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The Media

Joe Rogan is Moving His Podcast, One of the World's Most Popular Podcasts, Exclusively To Spotify (variety.com) 146

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
"The Joe Rogan Experience," one of podcasting's longest-running and most popular shows, will be launching on Spotify exclusively this year. From a report: The Rogan-hosted comedy talk-show series will debut on Spotify on Sept. 1, 2020, on a nonexclusive basis -- before becoming exclusive to the platform later later in 2020 under the multiyear licensing deal. With Rogan, Spotify has landed one of the podcasting biz's whales. It currently ranks as the No. 2 most popular show on Apple Podcasts (after Barstool Sports' "Call Her Daddy"), per Podcast Insights. A source familiar with the deal said Rogan became sold on Spotify's ability to build his audience worldwide, after initially resisting distributing the podcast on the platform because he saw it as primarily a music service. In addition to the podcast, JRE also produces corresponding video episodes, which will also be available on Spotify as in-app "vodcasts." Rogan announced the deal on social media Tuesday, touting Spotify as "the largest audio platform in the world." Marco Arment of Instapaper and Tumblr fame, who also built podcast app Overcast, which supports every podcast and is vocal supporter of open podcasting system, said in a tweet, "What Joe Rogan is going to find out -- after it's too late -- is that moving an existing, open, free show behind a proprietary wall results in massive audience loss. I hope he at least leaves his public feed up so he can return to it when his Spotify exclusivity fails."

UPDATE: The deal is a multiyear licensing agreement that will likely be worth more than $100 million, according to The Wall Street Journal, though the exact amount is not yet known. The length of the agreement is also unknown. Spotify "wont have any creative control over the show," Mr. Rogan said on Instagram. "They want me to just continue doing it the way I'm doing it right now. We will still have clips up on YouTube but full versions of the show will only be on Spotify after the end of the year."
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Joe Rogan is Moving His Podcast, One of the World's Most Popular Podcasts, Exclusively To Spotify More

Joe Rogan is Moving His Podcast, One of the World's Most Popular Podcasts, Exclusively To Spotify

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  • Good for him. (Score:3)

    by hiroshimarrow ( 5489734 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @02:29PM (#60079576)

    Bad for the internet. Just another move to further fracture the internet into many paid services... welcome to cable internet bundle 2.0!
    (does not include any existing cable internet bundle 1.0 content; cable internet 3.0 content will not be included and may be purchased separately)

    • Bill Maher and Howard Stern did the same thing when sensitive people became offended at their speech. Didn't seem to hurt their careers in the slightest.

      • I'm not saying it will hurt his brand nor his career... It will likely be good for it, such as it was with Bill Maher, Howard Stern, Ninja, Pewdiepie... It just keeps on fracturing the internet into smaller paid pieces.

        • The alternative is that Youtube is a monopoly. It was the same with Stern and ClearChannel.

        • Re:Good for him. (Score:5, Insightful)

          by The New Guy 2.0 ( 3497907 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:14PM (#60079756)

          We're right now in a point where...
          If you buy Comcast's bandwidth, you get free Peacock service.
          If you have AT&T's higher cell phone plans, you get free HBOgo.
          Disney doesn't have much last-mile serivce, but is still selling Disney+ with Hulu and ESPN+ together.
          CBS is moving shows such as Star Trek spinoffs to CBS All Access...

          Seems like we're going to need five separate packages to watch everything soon...

          • People were complaining about cable bundles, and begging for a'la carte options. Now we enter the phase where people complain about a la carte. In a few years, guess what ... we're be back to complaining about bundles.

            • In other words, people complain a lot.

          • Seems like we're going to need five separate packages to watch everything soon

            Don't know about you, but I've got one single package that lets me watch all of them on any platform: It's the "Yo Ho Ho" package. [youtube.com]

            Then again, most of the current stuff isn't even worth watching.

          • We're right now in a point where... If you buy Comcast's bandwidth, you get free Peacock service. If you have AT&T's higher cell phone plans, you get free HBOgo. Disney doesn't have much last-mile serivce, but is still selling Disney+ with Hulu and ESPN+ together. CBS is moving shows such as Star Trek spinoffs to CBS All Access...

            Seems like we're going to need five separate packages to watch everything soon...

            Perhaps it's time to leave the boob tube and learn to take walks, to join a "After supper hobby club (dancing, painting, exercise, education, etc.). Going out will get rid of your high blood pressure couch belly.

      • Bill Maher and Howard Stern did the same thing when sensitive people became offended at their speech. Didn't seem to hurt their careers in the slightest.

        Bill Maher got fired (and I think so did Howard Stern). Maher was thrown a life-preserver by HBO (which has admittedly worked out pretty well for him).

        But in Maher's case, it was in no way his decision to move to HBO. It was an act of desperation. I don't know about Stern. I find him generally pretty boring, unlike Maher.

        • No way did Howard Stern get fired from Clear Channel. In fact, they were so desperate to placate him, they were switching station formats from music to talk just to try to satisfy his demands that they expand his number of markets. I forgot the station in Austin, but I remember when it abruptly changed and didn't even have programming lined up for the rest of the day. The local management had no input on the decision making.

          • If I recall correctly Stern didn't get fired he got offered boat loads, something silly like 50M/yr to be the anchor show for Sirius.

            • This is correct. For his last year on terrestrial radio, he was talking about his future move to Sirius.

          • Stern was bundled with "rock" stations over the air... as that format failed due to lack of money, most of his affiliates don't exist anymore. Now, SiriusXM bundles him with talk by his staff and friends.

        • Uh, Maher left Politically Incorrect on ABC with the audience wanting more...

          Uh, Stern was dropped from Clear Channel because CBS wanted swearing so he could be measured by FCC complaints... but don't forget Clear Channel and SiriusXM are almost entirely co-owned. (1% of the latter left on the NASDAQ)

        • Did Maher piss off his lefty base and they canceled him.

          They eat their own.

          • He ticked off his advertisers for some comments he made about 9/11 hijackers. It had nothing to do with people calling in and complaining.

        • I don't know about Stern.

          He was offered a gigantic payday by Sirius.

      • Bill Maher and Howard Stern did the same thing when sensitive people became offended at their speech. Didn't seem to hurt their careers in the slightest.

        Howard Stern has become everything he once ridiculed in a broadcaster. Time to retire, Howie.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      On the one hand we don't want GOogle to control everything. On the other hand we can't be bothered to leave youtube.com.

  • Good, the more that leave Youtube the better (Score:5, Insightful)

    by schwit1 ( 797399 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @02:30PM (#60079588)

    Youtube has become a bully as its gotten bigger.

    • He should leave the Google/YT ecosystem entirely.

      They've pulled several of his shows, the most noteworthy being an interview with Jordan Peterson. No explanation from Youtube of course, and no recourse. (We all know *why* that happened).

      • He should leave the Google/YT ecosystem entirely.

        They've pulled several of his shows, the most noteworthy being an interview with Jordan Peterson. No explanation from Youtube of course, and no recourse. (We all know *why* that happened).

        Why did it happen?

        • Re: (Score:3, Interesting)

          by garett_spencley ( 193892 )

          I might give Google and YT the benefit of the doubt and dismiss claims that they have any sort of biased agenda.

          However, managing a content platform of their size isn't easy. Moderating that content for TOS compliance is a massive undertaking. So much of it is automated, and much of it has to be relegated to the way that many laws work.

          For example: every municipality that I know of has a noise pollution ordinance. But the cops don't drive around responding to every observed scenario where someone has a radi

          • I might give Google and YT the benefit of the doubt and dismiss claims that they have any sort of biased agenda.

            YT isn't biased toward anything but profits. They are entirely driven by the whims of big advertising. The ironic thing about ad-pocalypse thing is that it wasn't YT at all. The Nabiscos, Pepsis, etc. got word that their ads were showing along side controversial / "offensive" content and they told YT to fix it or they'd walk with their advertising $. For the creators that lost ads, you lost them because big advertising decided they didn't want their ads with your content.

            I put "offensive" in quotes up there

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sl3xd ( 111641 )

      I suspect it's more that the advertisers who actually pay the bills for Youtube are making more demands -- as they do with TV, Radio, and print media.

    • Google's mistake was becoming a publicly traded company... so many investors looking for max profit forgot to keep Google being good.

      • Google's mistake was becoming a publicly traded company... so many investors looking for max profit forgot to keep Google being good.

        I'm sure the billionaire founders are really upset over this.

  • Joe Rogan? (Score:4, Funny)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @02:30PM (#60079590)

    He was pretty good as part of the NewsRadio ensemble. Does he make his own duct tape in real life, though?

  • Won't Spotify want him to close his own website? They seem to prefer exclusive content. How does cutting off people who don't want to pay for the podcast increase his audience? Expect a noticeable drop in his audience once the show is Spotify exclusive. I certainly won't be listening anymore.

    • Re:Entering the walled garden? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by ShanghaiBill ( 739463 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @02:51PM (#60079676)

      How does cutting off people who don't want to pay for the podcast increase his audience?

      He is not trying to increase his audience. He is trying to increase his paycheck.

      I certainly won't be listening anymore.

      Since you are unwilling to pay for his content, why should he care?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

        He gets income from ads. YouTube pays him when people watch ads along with his videos.

        He does care about audience size.

        • He gets income from ads. YouTube pays him when people watch ads along with his videos.

          He does care about audience size.

          I have a feeling he did the math and the Spotify option came out ahead.

      • How does cutting off people who don't want to pay for the podcast increase his audience?

        He is not trying to increase his audience. He is trying to increase his paycheck.

        If he doesn't increase his audience size, then won't Spotify at some point drop him? Why keep paying someone when that person won't grow Spotify's revenue?

      • I suppose ad revenue is probably way down though in the wake of the Corona virus.

      • He is not trying to increase his audience. He is trying to increase his paycheck.

        You know that for sure? Maybe he is just branching out to ensure he keeps having one.

        Maybe Rogan is ready to tell Susan "microagressions" Wojicki to fuck off with her ever authoritarian policies, arbitrary demonetization, secret lists of no-no words, and the three-strikes Sword of Damocles that can take a channel down overnight.

        Maybe Spotify is just a better platform, offers more stability, and gives Joe more creative license to say what he wants without the limits of being 'advertiser friendly'.

    • Re:Entering the walled garden? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by garett_spencley ( 193892 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:01PM (#60079708) Journal

      Agreed. I've been listening to his podcast on YouTube. If those uploads stop then I'll have to stop listening because I'm not going to subscribe to Spotify just for his podcast. Another user replied to yours asking that if they're not paying customers why should he care? I was self-employed for 15 years in a "free content" industry and I would care. I value every single visitor, paid or otherwise, who could give me free word of mouth advertising, or increase my ad numbers, or might buy merch at some point in the future etc.

      • What is the difference? Spotify is as "free" as youtube is. It is ad-supported but you can pay for ad-free if you like.

      • Agreed. I've been listening to his podcast on YouTube. If those uploads stop then I'll have to stop listening because I'm not going to subscribe to Spotify just for his podcast.

        He said his podcasts will still be free. So you'll just need a Spotify account to access the sevice, but not pay for it.

      • Re:Entering the walled garden? (Score:5, Informative)

        by phalse phace ( 454635 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:26PM (#60079802)

        I'm not going to subscribe to Spotify just for his podcast.

        Here is what he posted on his Instagram account [instagram.com]

        Announcement: the podcast is moving to @spotify!

        Starting on September 1 the podcast will be available on Spotify as well as all platforms, and then at the end of the year it will move exclusively to Spotify, including the video version.

        It will remain FREE, and it will be the exact same show. It’s just a licensing deal, so Spotify won’t have any creative control over the show. They want me to just continue doing it the way I’m doing it right now.

        We will still have clips up on YouTube but full versions of the show will only be on Spotify after the end of the year.
        I’m excited to have the support of the largest audio platform in the world and I hope you folks are there when we make the switch!

        • His shows will also be on torrents - so you don't have to register on spotify, you can just download them and watch them.
          They are FREE anyway as Rogan said (as commentator above pointed out), so you won't even be doing anything "illegal".

    • Some people don't want to be #2 in the world of podcasting... they'd rather shrink their audience when that happens. Less world impact for mistakes plus money too? What a deal!

  • Intentives (Score:3)

    by Dutch Gun ( 899105 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @02:51PM (#60079678)

    A source familiar with the deal said Rogan became sold on Spotify's ability to build his audience worldwide

    Uh huh... I'm sure it had nothing to do with the bulging sack of money they handed to him. I have no problem with people making money, mind you. I'm just amused at the silliness they (or their proxies, in this case) spout after cashing in on such a deal. Just once I'd like to see someone answer honestly.

    • Seriously. If he came out and said, "I need another Japanese import speed racer car, so I took the Spotify deal", I would respect that answer. All this schmoozing BS is so easy to see through.
    • Uh why else would he want to grow his audience. I do think this was pretty honest and transparent. Bullshit would have been something like "I want to improve the listener experience." He was pretty direct.

  • WTF is he trying to "prove"?

    Aren't Podcasts on Apple's service free-to-publish? Afterall, Apple doesn't actually host the Podcast; it only serves as a "Directory Service".

    Makes no sense to me. Just like Trump.

  • ...without getting recommendations for Joe Rogan? Nothing against him, but I'm into other things. However, every third video it recommends is a Joe Rogan video. I've literally NEVER watched one, so why does their algorithm keep trying?

    In any case, good for him. More and more of the content creators I do watch are making their own ads since YouTube isn't paying them squat any more. Maybe I'll check him out in September!

  • I got Joe's best work from a torrent yeas ago, Good Times, Good Times...

  • Spotify has all podcasts free with no subscription, has always been that way. What walled gaden?
  • Presuming a good percentage of Rogan's listeners stop listening once Spotify starts charging for access.

  • The article talks specifically about YouTube and Spotify. People here who apparently currently listen to Rogan seem to be talking specifically about YouTube. However podcasts are generally platform-agnostic - like the summary says, Rogan is the #2 podcast on Apple Podcasts... and that's certainly not YouTube. Other podcast networks like TWiT put their stuff on YouTube and have their own sites, but they still let you subscribe via good ol' RSS.

    So does this "exclusive" mean it will *only* be on Spotify, and n

    • That is what "exclusive" means, yes.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by ruddk ( 5153113 )

      From what I read, the full version will only be on Spotify and perhaps the back catalog will be pulled from the old platforms.
      It's a bit of a shame. Now I only listen to 2% of his podcasts if I think there is someone on I find interesting. That usually reveals itself within the first 5 minutes.

  • Rogan doesn't need more listeners, he wants more money. Good for if he can get it.

    Though Sirius eventually merged with XM. Is Stern still on it? Actually, is Sirius XM still a thing? i haven't heard about either in years.

    • Yep, Stern is still kicking on SiriusXM. Channels 100 and 101 if you're interested. :) IMHO satellite radio is 1000% better than over the air radio. I haven't listened to "regular" radio in years (save for the local traffic/weather report). It's probably a combination is shitty local channels plus the sheer amount of different types of shows/music on satellite.

      • My recent Honda EX radio has an interesting feature... I told it I care about Boston weather/traffic... and no matter what I listen to, an icon appears when it has heard Boston come up on the 1st Traffic and Weather channel shared with two other cities I don't care about, and produces a perfect clip. When that report is over, it returns me to my last listened SXM channel without being touched. Really cool.

      • IMHO satellite radio is 1000% better than over the air radio

        There are a million free options for internet "radio". I can't understand why someone would pay $20 / month for it. I pay $9 / month for YT music, and I get radio and on-demand whatever I want, no ads.

  • a podcast is just an mp3 + and rss feed. How exclusive can that be? I find it weird that people don't download their podcasts. I mean that's the whole point. if you're streaming it you only have limited control. Why do that when there are 1000 great podcast apps that will manage the files for you and will thus work everywhere and anywhere.
    • I never download podcasts, except just about 30 minutes before a flight takes off. I use an app, I subscribe to way more podcasts than I'll ever listen to, and when I want to list to a podcast, I grab one from that group that sounds interesting (a topic, a guest, etc). I see no reason to download thousands of podcasts a month when I won't listen to them all. I listen to exactly one podcast regularly, the rest I hit from time to time as I feel like it.

    • Uh, that's not true anymore. iHeartRadio calls its on-demand streams "podcasts", but you can't take them outside the app. Spotify apparently does the same thing. It's really case that this guy is leaving one set of apps for another.

    • I find it weird that people don't download their podcasts

      The data ends up on your device one way or the other. What's the difference if you listen to it while it's being downloaded or after?

  • Big Rogan fan... (Score:5, Interesting)

    by erp_consultant ( 2614861 ) on Tuesday May 19, 2020 @03:36PM (#60079844)

    I enjoy listening to and watching his podcast. While not being a huge UFC fan I do enjoy the variety of other guests that he brings in. Rogan and his guests allude to this sometimes as it is becoming more and more apparent that YouTube (read Google) is an internet bully. Demonetizing channels they don't agree with is the equivalent of getting fired without just cause. Some of the guests on his show have had this happen to them on their own podcasts. Videos are routinely getting banned for "violating community standards" whose rules are as vague as it sounds.

    I suspect that Rogan simply sees the writing on the wall and is jumping ship before his channel gets pulled. On one of his recent podcasts he talked openly about leaving California for Texas. Spotify is probably paying him a boatload of cash and giving him the artistic freedom that he used to have at YouTube but is increasingly slipping away.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Luthair ( 847766 )
      The demonitization is as a result of advertisers not wanting their names & products in anyway way tied to cranks. Google isn't a charity despite their free hosting of video content. The channels are free to go out and sell advertising on their content themselves, many channels do this.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Uberbah ( 647458 )

        The demonitization is as a result of advertisers not wanting their names & products in anyway way tied to cranks.

        Then Youtube wouldn't be promoting CNN and MSDNC over independent channels, after pushing the Russiagate hoax so heavily for so many years.

    • Videos are routinely getting banned for "violating community standards" whose rules are as vague as it sounds.

      I keep hearing that but I've never heard of anything other than AJ being banned. Got some links? I'd be curious to see what type of content they are actually banning.

  • to closed platforms. Fuck Spotify.

    • I wouldn't exactly call Youtube an "open" platform anymore.

      Joe is a comedian, his friends are comedians, and blue checkmarks don't have a sense of humor.

  • But this is a bummer. I'm a cheap bastard, so I rely on YouTube -- at least until it censors itself to death. I have no care to use Spotify, not even for Joe.
  • This seems very reminiscent of Stern and other disk jockeys moving to satellite radio, 20-years ago. While free in this case, many listeners/viewers are not going to sign-up for a free account at Spotify, and ultimately placing the content behind a barrier will quicken cultural irrelevance as it did for Stern and others.

  • The definition of Podcast kinda includes that it's audio files downloaded via information given in an RSS-feed.

  • Who? (Score:2)

    by nagora ( 177841 )

    And why should I care?

  • They will upload his shows on torrents even though they are free on spotify. A lot of people that would prefer to download the show instead of registering and using spotify, me included. So this is inevitable.
    So the only thing that will happen is it's going to be slightly less convenient to share and watch, and youtube is going to loose a lot - makes me a happy man, considering their censor position, and bullying.

  • Similar move made Howard Stern completely irrelevant

    It's like Mariah Carey singing to the sheikh for a billion dollars. Very few will here, she is rich

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