Mike Peterson
"The Joe Rogan Experience" will leave Apple Podcasts later in 2020 to become a Spotify exclusive, it was revealed on Tuesday afternoon.
One of the most popular podcasts that Apple hosts, The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), has long been unavailable on Spotify, despite being one of the most-searched-for podcasts on that platform. That's due to change on September 1, when Joe Rogan's talk show will move to Spotify as part of a multi-year exclusive licensing deal, Spotify announced in a blog post.
It doesn't appear that JRE will be pulled off of other platforms, like Apple Podcasts, immediately on Sept 1. Spotify said that it'll become an exclusive "later this year."
While past Spotify podcast efforts appeared to have been aimed at Apple, this one also seems to be directed toward YouTube. Joe Rogan is currently one of YouTube's most popular video podcasters, with 8.41 million subscribers on the platform.
YouTube will retain Joe Rogan's channel, but it won't feature full podcast episodes going forward. Along with the audio podcasts, Spotify itself will feature JRE video content as "in-app vodcasts." Spotify maintains that comedian and talk show host Joe Rogan will maintain creative control over the podcast.
The move is just part of a broader push from Spotify into the podcasts market. In February, those efforts appear to have paid off, with Spotify reporting a 200% year-over-year rise in podcast listening on its platform.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
Malcolm Owen
38 Comments
I wonder how much the recent censorship YouTube has been doing played a part in this decision?
Who....cares?
Umm...bye?
I'm sure this is an extremely lucrative deal for both him and Spotify, and I wish them well. I'd normally be against people doing exclusive deals like this, but I find it hard to care about this one.
I mean, he was good in Newsradio, but in real life he's a raving nutbag.[EDIT] Got my forum software confused again.