(They currently don’t have anything else in development with Spotify, someone familiar with the matter confirmed.) The Obamas, whose 2019 deal was rumored to be in the same general ballpark, have produced a few compelling shows, including one podcast hosted by Michelle Obama and another in which Barack Obama teamed up with Bruce Springsteen. Harry and Meghan have produced a lone 33-minute holiday special since inking a reported $25 million Spotify contract in December 2020. Part of that has to do with the reality that the company’s other big-ticket deals just simply haven’t gained the same traction. The Joe Rogan Experience, which debuted in the earlier and comparatively quaint podcasting era of 2009, towers over its Spotify peers. In the words of one seasoned audio industry insider, having Joe Rogan “is like dropping a Taylor Swift album every day. Spotify needs him way more than he needs Spotify.” (Spotify didn’t have a comment for this story.) But all of that is part of the appeal for Rogan’s loyal army of superfans, many of them young and male, which is what makes him so valuable to a company whose success depends on attracting large numbers of engaged paying subscribers. It’s a face that comes with voluble “anti-woke” bona fides a hyper-macho sensibility somewhere between MAGA and Bernie Bro and, most problematically, a warm embrace of vaccine skepticism.
With his outsize media footprint, no-fucks-given hosting style, and an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, Rogan is, like it or not, the face of Spotify’s podcasting play. Content, of course, has a tendency to court controversy, and Rogan is now giving Spotify more controversy than it bargained for. The strategy was a means to attract new customers while showing Wall Street a path forward that didn’t involve siphoning roughly 70% of Spotify’s revenues back to the music industry. They also embarked on a series of mega deals for high-wattage talent, signing the Obamas, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and, of course, podcasting phenomenon Joe Rogan, who entered into an exclusive licensing agreement for a reported $100 million. The audio gold rush was well underway, and Spotify mined its riches with a push into podcasting, acquiring Gimlet Media, Parcast, and The Ringer.
After radically reshaping how we listen to and purchase music, in 2019 Spotify set its sights on new conquests.
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