Corporate world bought into Joe
Podcasters can learn from Rogan’s Spotify deal, Menon writes.
The crazy thing is Joe Rogan was already filthy rich. Now the man with no hair who wears many proverbial hats — comedian, sitcom actor, MMA commentator, reality show host and podcaster — has just cashed in on that last one to the cha-ching of $100 million (U.S.). As the Wall Street Journal reported, Spotify has inked a deal that will bring the “Joe Rogan Experience” to the streaming behemoth this fall.
It’s amazing to think that, just five years ago, I’d be drinking with friends — remember when we used to go out? — who had never heard any podcast ever. It’s like I was asking them to name their favourite Cheraw dance. That definitely changed over the last two years as podcasting exploded into a dominant medium.
It’s almost as if the world climbed into a time machine and went back to the days when radio was supreme.
And the undisputed champ of podcasting is Mr. Rogan, who routinely holds down several Top 10 spots on the Apple charts and pulls in an estimated 190 million downloads per month. That’s an audience nearly five times the population of Canada listening or watching the YouTube version for hours at a time as Rogan shoots the breeze with an eclectic slate of guests each week, including comedians, scientists, authors, politicians, celebrities, athletes and conspiracy theorists.
I started listening to “JRE” a couple of years ago, at the nudging of Jordan Peterson. At first, I was not exactly keen to hear interviews that were longer than “The Irishman.” I also tumbled into this spoken word clubhouse with extreme prejudice, remembering Rogan mostly as the host of “Fear Factor.”
Really? The goof who cackled as contestants ate maggots is now interviewing people like Edward Snowden?
It made no sense. Then it totally made sense.
On “Fear Factor,” Rogan often looked like he was having an out-of-body experience, like he wanted to be someplace else. But when he straps on those oversized headphones and grins into his podcasting mic, he’s clearly in his element. He’s omnipresent.
He has a knack for getting his guests to loosen up, which is to say, open up.
Rogan could do a five-hour interview with Talking Elmo and it would be riveting.
This licensing deal with Spotify has created a buzz in the podcasting world. It reminds me of when Howard Stern left terrestrial radio and went to SiriusXM in 2006, three years before Rogan started his podcast. So while the vast majority of podcasters are unlikely to ever sign $100-million contracts, are there lessons to be learned from Rogan?
Yes. What’s most fascinating about the success of “JRE” is that, according to conventional wisdom, it should’ve been dead on arrival. Doesn’t everyone have an attention deficit disorder these days? And, yet, whether he’s breaking down nutrition during the pandemic or mock-listening to ghost stories from Tom Papa or getting Elon Musk to explain that insane baby name, the martial-arts enthusiast clearly has a black belt in conversation.
Rogan’s ability to get others to talk about anything — and more important, get people to listen in — obliterates any argument against deep dives, even for shallow topics. In this sense, “JRE” is the antithesis to network news, talk shows and even late-night comedies, which for decades have operated under the working assumption that segments need to be punchy and succinct. Rogan has proven this to be a lie. If a host is open-minded and engaging, lots of people will gladly ride shotgun down a long-form highway for hours and never once ask, “Are we there yet?”
Another lesson for podcasters and content producers? Woke is increasingly an unsafe space if you want to build an audience. Please don’t cancel me for pointing this out. But straight talk that is unfiltered by PC catechisms and unafraid of outrage mobs is precisely why millions gravitate toward “JRE” with an otherworldly level of engagement.
Rogan tells you what he truly believes, not what he thinks he should be saying.
I may often disagree. But I never doubt his sincerity. In this partisan age, it also does not hurt that Rogan is tough to pin down politically, which may explain why he is attacked by those on the left and the right.
And that brings us to the final lesson podcasters can glean from Rogan’s success: there is no substitute for hard work. The sheer volume of content Rogan has produced over the last 11 years is nuts. That he also does standup, MMA commentary and seems to have more hobbies than most of us have socks is even nuttier.
If “Joe Rogan Experience” were a body of water, it would be larger than the Pacific.
I try not to gush in this space because in newspapering, as in podcasting, gushing is boring and boring is the only real sin.
But I’m gushing today because it’s great to see someone get rewarded for rising to the top by never caring about the bottom.
For more than a decade, Rogan has not deviated from his POV, or his vision for podcasting.
He didn’t sell out this week. The corporate world finally bought in.