Whether it be smoking a blunt with Elon Musk, discussing religious and presidential motives with Kanye West or talking American policy changes and endorsing an ex Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, Rogan is known to have some of the most influential people appear in his podcast. With recent news on the multi-year deal worth $100m (£77 million) struck with the streaming behemoth Spotify who became the primary platform for the podcast on September 1st. The Joe Rogan Experience is expanding its sphere and as such; with great power, comes along greater responsibility and even greater controversies.
During his podcast with Dan Carlin, Rogan talks about building his podcast from the ground. When he first started on Ustream on December 24th 2009, he used to average 200 viewers per live show. However as reported by The Business Insider, the podcast has been downloaded roughly 190 million times per month in 2020. Jordan Peterson who was on the Joe Rogan Experience, commented on the impact of Rogan’s podcast “Spoken word is now as powerful as the written word and it has never happened before in human history”. Peterson described Rogan as “damn smart, and tough as a bloody boot and asks very provocative questions” when describing his success in the podcast world.
When Tom Green asked Joe Rogan on his podcast about his influence and opinion being projected towards his audience, Rogan stated that he does not have an agenda but just wants to talk with his friends and if he did have an agenda it would be that he just wants people to do better, himself included.
Not A Political Platform?
“I do!” Tweeted US President Donald Trump, when asked about joining a debate alongside former Vice President Joe Biden and moderated by Joe Rogan.
However, Rogan may not be the ideal impartial moderator after stating on “The Joe Rogan Experience” with Lex Fridman that he would rather vote for Donald Trump over Joe Biden due to the latter having “some form of dementia”.
This does not come as a surprise, as Rogan has talked about his lack of political awareness and how one should never look to him to decide their political opinions. “Your friends who don’t know much about fighting and they will say something like I think Bruce Lee could kick Jon Jones ass, That’s me with politics, Don’t listen to me for political advice,” Rogan said during his podcast alongside Fridman. “I’ve been a liberal my whole life, I just look like a republican” claimed Rogan as he talked with Jimmy Dore on the Joe Rogan Experience.
Spotify, A New Partnership
Spotify signed a licensing deal to air “The Joe Rogan Experience”, connecting the interviewer to its 286 million active users reported the Los Angeles Times.
The deal did not come without any criticism as according to music writer Ted Gioia this means “Spotify values Rogan more than any musician in the history of the world” or as according to the BBC News on Tom Gray, director of the royalties, music copyright and licensing society, PRS for Music said, “Joe Rogan just got paid the equivalent value of over 26 billion streams for a podcast licence.”
Rogan announced the integration of his podcast with Spotify on Instagram as “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”
During his podcast with Bill Burr, Rogan addressed his deal with Spotify and how it will not have any major implications on the show, however, many right-wing fans of the podcast have been showing dissatisfaction towards the censorship of content on Spotify after episodes featuring controversial right-wing guests appeared unavailable on the platform.
Alex Jones, who has since been banned from all major tech platforms including Spotify, appeared delighted to be allowed back on a relatively mainstream outlet, telling Rogan: “You got a huge audience, we can really change the world right now.”
Why do the Joe Rogan Experience?
During his podcast episode with Annie Lederman, Rogan compares his podcast to a religion, “you look at the teaching of Christ or the teachings of Moses or you look at what Ronda Patrick said was this, or what Graham Hancock was talking about there” and it represents his quest to figure out his own life and publicly explains what he learned or failed at and how he got better and it helps other people to feel that they are not alone. As Rogan said “The beautiful thing about podcasting is it’s just talking. It can be funny, or it can be terrifying. It can be sweet. It can be obnoxious. It almost has no definitive form. In that sense, it’s one of the best ways to explore an idea.”
References:
BBC News. 2020. Bernie Sanders Faces Ire Over Joe Rogan ‘Endorsement’. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-51241462> [Accessed 1 November 2020].
BBC News. 2020. Spotify And Joe Rogan Under Fire Over Alex Jones Role. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-54733252> [Accessed 3 November 2020].
BBC News. 2020. Why Joe Rogan’s Exclusive Spotify Deal Matters. [online] Available at: <https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-52736364> [Accessed 30 October 2020].
Canivete, C., 2020. Bloomberg — Are You A Robot?. [online] Bloomberg.com. Available at: <https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-09-14/trump-says-he-wants-a-4-hour-debate-moderated-by-joe-rogan> [Accessed 27 October 2020].
Holmes, A., 2020. Joe Rogan’s Podcast Is Moving Exclusively To Spotify — And It’s The Platform’s Latest Addition To The Podcast Empire It’s Building To Compete With Apple And Google. [online] Business Insider. Available at: <https://www.businessinsider.com/joe-rogan-experience-podcast-spotify-exclusive-2020-5?r=US&IR=T#:~:text=The%20Joe%20Rogan%20Experience%20has,on%20the%20platform%20before%20now> [Accessed 1 November 2020].
Maiberg, E. and Koebler, J., 2020. Joe Rogan’S Endorsement Of Bernie Sanders Is One Of The Most Influential In America. [online] Vice.com. Available at: <https://www.vice.com/en/article/jgep94/joe-rogan-bernie-sanders-endorsement> [Accessed 1 November 2020].
Reilly, N., 2020. Joe Rogan Signs With Spotify For Exclusive Podcast Deal. [online] NME Music News, Reviews, Videos, Galleries, Tickets and Blogs | NME.COM. Available at: <https://www.nme.com/news/music/joe-rogan-signs-with-spotify-for-exclusive-podcast-deal-2672515> [Accessed 4 November 2020].
Sakoui, A., 2020. Spotify Faces New Scrutiny After Joe Rogan’s Alex Jones Interview. [online] Los Angeles Times. Available at: <https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/business/story/2020-10-28/spotify-faces-new-scrutiny-after-joe-rogans-alex-jones-interview> [Accessed 2 November 2020].
Speare-Cole, R., 2020. Trump Says He Wants Joe Rogan To Host Election Debate Against Biden. [online] Standard.co.uk. Available at: <https://www.standard.co.uk/news/uk/joe-rogan-donald-trump-debate-joe-biden-a4547811.html> [Accessed 3 November 2020].
Stone, A., 2020. Why Is ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ Podcast So Popular?. [online] Showbiz Cheat Sheet. Available at: <https://www.cheatsheet.com/entertainment/why-is-the-joe-rogan-experience-podcast-so-popular.html/> [Accessed 29 October 2020].
the Guardian. 2020. Joe Rogan Hosts Alex Jones On Spotify Podcast Despite Ban. [online] Available at: <https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2020/oct/28/joe-rogan-hosts-alex-jones-on-spotify-podcast-despite-ban#:~:text=When%20Rogan%20signed%20the%20deal,m%20doing%20it%20right%20now.%E2%80%9D> [Accessed 4 November 2020].
Twitter.com. 2020. Twitter. [online] Available at: <https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1305487258036781056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1305487258036781056%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2020-09-14%2Ftrump-says-he-wants-a-4-hour-debate-moderated-by-joe-rogan> [Accessed 3 November 2020].
White, A., 2020. Joe Rogan’S Spotify Move Condemned Over ‘Right-Wing Censorship’ Claims. [online] The Independent. Available at: <https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/tv/news/joe-rogan-experience-spotify-missing-episodes-censorship-alex-jones-milo-yiannopoulos-a9700006.html> [Accessed 30 October 2020].
Videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ceItMiYZe9Y (Joe Rogan Experience with Dan Carlin)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F0OL9H5Mgys (Joe Rogan Experience with Tom Green)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2O-iLk1G_ng&feature=emb_title (Joe Rogan Experience with Bernie Sanders)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP8mqzIym0o (Joe Rogan Experience, current state of politics)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g4OJooMbgRE (Joe Rogan Experience with Lex Fridman)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ_9hQxYHcI (Joe Rogan Experience with Annie Lederman)
Images:
Image 1: Quah, N., 2020. Joe Rogan’S Podcast Is Moving To Spotify. [online] Vulture. Available at: https://www.vulture.com/2020/05/joe-rogan-podcast-spotify.html [Accessed 2 November 2020].
Image 2: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1305487258036781056?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1305487258036781056%7Ctwgr%5Eshare_3&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bloomberg.com%2Fnews%2Farticles%2F2020-09-14%2Ftrump-says-he-wants-a-4-hour-debate-moderated-by-joe-rogan> [Accessed 3 November 2020].
Image 3: Adage.com. 2020. Spotify Inks Exclusive Deal With ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ Podcast. [online] Available at: <https://adage.com/article/digital/spotify-inks-exclusive-deal-joe-rogan-experience-podcast/2257836> [Accessed 5 November 2020].
Image 4: https://www.instagram.com/p/CAYSqQLFP_l/?utm_source=ig_embed
