9 months ago
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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.
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Featuring: Joe Rogan
Where: New York City, New York, United States
When: 11 Apr 2013
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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

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