Podcasts, Spotify and Joe Rogan Experience
Joe Rogan recently signed a multi-year licensing deal with Spotify that defines a shift in the podcasts spectrum. The deal will make The Joe Rogan Experience — which Rogan launched in 2009 — available exclusively on Spotify. For a lot of people who don’t care about podcasts it might just seem to be a case of an international company wanting monopoly on a famous commodity. Well, that might be true but this deal might just be the biggest milestone in audio yet.
Why JRE?
Joe Rogan Experience is downloaded over 190 million times a month and is described as “one of the last bastions for civil discussion in contemporary America". It generally features intellectual conversations with scientists, comedians and famous individuals including Elon Musk and Edward Snowden to recreational usage insights and wild conspiracy theories with Mike Tyson and Eddie Bravo.
Rogan is a stand up comedian and a mixed martial arts commentator. He started commentating for mixed martial arts promotion company Ultimate Fighting Championship in the late 90s. Hence, on his show he regularly interviews and hosts Fight Companion ‘watchalongs’ with popular MM artists, wrestlers, and athletes.
Clearly, JRE is a very popular podcast but is it worth dishing out a reported $100 million deal for Spotify? It really comes down to how podcasts make money. For fans of the show shifting the podcast entirely to Spotify from YouTube including the video version seems like just another instance of capitalism showcasing its true colors. However, it is simply much bigger than that.
Advertising on Podcasts
Google Podcasts, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher and other audio apps deliver podcasts directly via RSS feeds freely without having exclusive ownership of any of these. Podcasters make money by advertising. The advertisements are often minute long audio bytes by the artists about businesses or companies that offer discounted prices for listeners. But there is a general flaw in that idea. The companies that advertise on these pods are usually regional to the artists.
For instance if you are listening to a popular crime podcast in India and there was a minute long break where the host reads ads about stamps.com or Cooler King e-bikes which have businesses in USA or UK, you’d just not be in the loop. And that is where Spotify sees a marketable application. This obviously won’t be the case if there are more podcasts closer to home. But people tend to listen to podcasts that are top of the charts and because Spotify doesn’t own exclusivity over a lot of popular podcasts, the advertisements can’t be changed to accommodate personalized data. Spotify reportedly spent over $500 million dollars in 2019 to boost its ad business.
“Spotify clearly wants to be the biggest name in audio and it’s banking on users to pay for it with their data.”
Daniel Ek, CEO of Spotify said just like with music — podcast listeners should expect “curation and customization that users have come to expect from Spotify. We will offer better discovery, data, and monetization to creators.” The message is clear, Spotify wants to be the biggest name in audio and it’s banking on users to pay for it with their data. This is an effort to make better purchasing and production decisions so that it attracts the biggest audience.
Indian Podcasts
Spotify Originals
Another idea is simply promoting original content. Spotify Originals like Zindagi Unplugged and Special Mission with Gul Panag have regularly featured on the app’s podcast charts in the country. Even though most people would rather just listen to the popular worldwide podcasts, indie content would always find itself a niche audience. The app also added content from radio channels Radio City and Big FM, and Aawaz.com, an Indian podcasts and spoken-word audio network. All of this is available exclusively on the platform.
Of course, all the talk about Spotify Originals can’t take anything away from the ‘OG’ Indian comedy podcast scene. Cyrus Broacha started Cyrus Says in 2015 and is produced by Indian podcast network IVM Podcasts.
And lest we forget the All India Bakchod podcast that started back in 2012 and was uploaded on SoundCloud. That was probably India’s only out-and-out crass and half-baked comedy pod. And of course, with the current political climate, it doesn’t exist anymore.
Why are Podcasts So Popular?
Reading this article in its entirety might seem like a task if you haven’t just sat down for some crispy podcast insights. But if someone like Morgan Freeman or David Attenborough would read it out loud to you while you were working out or completing chores at your house, you’d be in for a treat and would want the next episode immediately. And that’s why podcasts are the buzzword of 2020.
Multitasking and Podcasting
In the US, 22% of listening happens while driving.
According to another study, 4% of listeners do so when working out, or cooking (50%), or simply relaxing before going to bed (51%).
A Podcast For Everyone
I like listening to podcasts over music while running or working out. Music is a popular alternative too, but zoning out of a repetitive playlist space is easy. That won’t necessarily be the case with an interesting pod. Also, podcasts offer something primitive — live chat. And that’s more or less it. Podcasts are like reading a blog, watching a YT video or surfing reddit or all at the same time while listening. And there’s an audience for almost every kind of topic. There are so many different categories and genres today. And it’s ever growing.
