So this is something that a lot of our clients have talked about during the last 24 hours time.
So we will break down the deal for you into detail here and give you our opinion on this move, both from Spotifys side and from Joe Rogans side.
So the deal is record breaking for both parties.
It is said to be worth a ball park 100 million dollar in total.
So here are the pros for Spotify in this deal.
No1: They get the biggest podcast out there and they get the full library material from the podcast,dating back almost 11 years.
No2: They get a guy with a lot of hardcore fans, and many of them will sign up for a Spotify subscription in the beginning.
No3: They are making a market splash with this kind of groundbreaking deal.
And here are the cons for Spotify in this deal with Joe Rogan.
No1: They are buying on the top so to speak, the podcast in peaking in everybody’s mind that knows showbusiness inside and out.
And it is very likely that the podcast in on its way down from this record breaking level that the podcast is on today based on viewer count, for no other reason than people get bored pretty quickly and that happens with everything sooner or later, and the feeling is that the show is peaking or even have peaked.
No2: The questions here is how many people will actually sign up for a Spotify subscription , even if they like the Joe Rogan show.
So this is a big gamble where the hope is that it will pay off but it is a 50/ 50 coin toss in our minds, because people do not like to pay even if the price is 10 to 15 dollars a month, if they are used to watching something for free on You tube.
No3: We do not believe that Spotify really understands that a lot of people just watch the JRE clips on You tube and not the full podcast that can be up to 3.5 h in some cases.
The risk here is also that if clips are allowed on to You tube, many of the potential subscribers to Spotify might just watch the clips of the JRE on You tube instead of signing up.
So giving the rights to JRE to put up clips onto You tube does not seem like a smart business idea from the Spotify deal makers side.
And the question here is based on certain things that Spotify has done in the past, have they really ran the numbers on how many are just watching the clips and how many are actually watching the whole podcast.
No4: Spotify takes a huge risk in paying Joe Rogan so much money that others will also ask for a raise.
Considering that Spotify is known not to pay the talent very well in most cases.
So it is a little bit like opening up the Pandoras box, when this kind of money comes into play.
No5: Booking new interesting guest?, because the podcast is on so much it becomes harder and harder to find new guests for the show.
And even if it is fun to see Bravo and Schaub from time to time, having them on so often also proves that it is difficult booking interesting guest also to the JRE show as well as for many other shows and podcasts out there
So here is then the pros and cons for Joe Rogan with this Spotify deal.
No1: SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!, so this one is quite simple actually this was to much money to turn down, Joe will create generational wealth with this deal and his grandchildren are set for life.
No2: He gets even more evidence that he is the king of podcasts right now in the whole world, which will boost his ego even further.
No3: You tube has started to demonetize his shows when the topic is sensitive in the mind of You tube.
And the hope that Joe has is that Spotify will allow him to make the show on his own terms, without having to take You tube into consideration, as it stands right now.
Now the chances for this is slim, since Spotify is a publicly traded company and they need to be very careful on what they put out there.
So Joe will be censored also on Spotify, and it will be subliminal asks, like do not talk about that topic PLEASE!.
No4: Joe will become more legit and that could mean more A-list celebrities onto the show.
No5: He can stop working for the UFC if we wants to, he has made f#ck you money.
Here are the cons for Joe Rogan with the Spotify deal.
No1: He will lose a lot of viewers, by moving from Youtube to Spotify this will be a guaranteed.
This is the same for all things that are free first and then later you have to pay for the same service.
No2: He will have to stop drinking and smoking on the show(he now works for a publicly traded company).
It simply will not be accepted, to continue doing so on the show.
No3: He will get issues getting certain people on to the show, who maybe came on because it was a bit underground ,but now when it is part of a large cooperation that might not interest all guests.
No4: Having bosses will be a difficult transition, because nobody and we mean nobody pays 100 millions dollars and does not get any control over the product, regardless what is said to the public when a deal like this is signed.
And these will be bosses that are anywhere from 10-20 years younger than Joe is.
No5: This is a big one, what happens? if there is a falling out between Joe Rogan and Spotify during the next few years.
Let us for the sake of the argument say that the viewers drop by 70% over a 3 years period, will Joe be able to buy his show out from Spotify and go back onto You tube on his own?.
So as the deal stand today, this is a good deal for both parties, but it has certain risk associated with it too, for both parties.
So there is no clear winner in this deal at the moment.
Both parties get what they want out of this deal, Joe gets generational wealth coming from a humble upbringing that is a huge thing.
Spotify gets to make a large splash on the market and this can drive up the stock price short term at least.
So no Joe Rogan is not selling out, he s cashing in at the peak of his career and he is giving up a lot of control over his life regardless f we understand that or not.
The one final note in all of this is that sometimes Spotify has issues with the layers of Audio, and this is a bit scary to us, when you consider how easy it is to just watch JRE on You tube these days with great audio from Young Jamie, as the sole technician behind the JRE show
Thank you for reading.
Mrlifeadvise.
