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The newly-minted richest man in podcasting seems a bit unhappy that the news came out when it did.
If you haven’t heard by now, UFC commentator Joe Rogan just signed a massive deal with Spotify to take his “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast there exclusively. The contract could max out at over 100 million dollars – a gigantic sum of money for that market.
The 52-year-old had a bit of a strange, albeit understandable, reaction to his new home. While speaking to The New York Times, he intimated that this all going down during the coronavirus pandemic might make him feel somewhat awkward:
“Weirdly richer. Like it doesn’t register. Seems fake.”
He went a step further while elaborating:
“It feels gross. Especially right now, when people can’t work.”
He goes into a lot of detail about the nature of podcasting and why he feels like it’s so popular in the full interview (which is definitely worth a read). But he ended with a humorous statement, which is a basically a response to the people questioning if he’ll have to change his content or format under the new Spotify umbrella:
“Why would I sell out now? You sell out to get what you want.”
The show moves over to Spotify on September 1st while still being up on other platforms. By the end of the year, it will be exclusive to the streaming company.