Spotify Adds $1.7B To Market Cap In 23 Min Post A Deal With Joe Rogan, World’s Leading Podcaster.
The streaming giant Spotify gave 100 million reasons to Joe Rogan to make a move. Though the details of the deals are not disclosed, The Wall Street Journal reported that Spotify is entering in an exclusive licensing deal with Joe Rogan, owner of the world’s leading podcast worth more than $100 million, a move directly aimed at podcast market leader Apple.
Spotify stock shot up on the announcement of the deal and the founder Daniel Ek is now worth $2.8 billion.
Why it matters
This is a landmark move for the medium. According to Neilsen, most Americans subscribe to only one audio subscription service but this trend can certainly change if more podcasts prefer to offer exclusively on certain platforms.
- “The Joe Rogan Experience” features long talks between Rogan and celebrities, subject area experts, comedians, and more. It is the second most popular podcast on Apple’s platform.
- Launched in 2009, the podcast was labelled independent and video versions are streamed on Rogan’s YouTube channel which has a loyal fanbase of more than 8.4 million subscribers and witnessed more than 100 million streams in March alone.
- According to MIDiA Research, the difference between Spotify and Apple as the leading podcast platform is so small that it can be considered within margin error.
Details:
The host Joe Rogan announced that the podcast will be available globally on Spotify starting September 1 and will become exclusive by end of the year.
What did he say:
“It will remain FREE, and it will be the exact same show. It’s just a licensing deal, so Spotify won’t have any creative control over the show. They want me to just continue doing it the way I’m doing it right now … I’m excited to have the support of the largest audio platform in the world and I hope you folks are there when we make the switch!” -Rogan on Instagram
- Spotify plans to incorporate video elements of the show that will be available as in-app vodcasts.
- Spotify will start selling ads in September through a partnership with PMM who is representing Rogan’s ad inventory over time.
- The popular comedy talk series will be available for free to all Spotify users like all podcasts on Spotify.
The bigger picture
Inking exclusive deals with leading podcast players is the latest strategy to woo more listeners. This could compel users to subscribe to multiple audio streaming services to access all favourite content.
- Spotify paid $196 million for Bill Simmons owned sports media company ‘The Ringer’ in February,
- Apple plans to fund and make podcasts for its own platform to promote its TV shows reported by Bloomberg earlier this year.
- Luminary expanded its services globally, bringing many exclusive podcasts to new regions.
Yes, this marks a significant moment for Spotify as it has invested over $500 million on acquiring podcast companies in the past one and a half years and has over one million podcasts on its platform. It also debuted ‘Streaming Ad Insertion’ which provides marketers access to insert host-read ads.
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About Neha Mehta
Neha started her journey as a financial professional but soon realized her passion for writing and is now living her dreams as a content writer. Her goal is to enlighten the audience on various topics through her writing and in-depth research. She is geeky and friendly. When not busy writing, she is spending time with her little one or travelling.
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