Well, maybe it's more strategic than just short-term dollars and cents.

For example, there must be a lot of value in training people to use Spotify for podcasts at all, starting with the biggest podcast in the world. As more people use Spotify for podcasts, Spotify gets more and more power for future exclusivity negotiations.

Spotify was certainly just a music app for me until I had to start using it to listen to Joe Rogan, and it seems reasonable that the Joe Rogan move was to create this transition in Spotify users. They clearly don't just want to be a music app.

In Joe Rogan's case, I doubt people would pay.

Then again, I haven't been able to understand his success.

I cringe when he calls himself a Comedian.

I cringe when he talks science. (Always felt someone should sit down with him and explain The Placebo Effect, and The Scientific Method, and what goes into a good Clinical study. I would be shocked if he ever even took Psy 101.)

Is it the upfront pot use that garners so many admirers?

He does know his MMA though.

I have enjoyed his interviews, but it's the guests I find interesting.

The fact you find his guests interesting is in part due to Joe's success as a podcaster. He's able to get the best out of his guests by the way he questions them and keeps the conversation going. He doesn't pretend to be knowledgeable but knows enough about the topics to be able to prompt the guests for more info.

In saying that, I've stopped listening to him since he went onto Spotify. The only episode I've listened to in full since he switched was the recent Tarantino interview, which was great.

> I've stopped listening to him since he went onto Spotify.

You haven't missed much. 9 out of 10 of his podcasts have him spouting the same one rant about covid responses. He does this no matter the guest or their field of interest.

He's honest, curious, talks to interesting people, and uncensored. He's a great window into perspectives on life I don't have, and doesn't feel coercive or pushy when I disagree. I've learned a lot from him, and don't honestly have much of a substitute. Mind you, with the Spotify transition, I don't really trust some of those points anymore and haven't really listened since.

He had good production for a free podcast, and managed to interview interesting subject experts on trending undercurrent of various online communities, and he did so at a time where podcast were taking off, and people already knew his name.

It's that simple I think.

> He does know his MMA though

Eh, his relationship to MMA has been far more casual for years now, maybe in the aughts or early last decade, when he was more engaged by the sport this was true. His pod is still the highest honor media appearance for most MMA fighters though.

Have you seen his standup? He's pretty funny.

> I cringe when he calls himself a Comedian.

To each his own. He sells out comedy shows and has done so for years. People do enjoy his comedy.

He does know what the placebo effect is it appears:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vE5k5UcEHj4

To me he seems reasonably informed for a autodidact-type person.

They are not selling, they are building a monopoly.

Oh well, if he didn’t take Psy 101 that does it for me.

For Spotify JRE is just legitimacy and market leadership, I don’t think they expect to make the $100m back from ads or people paying to hear Joe Rogan. It was just an acquisition to try to get podcast distribution synonymous with Spotify.

For Rogan, he could have tried to monetise his audience directly but probably couldn’t be arsed, or maybe thought people wouldn’t pay. Easier to take the $100m and keep focusing on content instead of commerce

If they want to get in, they need the big names. If they bring the Michael Jordan, then it guarantees millions listening to podcasts on SPY and then other podcasters all haul over as well to make the critical mass.

Spotify is not powerful enough otherwise.

Sometimes it works sometimes it doesn't aka Microsoft with their Twitch challenger and ninja, but every circumstance is different.