What is Spotify’s Endgame?

Big news out of Sweden this week. Spotify, everyone’s favorite audio streamer, has gotten exclusive rights to the number one podcast in the world, the Joe Rogan Experience (JRE).

This is a huge deal. Not just for Rogan, who will likely net over 100 million on the deal (exact numbers are not public), but for Spotify’s long-term ambitions. CEO Daniel Ek started talking in 2019 about the company’s strategy outside of music — “owning the ear,” as he has called it — but nobody thought they’d be this aggressive. They now own one of the top sports/culture networks (the Ringer), two high-level storytelling/internet/tech networks (Gimlet and Parcast), and have exclusive global rights to the most listened to show in the world.

Right now Apple Podcasts is where the majority of U.S. downloads happen (60% is a rough estimate that is thrown around). Each JRE show gets millions of YouTube views. So why would Rogan risk losing a large chunk of his audience by going to Spotify? Here was his explanation:

“It will be the exact same show,” Rogan said in a video. “I’m not going to be an employee of Spotify. We’re going to be working with the same crew, doing the same show. The only difference will be it will now be available on the largest audio platform in the world.”