Last July, Spotify pulled the Duke and Duchess of Sussex’s contract after only one successful season of Meghan’s Archetypes podcast. The British media – and some of the trade papers in LA – had a field day, because apparently Harry and Meghan were the stand-alone story and it wasn’t about the larger issues with the paid-subscriber model for Spotify-exclusive podcasts. Months later, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek said as much, that the Sussexes’ were victims of a larger, industry-wide post-pandemic restructuring. Of course, that larger narrative – which also included the Obamas leaving Spotify – was ignored by haters. What was also ignored was Spotify’s blatant shift to right-wing podcasting and the fact that Joe Rogan is their golden goose. Rogan is a vaccine skeptic and he favors right-wing guests and talking points. Spotify just loaded up the money truck for his new contract.
Spotify has reached a new deal with star podcaster Joe Rogan that will allow his hit show to be distributed broadly. Rogan’s fresh deal—estimated to be worth as much as $250 million over its multiyear term, according to people familiar with the matter—involves an upfront minimum guarantee, plus a revenue sharing agreement based on ad sales.
Under the new licensing agreement, Spotify will sell ads for and distribute “The Joe Rogan Experience” across several podcast platforms, including in a video format on YouTube, the company said Friday. Under his previous deal, the show was exclusive to Spotify.
“The Joe Rogan Experience” has released more than 2,200 episodes.
“Cool conversations are a kind of mental nourishment,” Rogan said in a Spotify blog post announcing the new deal. Listening to those discussions “encourages people to have similar conversations with their friends, and it just generally makes life more interesting.”
The new deal is emblematic of shifting economics in podcasting, which has matured in both audience reach and advertising spending since Rogan’s last deal. Spotify is working to revise the terms of its deals with top talent so that shows are distributed on several platforms to maximize their audience and ad sales, rather than requiring exclusivity. It is also aiming to pay smaller minimum guarantees and emphasize revenue sharing, a model that helps share risk with talent.
Spotify struck its first deal with Rogan in 2020 during its initial blitz into the medium. It agreed to pay more than $100 million to bring “The Joe Rogan Experience” to Spotify exclusively in a bid to jump-start podcast listening on its platform. The show has remained far and away the most popular podcast on Spotify.
“The show has remained far and away the most popular podcast on Spotify” – I mean, Archetypes regularly dethroned it on a weekly basis, but I guess that doesn’t count when you’re busy polishing Rogan’s knob. It is legitimately wild to me that Joe Rogan, a washed-up actor turned reality-competition-show host turned UFC commentator, would end up as the voice of the increasingly chaotic “low-education white male” demographic. I don’t begrudge Rogan’s huge contract, but let’s not pretend that Spotify hasn’t made a very specific choice here.
Photos courtesy of Cover Images, screencaps from ‘TJRE’.
-
- April 11, 2013: Joe Rogan leaving a hotel in SoHo, New York City. Mandatory Credit: Curtis Means/ACE/INFphoto.com Ref: infusny-220|sp|U.S., UK, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND SALES ONLY. Featuring: Joe Rogan Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 11 Apr 2013 Credit: ACE/INFphoto.com **U.S., UK, AUSTRALIA, NEW ZEALAND SALES ONLY.**
-
- Jack O’Connell arrives for the 24th GQ Men of the Year Awards in association with BOSS at Tate Modern, London, UK,Image: 629912371, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: James Shaw / Avalon
-
- West Hollywood, CA – Kim Kardashian rocks an all-black ensemble as she exits Craig’s after dinner with her family. Pictured: Kim Kardashian BACKGRID USA 5 JUNE 2021 USA: +1 310 798 9111 / usasales@backgrid.com UK: +44 208 344 2007 / uksales@backgrid.com *UK Clients – Pictures Containing Children Please Pixelate Face Prior To Publication*
He is the reason I canceled Spotify. It’s despicable to pay this man to spew misinformation & hate.
He is the reason my default is Apple podcasts whenever I want to tune in to a podcast that’s on multiple platforms. Never Spotify.
Same. I am only one person but not one penny of mine will go towards shit like that.
I cancelled after the grifter comment was made.
Same – I can’t stand the idea of propping him up however peripherally with pennies from my subscription, so that was cancelled a ways back.
He is gross, and I wish he would stop talking and ride off into the sunset already… instead we get this new massive contract which will only inflate that ego even further. Ugh, bad move for humanity, Spotify.
So gross, Spotify. And supremely irresponsible, to give a platform to his hateful BS.
Horrible actions committed by his listeners who are inspired by his drivel will be on your hands, Spotify folks.
And yes, I’ll be cancelling my subscription now.
Spotify is not better off without the Sussexes. But they are better off without Spotify. At some point, Rogan will say or do something massively embarrassing, and Spotify will have to do clean up.
Let’s hope he spends some of that money on researchers because at least twice in recent months his producer had to pull Rogan up on air about clips that were either fake or misinterpreted by him.
My husband unfortunately is a huge Joe stan (it’s so depressing). It’s the only podcast he will listen to, and he will not hear one bad word about his middle-aged white bro. We’ve had numerous arguments about Joe’s propensity for misinformation (especially around COVID) and he defends him like family. Just recently, he mentioned to me in passing that the US made a massive accounting error and gave Ukraine too much money. Straight away, I thought “that sounds like some Rogan-type bullshit right there”. When I challenged this, he was about to show me the source (had the feeling he couldn’t wait to defend his buddy in baldness) until I quickly googled it and proved him wrong right away.
Rogan 100% intentionally caters to the right-wing conspiracy nutters, and sadly there’s so many of them lapping it up, keeping him at the top of the charts.
This is probably why Meghan and her team chose not to make a statement or push back in any way when Spotify cancelled her pod last year. They likely knew Spotify was going in this direction and knew it would come out eventually that they were going to put all their chips in on Rogan. Why bother trying to defend against any of that hot garbage? I don’t blame them for not getting into a tit for tat with a company that had – as you said – clearly made a choice and with one of its executives Skip Bayless who clearly has a problem with successful women (he also slammed Taylor Swift attending KC Chief games – calling her a distraction 🙄).
Who says Spotify cancelled it? Who is to say that Harry and Meghan didn’t decide to leave? Based on Spotify’s reaction, I’d say the latter is far more likely.
Where is this narrative that Spotify “cancelled/pulled their contract” coming from? If H+M leaving Spotify had been Spotify’s decision, do we really believe that the organisation or its representatives would have thrown SUCH a massive public tantrum? It is far more believable that Harry and Meghan decided NOT to continue with Spotify, as so many other talent have done.
Am I the only person who sees all this as a sign of weakness in Spotify’s position—maybe even a sign of desperation? The podcast golden goose is getting leaner? The article hints at this: “The new deal is emblematic of shifting economics in podcasting, which has matured in both audience reach and advertising spending since Rogan’s last deal. Spotify is working to revise the terms of its deals with top talent so that shows are distributed on several platforms to maximize their audience and ad sales, rather than requiring exclusivity. It is also aiming to pay smaller minimum guarantees and emphasize revenue sharing, a model that helps share risk with talent.“
They’re saying outright that they can’t get any more audience or ad revenue for Rogan through Spotify. At the same time, what they are getting for Rogan is important for their bottom line, so they don’t want to let him go. So, they’re going to sell Rogan as a product to other platforms and split some of the revenue with him.
If I were as protective of image and content as are H&M, I wouldn’t want a deal like that.
Lots of people make lots of money producing crap. It’s also puzzling to me how Real Housewives of Wherever and Bachelor Whatnot are still popular.
This is exactly right. Spotify is a business. Not a business that caters to me, but still. I guess they figure this is the demographic they are trying to please, and the Sussex’s and Obama do not fit the profile.
God knows the Daily Wire is making money hand over fist. There is a huge audience out there for this type of content.
I mean I guess I’d also say I’ll never listen to Spotify again, but so what? I’m not who they are going after.
Who is this ugly guy!?
Wasn’t Archetypes originally delayed? I thought that there might have been an issue with Rogan’s anti-vaccine stance. I seems the Sussexes may have had “conversations” with Spotify about that?
Capitalism. I can’t stand Rogan but the truth is he has one of the most if not the most listened to and streamed podcasts. He’s been No. 1 in the US and globally for four straight years. It’s not shocking that Spotify is giving him big bucks – they make a lot of money off him.
This guy. Ugh. I just can not stand him.
$250M?
His cult of listeners must buy every item his show advertises.
Seeing this jerk getting that kind of money is disgusting to me.
Actually I read somewhere that right wing audiences are WAY more supportive of their content creators than left wing audiences. So it would not surprise me if his audience does in fact buy all the crap.
Not saying that’s a good thing, but it sure makes it profitable to cater to them.
The same was said about lobbying. NRA supporters will write in every month, to anyone important. Gun ban supporters will write in after a big shooting and then forget about it, John Oliver did an episode about it.
Current incarnation of Rush Limpballs.
I have been unfortunate enough to know about Joe Rogan since the Kevin and Bean morning radio show in the early 2000s.
He has been the same person in all that time: someone who thinks believing in conspiracy theories makes you smarter than everyone else. Someone who watches obscure YouTube videos and parrots them as fact.
He is nothing more than the stoner burnout 20 year old that still lives with his parents and is only impressive to 14 year old boys. The only difference is Spotify gave him a platform and the 14 year old boys got older but not wiser.
@Slush
You have perfectly summed up the conspiracy theory demographic.
This part especially “someone who thinks believing in conspiracy theories makes you smarter than everyone else”.
They are as thick as the wall but think they’re more intelligent than “the sheeple”.
100% right on, Slush. Especially “the 14 year old boys got older but not wiser”… your reminder of the Kevin & Bean show really took me back this morning too… yikes. Has anything really changed since those days?
I have been unfortunate enough to know about Joe Rogan since the Kevin and Bean morning radio show in the early 2000s.
He has been the same person in all that time: someone who thinks believing in conspiracy theories makes you smarter than everyone else. Someone who watches obscure YouTube videos and parrots them as fact.
He is nothing more than the stoner burnout 20 year old that still lives with his parents and is only impressive to 14 year old boys. The only difference is Spotify gave him a platform and the 14 year old boys got older but not wiser.
Ironically, I was about to purchase a pair of Roka sunglasses this morning. Then while reading product reviews I saw someone mentioned a Joe Rogan discount code. Turns out you can get a juicy discount and you can even check out Joe’s favorites on their website. So, unfortunately for me, I won’t be getting a pair of really cute and functional aviator sunglasses that I wanted. I won’t give my very hard earned cash to a company that is pleased to associate themselves with this person.
Ugh, gross. Spotify is a Swedish company and it’s nice that women get treated well in Sweden, but it really sucks that Spotify doesn’t extend that curtesy to Rogan listeners.
Any woman who listens to Joe Rogan is hearing exactly what she wants to hear. All of his listeners are. No one is being forced to listen to this guys podcast.
Rogan is one of the reasons Brene Brown stopped producing her two shows for Spotify.
Anyone who listens to Rogan is an immediate red flag. I’m single and if the man says anything about Rogan, I’m out. I was thinking about getting a membership to a float spa. It was veteran owned and operated (I’m a vet so I try and support when I can). But they bragged about Rogan and Dave Ramsey being their biggest inspirations on their website. Hard pass.
He really is the new Rush Limbaugh. My previously left wing mother and step father listen to and know quote shit they heard on his show. . They have become anti vax and always tell me “I need to do my research”. My step dad is now reading R Kennedy’s smear book on Dr. Fauci. Urgh I can’t…I’m so afraid for this next election.