Dropped your Spotify (SPOT) subscription last month? The latest news in the Rogan saga may make some wish they could go back and drop it again — the music streaming platform reportedly paid not $100 million, but $200 million, for Joe Rogan's podcast.
Over the course of nearly two years, news reports widely circulated the $100 million number as what Spotify paid to get exclusive rights to "The Joe Rogan Experience." After coming to Spotify in May 2020, the comedian and former Ultimate Fighting commentator had amassed an audience of over 11 million listeners.
Still Haven't Heard About Spotify's Rogan Problem?
While Rogan's conservative views would prompt pushback from the beginning of his partnership with Spotify, "The Joe Rogan Experience" plunged the streaming platform into full-on scandal when rock and roll musician Neil Young asked for his music to be pulled over its decision to platform Rogan.
Getty/TheStreet
"They can have Rogan or Young' the singer wrote in a letter to Spotify on Jan. 25. "Not both." A child polio survivor, Young took Rogan to task for discouraging young people from taking vaccines and promoting the unproven ivermectin drug as a treatment for COVID-19 to an audience of 11 million listeners.f
Spotify chose to remove Young's music instead of deplatforming Rogan and, in doing so, brought forth a wave of people who unsubscribed in protest — at one point, Spotify reportedly replaced live workers with an automated response system due to the flood of people calling customer service with complaints. Other artists, including famed folk singer Joni Mitchell, also pulled their music from the platform in solidarity.
It Was Never About The $100 Million?
In deciding to quit the platform, some users felt that Spotify was prioritizing earnings over public health given the large size of its contract with Rogan. But as the New York Times reported on Thursday, the three-year podcasting deal negotiated with Rogan in 2020 was actually no less than $200 million.
"Although reported then to be worth more than $100 million, the true value of the deal that was negotiated at the time, which covered three and a half years, was at least $200 million, with the possibility of more, according to two people familiar with the details of the transaction who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss it," reads the report.
In coverage of the situation, Rogan's "$100 million deal", meanwhile, was widely reported in outlets from The Wall Street Journal to TheStreet — the number, which Spotify has not publicly corrected, was so widely known that right-wing Canadian video platform Rumble offered to match it two weeks ago.
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