Spotify’s $100 M Investment in Joe Rogan May Be a Massive Failure
Joe Rogan is a man of many talents. He’s an actor, standup comedian, MMA enthusiast, and television host. Over the past 20 years, he has worked in the entertainment space in some capacity, always with varying degrees of success.
Still, Rogan’s most popular contribution to the world of pop culture is undoubtedly his groundbreaking podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. In 2020, Rogan migrated to the Spotify platform after a highly-publicized deal that saw Rogan make some major coin. Many fans questioned the move, and according to recent reports, the deal might not be nearly as successful as either Rogan (or Spotify) predicted.
What is Joe Rogan best known for?
Rogan first rose to prominence in the mid-90s, when he became an interviewer and commentator for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). By that time, Rogan had been working as a standup comedian and actor for several years, performing in and around New York City.
In 2001, Rogan landed a job as the host of Fear Factor, a position that he retained for five years.
By 2009, Rogan was an established personality and host — but it wasn’t until later that year that he launched The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, a project that was responsible for making Rogan a superstar. Rogan’s podcast became wildly popular, and in the years that followed, he earned hundreds of thousands of listeners.
Rogan has been praised for his willingness to listen to guests who have very different viewpoints, welcoming everyone from Kanye West to Jamie Foxx and Mike Tyson.
Joe Rogan signed a lucrative deal with Spotify in early 2020
Over the years since it first debuted, The Joe Rogan Experience has become one of the world’s most prominent podcasts, listened to by people on platforms like YouTube and SiriusXM. Still, in May 2020, fans were blindsided when Rogan revealed that, by the end of that year, he would be taking his podcast exclusively to Spotify. Reportedly, Rogan made around $100 million in the deal.
Many fans were not thrilled with the move, with some longtime listeners moving to Reddit to discuss Rogan’s Spotify deal.
“I have been listening to JRE since the webcam snowflake days and there is simply no reason for this decision other than money. A true sellout moment from one of my long time idols,” one fan detailed.
Still, Rogan insisted that the move would be a good thing, overall, and stated that he would retain creative control over the podcast and its content.
Is Spotify losing money from their deal with Joe Rogan?
Those fans who were angry at Joe Rogan for moving his podcast to Spotify might be validated after reading a recent report from Digital Music News. The report states that Rogan could be losing prominence, as Google searches for “Joe Rogan” and other associated keywords have dropped by 40% since the announcement of the Spotify deal.
While Spotify doesn’t disclose listener data, and it is impossible to truly predict what the audience for The Joe Rogan Experience looks like now, it seems as though Rogan might have reason to be concerned.
Fans on Reddit discussed the new report, with one fan writing “He got a huge bag for this deal but I don’t know, he’s kind of tanking his brand, although alot of that was happening before anyway. I started noticing him being out of touch more about 3 years ago-ish and his guest selection just keeps getting lamer.”
Another detailed how “he was getting like 1 million plus views per episode even with lame guests. Big guests would get like 4 million…He’s gone WAY WAY down since the move. It’s been a disaster.”
Ultimately, with Rogan and Spotify remaining mum on the subject, it is all up to speculation.
