Joe Rogan says Spotify is “getting its sh*t together” to compete with YouTube

Joe Rogan has said that Spotify is “getting its sh*t together” when it comes to hosting podcasts, as his fans continue to adjust to JRE episodes being available exclusively on the audio streaming service. 

The Joe Rogan Experience has, perhaps unexpectedly, grown to be one of the most listened-to podcasts in the world. The ex-MMA commentator has featured some of the world’s biggest celebrities, including Kanye West, Elon Musk and Miley Cyrus.

Given its popularity, many were shocked when it was announced, at the back end of 2020, that the podcast would be moving exclusively to Spotify, making the switch from its previous home on YouTube.

Clips from episodes can still be posted to YouTube, but the episodes in their entirety are only available on the streaming platform. However, many have argued that listening to podcasts on Spotify is not as refined and user-friendly as it could be.

Rogan himself addressed the problems in a recent episode with Hamilton Morris, with the pair discussing how user-friendly Spotify’s podcasts are (or aren’t), especially when compared to its major competitors.

Rogan’s guest, Morris, pointed out some of the issues he’s had with the Spotify experience specifically, “This is the one thing that worries me about the move to Spotify. On YouTube, I could just fast-forward over a moment like this.” He also pointed out that he couldn’t increase playback speed, like you can on YouTube.

• Read More: Why are there rumors that Charli D’Amelio died?

“Spotify is slowly but surely getting its sh-t together, when it comes to video playback and stuff,” Rogan said. “It’s not as smooth as it probably should have been when we first transitioned over in December, but [Spotify] just wasn’t ready for the volume.”

He previously highlighted the famous Elon Musk meme, in which the tech billionaire was pictured smoking marijuana on his podcast. The image, and attached video clip, went viral. As a result, Spotify now allow podcasts to be played as videos, but the video player, some have argued leaves much to be desired. Comments, too, are not yet available to users.

That’s something Rogan wants to see change, though: “That’s where YouTube shines over all over forums, is that they have that comments section, and I think Spotify needs to recognize that, and I’ve tried to talk to them about that, and there’s been some discussion about putting comments, but one of the things they said is: “if we put comments on one podcast, we have to put them on all podcasts.””

Whether Spotify will move to accommodate Rogan’s wishes remains to be seen but, given the multi-million dollar investment the podcast constituted, we wouldn’t be surprised to see a ‘Comments’ feature on the audio streaming service soon, as well as improved playback and fast-forwarding abilities.