One of the most popular podcasts worldwide, the Joe Rogan Experience, is going exclusive to Spotify.
“Starting on Sept. 1, the entire JRE library will be available on Spotify as well as all the other platforms. Then somewhere around the end of the year it will become exclusive to Spotify, including the video version of the podcast,” Rogan told his audience in a clip posted to the platform’s ‘For the Record‘ blog. “It will be the exact same show. I am not going to be an employee of Spotify, we’re going to be working with the same crew, doing the exact same show, the only difference will be it will now be available on the largest audio platform in the world. Nothing else will change. It will be free.”
The Joe Rogan Experience, which launched in 2009, is somewhat of a phenomenon in that it’s the leading show on most podcast platforms and has helped propel podcast destination listening on YouTube where the former stand-up comic and Fear Factor host has a huge following of more than 8.4 million subscribers.
In the 2019 Canadian Podcast Listener survey, The Joe Rogan Experience showed up in the top three across Apple Podcasts, YouTube and Spotify. Rogan topped YouTube listens at 21.4%, while This American Life was the most-frequently named listen on Apple Podcasts at 6.0%, followed by Rogan at 5.1%.
The Rogan deal is the latest in a series of big moves by Spotify to establish itself as the leading platform in the podcast space. In addition to acquiring Gimlet Media, Anchor, and Parcast last year, it’s also signed exclusive big gets like Amy Schumer and Barack and Michelle Obama’s Higher Ground Productions. It will also give a huge boost to Spotify’s in-app video podcasts or “vodcasts,” which it recently started testing with YouTube stars Zane Hijazi and Heath Hussar.
Jeff Vidler, one of the architects of the Canadian Podcast Listener survey, describes the Rogan acquisition as “ginormous.”
“To put it in perspective, in The Canadian Podcast Listener 2019, The Joe Rogan Experience delivered more than three times the monthly reach of the #2 podcast. It immediately establishes Spotify as the leading platform in the podcast space. By also securing exclusive video rights, it also launches Spotify as a competitor to YouTube. Joe Rogan episodes consistently get between one and three million views on YouTube,” said Vidler.
James Wallace, Head of Digital, for Broadcast Dialogue, Momentum Media Marketing, and Radioplayer Canada, suggests that Rogan could become to Spotify what Howard Stern’s move to SiriuxXM was in 2006.
“Spotify now takes on both Apple Podcasts and YouTube head on. YouTube would have been gathering significant revenue from Rogan in ad revenue. It recently signed an exclusivity deal with PewDiePie and I can’t imagine they did not approach Rogan with a proposal or that offers were not tabled,” mused Wallace. “Will Spotify use Rogan as a draw for paid subscribers to their platform? We would expect that to be the case. This is a very significant move by Spotify and they will grab more.”
According to the latest user data, Spotify is estimated to have carved out a 36% market share of the 305 million streaming service subscriptions globally. Apple comes in second at 18%, followed by Amazon at 13%, and China’s Tencent Music at 10%.
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