Podcasting juggernaut Joe Rogan is taking his talents exclusively to Spotify. Rogan announced the move on Twitter on Tuesday, saying his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” will hit Spotify on September 1, before being exclusively available on the streaming service by the end of 2020.
Spotify will pay Rogan more than $100 million, the Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday afternoon.
Ironically, the deal comes after Rogan explained why his show — which generates about 190 million downloads each month — is not available on Spotify.
“We’re not on Spotify, and the reason why we’re not on it is because it didn’t make any sense. They were like ‘We want to put you on it, it’s gonna be great for you.’ And I was like, how is it great? You guys are gonna make money,” Rogan said in 2018. “You guys are making money and you don’t give us any.”
The video component of Rogan’s podcast will continue, but it will not be available on YouTube by the end of the year.
Spotify’s deal with Rogan comes as the streaming heavyweight has been looking to beef up its podcasting efforts in recent years. Just a few months earlier, Spotify acquired Bill Simmons’ sports and pop culture site The Ringer, primarily to tap into the company’s podcast network. The service, which has 130 million paying customers worldwide, has been aiming for high-profile podcasts that will continue to drive subscriber additions.
“We need to give [listeners] a reason to think of Spotify when it comes to podcasts,” one company employee familiar with their podcasting strategy told TheWrap last October. “And having shows they want and can’t find anywhere else is only going to help us gain more [users].”
Signing Rogan is certainly a coup for Spotify, with “The Joe Rogan Experience” routinely situated at the top of Apple’s podcasting rankings. Rogan’s podcast is also a cash cow, bringing in $30 million last year, according to Forbes, easily making him the top earner in the podcasting world.
