Joe Rogan Re-Signs With Spotify For $250 Million

Joe Rogan re-signed with Spotify on a new multi-year deal. 

The Wall Street Journal reports the contract is worth up to $250 million, between a minimum upfront guarantee and potential revenue shares based on ad sales.

Rogan signed a fully guaranteed deal with Spotify in 2020 for $200 million over three and a half years. The original deal was set to expire in 2024.

"The new deal is emblematic of shifting economics in podcasting, which has matured in both audience reach and advertising spending since Rogan’s last deal," adds the WSJ report. 

"Spotify is working to revise the terms of its deals with top talent so that shows are distributed on several platforms to maximize their audience and ad sales, rather than requiring exclusivity. It is also aiming to pay smaller minimum guarantees and emphasize revenue sharing, a model that helps share risk with talent."

In addition, there will be a change in distribution.

Spotify will distribute the podcast more broadly, including on YouTube. Currently, the show is exclusive to Spotify with one-two clips per episode on YouTube.

OutKick projected this would be the type of deal Rogan signed. From our story in November:

My guess: Rogan re-signs with Spotify on a truncated deal, one for less (but still a substantial amount of) money that also allows him to monetize his episodes elsewhere.

A deal in which Spotify has a 24-hour window to exclusively stream each episode of JRE before X, Apple and YouTube do could prove adequate for both sides.

That way, Rogan retains the stability of an uncensored platform while increasing his visibility and Spotify keeps the leading podcaster under its umbrella but at a lower cost.

Not bad, huh?

Spotify similarly abandoned the exclusive distribution model with the hit podcast "Call Her Daddy," which is now available on Apple Podcasts as well.

Ultimately, releasing Rogan’s podcast more broadly will increase downloads and thus ad sales revenue. That’s a win for Rogan.

However, Apple could wrest back market share with the addition of Spotify-operated podcasts. Spotify was able to surpass Apple to become the second most popular podcast-listening platform by exclusively streaming hit shows. 

YouTube remains No. 1, as shown below:

It’s unclear what other options Rogan had, outside of Spotify.

He has a long-standing relationship with Elon Musk. Musk has made podcasting and video streaming for X, recently signing deals with Don Lemon, Tulsi Gabbard, and Jim Rome. 

Rogan would have been a home run singing for Musk. 

But with X continuing to struggle with monetization and sponsorship revenue, a $250 million deal was never in the cards.

The further investment into Rogan also shows Spotify is serious about doubling down on what's popular and eliminating what's not. Spotify is not in the business of pandering. 

If it were, it would not have dropped Jemele Hill and Michelle Obama last year, two hosts who did not deliver a return on investment.

Overall, Spotify was the best of both worlds. The platform provides Rogan with the greatest financial opportunity while also allowing him to maintain his editorial independence. 

Spotify does not interfere with Rogan’s show. It lets him be Joe Rogan. The service stood by him during Covid, when he was the target of several bad-faith smear campaigns.

"Spotify has hung in with me, inexplicably," Rogan said at the time.

Thus, the partnership continues.