Joe Rogan renews Spotify deal, can stream show on other services

Spotify has signed a new multiyear deal with Joe Rogan that will allow the hit podcaster to air his program on competing platforms, the streaming company announced Friday.

“The Joe Rogan Experience,” which had aired exclusively on Spotify, will also soon be available on streaming services including Apple, Amazon and YouTube, the company said. The show “remains podcasting’s king, consistently ranking as the most-listened-to podcast globally,” the company said in a statement.

Spotify declined to comment on the terms of the deal. A Wall Street Journal report said the contract could be worth up $250 million over the life of the contract. 

Beyond his ability to air his show on other venues, Rogan will also receive a share of the revenue generated by his program, according to the newspaper, which cited people familiar with the terms. 

Known for giving a platform to conspiracy theories, Rogan and Spotify were accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 during the pandemic, prompting some musicians to pull their work from the service. 

Rogan has also hosted a range of high-profile figures, from scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson to Senator Bernie Sanders, creating more than 2,200 episodes that average two to three hours in length.

“I only have people on the show that I’m genuinely interested in talking to. I never do a podcast just because a person is popular. It’s always from a place of ‘I think it would be cool to talk to that person’,” Rogan wrote in a Spotify blog post. 

Spotify has more than 574 million users. Shares of Spotify were lately up 1.3% at $221.81, in keeping with market gains overall.