Joe Rogan’s Spotify deal expires in 2024. Will he stay, or will he go to another platform like YouTube?
This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more. --- For all of the changes Spotify has gone through over the past year, there is still more to come. Those three-year podcast deals the company struck are coming up for renewal, and what Spotify decides to do with them could have reverberations across the industry. The Joe Rogan Experience — the first, the biggest, and the most consequential — will expire in 2024.
According to YouGov, Rogan’s listeners are overwhelmingly young men, many of whom say they reject politically correct stances, don’t trust traditional media, and really, really love to work out. This is to say, he has a loyal audience who will follow him wherever he goes and are unlikely to have brand loyalty to Spotify. Rogan is the brand, and if he wants to expand that brand into a network, he has the money and influence to do so.