You feel that rumbling? Under your feet? It’s a paradigm shift in podcasting and it was felt around the world thanks to entertainment streaming giant, Spotify. The leaders of the playlist professionals went out, flashed the cash, and bought the rights to the biggest podcast in the world right now, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
For those who haven’t seen or heard “The Joe Rogan Experience,” it’s a conversation-driven podcast that tends to be a loose, rudderless flow, which also is the simplistic beauty of the show. The dialogue feels like two friends having a beer at the bar or even smoking a joint. Just ask our boy Elon Musk.
Rogan’s show has featured some of the biggest celebrities, politicians, and even scientists you can think of such as: Bernie Sanders, Kevin Hart, Robert Downey Jr., Mike Tyson, Neil Degrasse Tyson and countless others.
The biggest of guests come on to plug their own work for the views rather than the other way around. Needless to say, with the countless millions of views “The Joe Rogan Experience” gets per month, Spotify stood tall, emptied its coffers, and welcomed the juggernaut of the podcasting world.
ON THE WAY UP
“We’re in the growth stage, trying to capture that growth. Eventually we will get to more of a point of maturity where we’ll focus more on profit over growth, but for the next few years it’s going to be predominantly growth for us.”
daniel ek, co-founder and ceo, spotify
In a recent interview with CNBC, via Music Business Worldwide, Daniel Ek shared his thoughts on what brought this signing to the forefront of their needs. Known for being primarily a music streaming service, Spotify is on a mission to reach as many ears and eyes as possible. With their recent major additions, they’re on their way to not only competing with YouTube, but possibly surpassing them.
“We have a freemium model, you start out being free on our platform and eventually people move into being paid users – more than 60% of them,” he said.
“This is a great thing in an uncertain economic environment like this one, because if you’re feeling economic pain, you can easily go back down to the free service, then back up to the Premium service when you have the means to do so. We think that’s going to be a very strong competitive driver in an uncertain environment.”
HISTORIC CHANGE
Watching “The Joe Rogan Experience” closely, you see they worry about doing anything that may get them in trouble with YouTube. People in charge of JRE, specifically Joe Rogan, are vocal because YouTube doesn’t shy away from demonetizing videos at their discretion.
Don’t take it from me, your favorite YouTubers can attest to this. Here’s how it works:
- Post a video
- YouTube collects their money based on ad clicks and traffic
- Creator isn’t so fortunate
YouTube can take your video out of its algorithm, placing your hard work at the bottom of its suggestions. You do all that work and with one flip of a switch, your work disappears because YouTube may be done making money from it. Meanwhile, you’re looking for change.
What Joe Rogan did was create the valuable bartering chip. “You don’t want to give me money for all my content? Cool. what did I do with that Spotify phone number?” YouTube no longer holds all the cards. For that, all YouTubers are rejoicing.
Paying it…forward
Spotify has now done what people were hoping YouTube would for years — investing into the creators. This content prioritization has given creators as much free will as possible. Rogan now has complete creative control, which makes sense since this is called “The Joe Rogan Experience.”
If you ask any podcaster, vlogger, or Youtuber, creative control and brand investment is the biggest asset a company has to attract them. Making guaranteed money without giving up the integrity of your show is broadcasting Nirvana for them, and it’s finally here.
With YouTube, you make money strictly on your views, advertising, and merchandising. Spotify is exactly the opposite. Any content creator makes guaranteed contractual money as long as you keep doing you. The best part is Spotify launches video streaming in September, and that’s when “The Joe Rogan Experience” will be exclusively on Spotify. The ball is rolling now.
Spotify isn’t done expanding. In fact, they just started growing in the podcast world. So, who’s next?
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