also produces corresponding video episodes, which will also be available on Spotify as in-app vodcasts.

The announcement is a clear signal that Spotify sees its push into podcasts as a long-term commitment. The Joe Rogan Experience is one of the longest-running shows and often dominates Apple's podcast charts. Last year the show was said to have reached about 190 million downloads a month.

In addition to the podcast angle, The Joe Rogan Experience also clocks up massive view counts on YouTube, with a recent interview with Tesla CEO Elon Musk generating more than 13 million views so far. Other high-profile interviewees have included Senator Bernie Sanders, author Sam Harris, and cosmologist Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

Spotify says that Rogan will retain creative control over his show, but didn't reveal how much it paid to clinch the deal. In an audio message accompanying the press release, Rogan said: "It will be the exact same show. I will not be an employee of Spotify." Spotify said it will also work with an ad agency to jointly sell ads alongside the show.

Spotify first began its efforts to enter the podcast field around three years ago, when it said it was "coming after" Apple with a strong push into podcasts. The last few years have been marked as a so-called golden age for podcasts, causing many companies to look into entering the field.

More signs of Spotify's intention to double down on its podcasts offering were relayed last year, shortly after it acquired several podcast creation companies including Gimlet Media for $300 million.

Spotify said it planned to create new and exclusive podcasts for subscribers, and also revealed that the team that developed its Discover Weekly algorithms was working on a discovery engine for podcasts. Spotify also purchased Anchor, a company that lets users record and create their own shows that can be easily shared online.

Article Link: Spotify Signs 'The Joe Rogan Experience' Podcast to Exclusive Multi-Year Deal

 

[harambe4ever]

Not installing Spotify on my phone. See ya Joe!

 

[jameswilby]

Well... Spotify seem to have no clue that podcasts aren’t an area for competition of exclusivity. Apple had the chance years ago but allowed it to remain a free and open concept of sharing. “Coming after” Apple isn’t a good thing for consumers when they do it like this

 

[johannnn]

Is the podcast world very slowly becoming the new TV world where you need a gazillion different subscriptions to get all shows? Will I need 5-10 different podcast players in a few years?

Crazy that a single podcast made the Spotify stock jump 8% yesterday. I read rumors about Joe getting 100 million bucks for the deal.

 

[Marshall73]

It was guaranteed that this would happen at some point with podcasts. The best thing about podcasts was they were app independent, as they get tied to platforms I won't be listening anymore.

 

[trollied]

Well... Spotify seem to have no clue that podcasts aren’t an area for competition of exclusivity. Apple had the chance years ago but allowed it to remain a free and open concept of sharing. “Coming after” Apple isn’t a good thing for consumers when they do it like this

I agree. I watch his podcasts on YouTube, as I pay for YouTube Premium. If I'm out running/walking I'll use the free Apple podcasts app. I also pay for SoundCloud for music. There's no way I'm adding an additional Spotify subscription, I really don't need it.

Didn't see Joe as the sellout type

 

[George Dawes]

I used to post on his Rogan Board ages ago , how things change..

 

[caliguy]

Joe said in his message that it will continue to be offered for free. I don’t think you need a Spotify subscription, as others are saying.

A move off of Google/YouTube is a good thing. I hope their censorship practices begin their downfall.

 

[Wanted797]

Rogan is an idiot for taking whatever deal they made.

Staying independent is what made podcasts great and Joe could have made more from staying like that.

 

[Winni]

Rogan is an idiot for taking whatever deal they made.

Staying independent is what made podcasts great and Joe could have made more from staying like that.

And you know this because you are his accountant or banker and have deep knowledge of his financial situation...?
[automerge]1589972091[/automerge]

I agree. I watch his podcasts on YouTube, as I pay for YouTube Premium. If I'm out running/walking I'll use the free Apple podcasts app. I also pay for SoundCloud for music. There's no way I'm adding an additional Spotify subscription, I really don't need it.

Didn't see Joe as the sellout type

Something tells me you would not have written this if he had signed a deal with Apple.

 

[Michael Scrip]

Joe said in his message that it will continue to be offered for free. I don’t think you need a Spotify subscription, as others are saying.

True... you won't have to pay anything to hear Joe Rogan's podcast. Anyone can sign up for a free Spotify account.

But I think people are more upset that they'll have to use another app just to listen to his podcast now. And it won't be on Youtube anymore.

Those the biggest changes here.

 

[canadianreader]

Rogan is an idiot for taking whatever deal they made.

Staying independent is what made podcasts great and Joe could have made more from staying like that.

He's not an independent despite the pretence.

 

[krazzix]

He was popping up in my youtube now and then, and if it seemed interesting to me, I would listen to him in iTunes. Both will be gone, so he's losing me as a listener. And that's knowing where I can find him. Most people won't know. I think he's going to lose a lot of listeners.

 

[acctman]

Spotify has a free-ad base version of its service ... so people complaining about paying for another service is silly. It's no different than a YouTube video with 1-2 ads 10sec ads.

 

[philosopherdog]

Spotify is evil. Anyhow, as an aside Joe Rogan is a moron anyhow. But it sucks that they are doing this.

 

[Abazigal]

True... you won't have to pay anything to hear Joe Rogan's podcast. Anyone can sign up for a free Spotify account.

But I think people are more upset that they'll have to use another app just to listen to his podcast now. And it won't be on Youtube anymore.

Those the biggest changes here.

The article makes it sound like you have to be a paying subscriber to be able to access his podcast.

But it makes sense that Spotify is turning to podcasts. Music streaming still isn’t profitable for them, because 70% of their revenue goes to record holders. Conversely, podcasts involve a one-time upfront cost with regards to creation, and whatever they are paying Joe Rogan to get people to listen to him is probably less than what they will pay to the record labels.

It’s really about cutting their losses at this point, and every minute spent listening to a podcast is a minute not listening to streaming music, and less money paid out overall.

I just wonder if Apple will eventually feel compelled to respond. What if Apple decides to do a paid podcast subscription service as well?

 

[marmiteturkey]

My podcasts are carefully curated and live in one place (my podcast app, which happens to be Overcast).

I’m not even a potential customer for any podcast that isn’t available in the place I go for my podcasts.

 

[chucker23n1]

Joe said in his message that it will continue to be offered for free. I don’t think you need a Spotify subscription, as others are saying.

Maybe.

I still don't want to manage my podcasts in multiple apps. I want one good overview of which episodes I've listened to, which ones I'm in the middle of, and which ones are upcoming. This breaks that.

I have the same problem with TV. Ostensibly, Apple's TV app solves that, but… it's kind of bad? In theory, it offers AirPlay support (so I don't have to manually set an audio delay) and remembers my playback position. In practice, so much about it feels beta…

• sometimes, when I pause, it exits full screen and forgets that I wanted my AirPlay speakers as output. So I hit play again, and it plays in a window, and on the wrong speaker. Just because it was paused.
• sometimes, the play button does nothing. Instead, I have to first click the thumbnail, then hit the play button in there, which takes several seconds to load because everything has to be a web view nowadays.
• sometimes, on Apple TV+ shows no less, it remembers the wrong episode as last played. Or it remembers the right one, but like five minutes before I had actually paused. Sometimes, it also thinks I played the entire episode when there were still several minutes to go.
• for some reason, the AirPlay popover in Music and the one in TV don't behave the same way.

I could probably go on. If there were some standard API / file format to remember playback position, and a way to play to AirPlay without delay, and a way to play DRM'd video, I'd probably just go to VLC or IINA altogether.

Now, I don't know if Spotify is equally bad. But I'm happy with Overcast, and switching to a different app just for that sounds painful. And then what happens with more exclusives? Does Apple do exclusives? Does Netflix enter the podcast market with their exclusives? Does anyone become an aggregator again, or are you expected to remember which podcasts you enjoy across multiple apps? Sounds stupid.

 

[D.T.]

Is the podcast world very slowly becoming the new TV world where you need a gazillion different subscriptions to get all shows? Will I need 5-10 different podcast players in a few years?

Crazy that a single podcast made the Spotify stock jump 8% yesterday. I read rumors about Joe getting 100 million bucks for the deal.

Yeah, podcasts should always be an open content stream, just a simple endpoint you can access through whatever mechanism you want. I have an app preference, and I like having a consistent UX across multiple devices including my cars. This is a bit like Stern, was on an "open" resource (terrestrial radio, multiple stations), moved to a single source (sat radio/XM) that also happen to be a paid service (though I realize the claim is it will be available through their free tier ...)

When I heard about this, saw the current Spotify eval, the bump, I thought to myself: this had to have been a $50M-100M deal for Rogan.

 

[5aga]

His podcast is garbage - spotify can have itt

 

[Elijen]

I didn't see that coming. Even if they offered $100M to Rogan I'd think he'd refuse.

His audience and reach will go significantly down (see Ninja on Mixer).

 

[yegon]

My interest in Joe Rogan show varies wildly depending on guest anyway. I listen to maybe 1 in 8 shows. Even then, there’s a repetitiveness to them, the same old Joe anecdotes started wearing thin years ago, saved only by a guest I’m particularly interested in.

Never mind the misgivings I have in podcasts disappearing up their own ar...err, to exclusive platforms, it’ll be 0 for 8 if I can’t listen in the app of my choice simply because it’ll then slip entirely from view. I say this a very very long time avid podcast listener.

The average Apple Podcast app user, which constitutes an immense number of listeners across all podcasts, will be lost to Joe here. Which I want to happen to to be honest, I want any new podcast model like this to fail hard.

Joe won’t care though $$$$, and I don’t necessarily blame him.

 

[kopaszmercis]

Also moving video to a platform not freely available on smart TVs isn't the right move in my opinion. Although the option of listening and watching and being able to pick up from one and continue on the other is enticing. I think that this move comes late for JRE... I've been listning to it for 6-7 years now, and every since the lock down (or end of Feb) I've hardly tuned in at all... something is just missing / going weird. We'll see how it works out, but I think most people won't mind sopitfy, I know I probably won't subscribe, as there is just too much other options, and his content isn't as valuable as 3-4 years ago.

We'll see. I am sad to see him go, but happy he's cashing in. Good for him. He made the whole thing with honest work and there is nothing wrong with a huge pay day, even if it's from a joke of a company like Spotify.

 

[danny1305]

Well... Spotify seem to have no clue that podcasts aren’t an area for competition of exclusivity. Apple had the chance years ago but allowed it to remain a free and open concept of sharing. “Coming after” Apple isn’t a good thing for consumers when they do it like this

Oh yeah? What company do you own??

 

[Michael Scrip]

The article makes it sound like you have to be a paying subscriber to be able to access his podcast.

Joe Rogan looked into the camera and told his fans it will be free on Spotify.

If you have to pay $10/month... that will be a huge mistake.

Spotify has free ad-supported accounts and paid premium accounts. I doubt a decade-old free podcast would immediately go behind a paywall.

Plus... the article said Spotify is working with an ad agency to sell ads alongside the show. So, to me, it sounds like it will available to free accounts (and premium users wouldn't get ads)

See @ 0:40