Spotify Lands the Exclusive Rights to Joe Rogan’s Podcast

Joe Rogan’s podcast is going to air exclusively on Spotify starting in 2021, the host announced today, in a deal reportedly worth over $100 million. One of the most successful podcasts in the world, it’s a high profile acquisition for Spotify and its podcasting division, reminiscent of when Howard Stern left terrestrial radio for Sirius in 2005. Rogan’s show will premiere on Spotify on September 1, and continue to be available there and through other traditional outlets through the end of the year, at which point it will exclusively be available through Spotify. That includes video, too—some clips will still be posted to YouTube, but the full shows will only be found through Spotify.

If you’re a listener to The Joe Rogan Experience, that means you’ll have to subscribe to Spotify to keep hearing it. If you’re a Spotify subscriber, that means your monthly fee will partially support a show that helps disseminate conspiracy theories, has hosted Sandy Hook truther and all-around conspiracist Alex Jones of Infowars on two episodes, and whose host has made transphobic remarks in the past.

If you only remember Joe Rogan as the Tony Danza-like guy from Newsradio, or the host who made people eat bugs on Fear Factor, and have no idea how he somehow has a sizable influence upon the national conversation decades later, don’t worry—we’re right there with you. If you went back to 1996 and asked us to pick one Newsradio cast member who’d have a podcast with millions and millions of listeners in 2020, first off we’d need you to explain what a “podcast” was, and then we would’ve picked Phil Hartman, Dave Foley, or Andy Dick, in that order. It’s a good thing we don’t gamble when it comes to entertainment mediums that don’t exist yet.

Here’s Rogan’s announcement about the deal from Instagram. Again, it starts in September, with his shows making their Spotify debut, and then the exclusivity window kicks in at the end of the year—in case you’re wondering when you need to sign up or cancel your subscription.