Joe Rogan, a podcast host known for controversy, secures a lucrative contract with Spotify worth a potential $250 million.
Controversial podcast host Joe Rogan has recently entered into a new multi-year partnership agreement with Spotify. As a result, his highly popular show will soon be accessible on other platforms such as YouTube and Apple Podcasts, in addition to Spotify.
Spotify announced the renewed partnership on the company’s corporate blog on Friday. Under a previous multi-million dollar deal, “The Joe Rogan Experience” had been a Spotify exclusive since 2020.
The Wall Street Journal, which first reported the new deal on Friday, estimated the new deal to be worth up to $250 million over its multi-year term. It cited unnamed people familiar with the matter. The agreement includes an upfront minimum guarantee and a revenue sharing agreement based on advertising sales, the newspaper reported.
In an email to The Associated Press on Saturday, Spotify declined to comment on the financial details of the deal, including the estimated value.
Over the years, Rogan has developed a huge audience that listens to his long and wide-ranging interviews with a variety of guests, including comedians, athletes, scientists and conspiracy theorists.
“There’s no script of what we’re going to talk about, and everything just kind of happens in real time,” Rogan said in a Spotify blog post. “It’s just a real organic conversation with people who are enjoying themselves, which we can all relate to and which we all love to do. These conversations have changed the way I think about life immeasurably and continue to do so.”
The show is consistently Spotify’s most popular podcast, but is also often a source of controversy for the company. In particular, Spotify came under enormous pressure in 2022 to drop Rogan over his coronavirus vaccine comments and racial slurs, and some musicians, including Neil Young, pulled their music from the platform in protest.
In February 2022, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek condemned the host’s racist language, but said, “I don’t think silencing Joe is the answer.”
On Friday, Spotify’s share price rose $3.51, or almost 2%, to $222.47 per share.
