Spotify boss breaks silence on Joe Rogan’s new $250 million deal

Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has broken his silence on Joe Rogan’s new deal with the streaming platform as the Joe Rogan Experience is no longer exclusive to Spotify. 

Back in May 2020, Joe Rogan announced that his Joe Rogan Experience Podcast would be going exclusive to Spotify and no longer being uploaded to YouTube, Apple, and everywhere else it was previously. 

The massive deal prompted a few changes from Spotify too, including a video element. While they haven’t had creative control over the podcast, a number of episodes from Rogan’s back catalog aren’t streaming on Spotify. Additionally, amid controversial comments over the global health situation, some episodes are now hit with a disclaimer. 

There had been talk that, when Rogan’s contract was up in early 2024, he’d be leaving Spotify for good. However, that hasn’t been the case. The UFC commentator penned a new multi-year deal worth a reported $250 million in early February – a $150 million increase on his initial deal. 

Spotify CEO talks Joe Rogan’s new $250 million deal

That deal, which is only being described as “multi-year” in length, will allow Rogan to upload episodes of The JRE to other platforms once again – which had been rumored shortly after his episode with Elon Musk.

With such a hefty price tag put on the deal, Spotify losing the exclusive rights to Rogan might be seen as a negative move by some. However, that’s not the case with CEO Daniel Ek. 

“By broadening distribution, we think we can accomplish a number of different goals. Most notable among them, we are going to be aligned with the creator,” Ek told Spotify investors on February 6. “The creator wants to be on many different platforms and wants to have as big of an audience as possible.” 

The Spotify CEO has been a fan of Rogan for quite some time, defending the podcast host amid controversies as well. 

With the JRE going back to other platforms, he may no longer dominate the Spotify charts as he has for the last four years, but it is still going to be absolutely massive.