Polarising comedian Joe Rogan is the unofficial king of (controversial) commentary. His popular podcast The Joe Rogan Experience has seen him interview a slew of A-list celebs, from Kanye West to Mike Tyson. However, since he switched his The Joe Rogan Experience episodes from YouTube to Spotify in an exclusive deal, fans are questioning whether the shift has affected Rogan’s influence.
A fan took to Twitter with a Tweet that has ignited a conversation around whether the switch has impacted his relevance.
“Just realized that I haven’t heard a single Joe Rogan episode since he went exclusive to Spotify. I wonder what effect that has had on his audience… Am I in a tiny tiny minority, or is this more widespread? If it is, will it make it harder to get big stars to go exclusive?” She posted.
Just realized that I haven't heard a single Joe Rogan episode since he went exclusive to Spotify.
I wonder what effect that has had on his audience… Am I in a tiny tiny minority, or is this more widespread? If it is, will it make it harder to get big stars to go exclusive? — Liberty 💚🥃 (@LibertyRPF) March 15, 2021
The replies on her Tweet seem to suggest that many fans agree with the original post and are saying that they didn’t miss him as much as they expected.
“Reminds me of when Howard Stern went to Sirius in 2004. For a lot [of] people he simply disappeared, and they didn’t miss him as much as they thought they would. His audience shrunk and his net worth expanded. Traded cultural relevance for life-altering wealth,” one fan replied.
“Every time either I moved, or a radio host moved… Imus, Art Bell, several others… I thought they were critical to my media life and I’d be jonesing without them but I forgot about them in 48 hours,” said another.
Of course, the move from free streaming on YouTube to an exclusive deal with Spotify, doesn’t come without considerable financial compensation. In fact, according to Wall Street Journal, Rogan earned $100 million from the Spotify licensing deal for his podcasts. However nice the financial implications are, it does beg the question of whether the successful comedian has sold out by shifting his catalogue.
Despite the huge amount of money Rogan made from the deal, the original poster also bought integrity into the equation.
“Guys like him care first and foremost about reach and relevance and about the love of their audience, and it’s not like he wasn’t already making tens of millions and couldn’t have made more by having subscriptions on top of the ads,” she also posted on Twitter.
He used to have the biggest talk show in the world. https://t.co/MvGZ6riGl2 — Andrew Wilkinson (@awilkinson) April 17, 2021
There has been no data released by either Rogan or Spotify about how many streams his podcasts have received since joining the music platform, and that information can only be accessed by the creator. However, Spotify has shared that The Joe Rogan Experience was the most popular podcast on Spotify in 2020.
DianeMKS on April 20th, 2021 at 16:51 UTC »
I thought I would never stop listening. I was hard core. Sadly, even I am faltering. Imagine if your favorite coffee shop was right next to your office. You looked forward to that cup of joe every morning. One day, you realize the coffee shop moved a block away. You vow to be loyal. You get up earlier so you have time for your coffee. One day you oversleep and say fuck it. You get a Starbucks. You know what? It’s not that different. There are tons of Starbucks all over the place. You realize you don’t want to go out of your way for something that is pretty basic. Plus, Starbucks has a great app. You can order online and it can be waiting for you. Your old place attempted to have an app but it always crashed. 😂
ShanHu on April 20th, 2021 at 16:28 UTC »
So much so that I legitimately just asked myself,
“Why the fuck am I still on the Joe Rogan subreddit!?”
ParryThisYouBastards on April 20th, 2021 at 15:39 UTC »
Honestly barely ever listen anymore just because it’s not there in front of me and the guests haven’t been so interesting