Previous reports that the partnership was worth more than $100 million appear to have been grossly underestimated
Spotify’s exclusivity deal with podcast host Joe Rogan is now alleged to have been worth at least $200 million – a whopping $100 million more than previously reported.
Citing unnamed sources “familiar with the details,” the New York Times reported on Thursday that Rogan’s 2020 deal with Spotify – which was reported at the time to be worth more than $100 million – was actually worth “at least $200 million, with the possibility of more.”
The Times also reported that the deal is set to last three and a half years.
If accurate, the $200 million figure could explain why Rogan turned down a $100 million offer from Canadian video platform Rumble to ditch Spotify and join its site instead this month.
“How about you bring all your shows to Rumble, both old and new, with no censorship, for 100 million bucks over four years? This is our chance to save the world. And yes, this is totally legit,” said Rumble CEO Chris Pavlovski in an open letter.
Rogan declined the offer, commenting, “Spotify has hung in with me, inexplicably… Let’s see what happens.”
Rogan’s deal with the streaming service made headlines in recent months as critics tried to get him censored and booted from the platform for interviewing critics of Covid-19 vaccination and expressing unorthodox opinions on the coronavirus himself. Many episodes of Rogan’s ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ have been removed from Spotify due to backlash over his choice of guests.
Musicians Neil Young and Joni Mitchell pulled much of their work from Spotify last month in protest over Rogan’s show, with Young offering the platform an ultimatum that it was either his music or Rogan’s podcast, but not both.
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has argued that since his company is a service and not a publisher, it has no “creative control” over Rogan’s show and cannot “approve his guests in advance.”
“Because we have an exclusive deal with him, it’s really easy to conclude we endorse every word he says and believe the opinions expressed by his guests. That’s absolutely not the case,” Ek claimed earlier this month.
The CEO did claim, however, that there were “many things that Joe Rogan says that I strongly disagree with and find very offensive,” and he vowed to take “appropriate enforcement actions” if Rogan “violates our policies.”
