“Joe Rogan Experience”-a Spotify exclusive podcast.
Tuesday, 19th of May 2020
Probably the biggest news of the day in the entertainment industry is Joe Rogan’s announcement that his podcast “Joe Rogan Experience” is moving to Spotify, and by the end of 2020 will become exclusively available on the platform. Surprising as it might have been for some, the news is actually something that has been speculated recently, and it was more a matter of “when , not if”. Time to find out why is that, and see what each one has to win and lose from this deal.
Key Takeaways for the impatient ones
Joe Rogan’s “Jon Rogan Experience” Podcast will be an exclusive Spotify podcast starting from the end of 2020. Both Joe Rogan and Spotify are clear winners from this deal: Spotify gets a much-needed chunk of Rogan’s US following base, while Joe Rogan can get brand awareness and exposure outside the US through Spotify’s non-US subscribers.
UPDATE-(May 21st): Two days after the deal was officially announced, the first figures have also been speculated; the licensing deal might have cost Spotify around 100 million dollars. What seems to be a huge sum, it actually looks like a bargain after the price of Spotify stocks has increased about 15% two days after the deal was announced. In raw numbers, that translates to a rise of 4.8 BILLION dollars in the value of the company.
Just imagine if you spent 100 dollars and that turned into 4800 literally overnight! Now add a few more zeros in the equation, and that is exactly what Spotify did. Quite a good deal, huh?
Now some context
Spotify is best known as a music streaming service, which took form around 2008, and it quickly gained track and subscribers, soon to become the most popular service of its kind. But late In February 2019 things were about to change: in a press-statement titled suggestively “Audio-first”, Daniel Ek, Spotify’s founder and CEO announced his company’s next goal of “becoming the world’s leading audio platform”.
This statement was backed by the announcement of 500 million dollars worth of strategic acquisitions of podcasting companies Gimlet and Anchor. Gimlet being one of the best content creators in the world of podcasting, with an immense and proven success in the art of audio storytelling, while Anchor had been pioneering and facilitating the creation and distribution of podcasts through its app. These two companies have been dubbed by Spotify “best-in-class” and were crucial in Spotify’s plan to take the podcasting industry by storm.
The birth and rebirth of podcasting
Created around the release of the revolutionary iPod, the podcasting format saw a quick rise in popularity, and it was easy to see why: knowledge, comedy and regular interviews could go in the audio format, which was easy to play on the go thus offering an alternative to letting time pass by. And as with any trend or way of living, the podcast reached the so-called saturation stage and was probably heading towards the decline stage. However, starting from 2014 the podcasting industry (US stats) has seen a consistent rise in the number of listeners: in 2014 in the US were 24 million listeners, by 2018 there were 75 million and the most recent estimates suggest that by 2023 there will be about 164 million listeners. A deep ocean worth diving in, if we were to look at Spotify’s strategy. Even if you lived in a cave, there still is a chance that in the last 2 years you’ve listened to at least one podcast, be that Joe Rogan’s podcast or Uncle Joe’s gardening podcast.
The Joe Rogan Experience “Experience”
Gone are the days when the only search result on Spotify when searching “Joe Rogan” is going to be a podcast analyzing the actual episodes of the real podcast, which was not available on Spotify. Joe Rogan is a household name especially in the US, most notably for his podcast, but also a popular comedian, former reality show presenter and UFC commentator. But he is best known for his podcast show, where he has guests from all fields of knowledge, where they discuss absolutely everything from straight-facts to conspiracy theories: entertainment is guaranteed no matter what. In case you remember the video of Elon Musk smoking weed that went viral last year, that happened during the Joe Rogan Experience podcast, and he was one of Joe’s most famous guests. The podcast episodes usually last between two to three hours, which gives the listener enough time to realize the genuineness of the podcast host and its guests: arguments, debates, and criticism of world leaders and of recent events are a constant variable in this podcasts.
A matter of “when and not if”
Though some fans might be surprised of the move, especially after Joe’s constant criticism of Spotify’s business model, complaining that it doesn’t pay content creators enough, the decision actually seems realistic and logical. Spotify’s recent investments in the podcasting game of over half a billion dollars is one of the reasons, the other being that the platform is a great way for Rogan to expand his brand and his podcast outside the US. The “Joe Rogan Podcast” is so big in the US, that if you ask any American about Joe Rogan, almost every single one of them will know who he is and what his job is. That rule does not really apply outside the US, but things are about to change.
Joe Rogan’s benefits from the deal
With 286 million of active users out of which 130 are paying subscribers, Spotify has something big to offer Joe Rogan: the much-needed exposure outside the US. This was probably one of the biggest points on the agenda of this deal, and it’s easy to see why: in September 2019 only 44.7 million of Spotify’s listeners were from the US. Through the nature of the podcast, its genuine form and accessible content, the Joe Rogan Experience is quickly going to become a charting podcast in most countries around the world, without any doubt.
Spotify’s benefits from the deal
At the same time, Spotify has been facing stiff competition on the US market, and by 2019 it became the second most popular music streaming service after Apple Music took the first spot. They needed something to differentiate their product from the essentially similar competitor: and what better than an exclusive deal with the podcast creator?
The Joe Rogan Experience podcast is almost as an American of a product as Coke or McDonalds. It is synonymous with the American culture by now. Unlike Apple’s separate podcasting app, Spotify only has one app offering both podcasts and music, in an organized, carefully thought way. Now that the podcast will be exclusively on Spotify, it might spark the wind of change for the Apple Music subscribers. At the time of writing this, literally 2 hours after the deal was announced, Spotify’s shares have seen a slight rise. Becoming the world’s leading audio platform seems to be falling into place for the Swedish company.
The Loser
There are always winners and losers in business. And Apple is likely to be the loser out of this deal. A multitude of its Apple Music subscribers are likely to be listeners of Joe Rogan’s podcast. And the news of the exclusive deal might finally convince them to switch to its rival, Spotify.
The news of the deal leaves many of its followers in doubt: are we going to see any criticism done by its guests at the exclusive platform hosting its podcasts? Is this deal going to see Spotify’s subscribers rise drastically in the US, overtaking Apple’s? At the same time, is Joe Rogan’s podcast going to become a new worldwide brand, know everywhere from India to Portugal? Time alone will tell.
