Spotify Technology made a big announcement last Friday. They’ve teamed up with comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan for several years. They want to use his popular show to make more money from ads.
The deal with Rogan could be worth up to $250 million. It includes a minimum payment upfront and then sharing the money made from ads. The Wall Street Journal reported these details, but Spotify didn’t confirm them. They only said the reported value was wrong and didn’t give the real number.
Joe Rogan’s podcast, called The Joe Rogan Experience, started back in 2009. Since 2020, it’s only been on Spotify, and it’s super popular worldwide.
Now, Spotify says they’ll let Joe Rogan’s show be on other platforms too, like Apple, Amazon, and YouTube.
Joe Rogan has talked to lots of famous people on his podcast, like movie director Quentin Tarantino, singer Miley Cyrus, and Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
Spotify, which is from Sweden, really wants to make more money from ads on their platform. They have something called the Spotify Audience Network to help podcasters and creators make money from ads.
According to Spotify, since Joe Rogan’s podcast became exclusive to their platform, lots more people are listening to podcasts there – 232% more! And they made 80% more money from ads last year compared to 2021.
Spotify started adding podcasts in 2015, but they got serious about it in 2019. They bought Gimlet Media and Anchor FM, two big podcast companies, and made deals with famous people like Kim Kardashian and Barack Obama. But now, they’ve changed their plans and let go of 200 Gimlet Media employees.