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Joe Rogan was already making hefty bank off the success of his podcast brainchild, “The Joe Rogan Experience,” but the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) color commentator’s bank account is about to explode. That’s because Rogan signed a lucrative licensing deal to have his podcast stream exclusively on Spotify (in late 2020) that is reportedly worth in the neighborhood of $100 million, according to Wall Street Journal.
The podcast can currently be found on Apple iTunes and YouTube, and will continue to do so for the next few months. Later this year, however, it will move exclusively to Spotify. While the exact date for the permanent move is unknown at this time, all of the show’s previous content will be on Spotify starting Sept. 1, 2020.
“Hello every body, I have an announcement. The podcast is moving to Spotifiy,” Rogan said in an Instagram video post. “I signed a multi-year licensing agreement with Spotify that will start on September 1. Starting on September 1, the entire JRE library will be available on Spotify, as well as all the other platforms. Then somewhere around the end of the year, it will become exclusive to Spotify, including the video version of the podcast,” he added before assuring everyone that nothing about the show itself will change.
“It will be the exact same show. I am not going to be an employee of Spotify. We are going to be working with the same crew doing the exact same show. The only difference is that it will now be available on the largest audio platform in the world.
“Nothing else will change, it will be free to you,” he continued. “You just have to go to Spotify to get it. We are very excited to begin this new chapter of JRE, and I hope you are there when we cross over.”
“The Joe Rogan Experience” is one of the most-downloaded podcasts in the world, so it’s no surprise to see Spotify step up to the plate with a huge offer to steal Rogan — as well as his millions of listeners — away from Apple.
As far as Rogan’s UFC career, that will still continue to go strong and retiring from the fight game is something that isn’t crossing Rogan’s mind at the moment. That’s because the promotion has cut back on his duties and traveling obligations thanks to the addition of some help in the form of Dan Hardy, Dominick Cruz, Paul Felder, Daniel Cormier and Michael Bisping.