Spotify renews podcast deal with Joe Rogan

SPOTIFY has signed a new $250m (£198m) deal with the American podcast host Joe Rogan, despite a scaling back of its podcast division in which the company parted with the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

The multi-year deal offers Mr Rogan $50m more than his previous 2020 agreement with the streaming giant, and he is believed to be no longer obliged to provide Spotify with his audio shows on an exclusive basis.

Mr Rogan, whose podcast

The Joe Rogan Experience is Britain’s most popular, came under fire in 2022 after old footage was circulated of him repeatedly using a racial slur in his show. The podcast host claimed that clips had been “taken out of context” and offered “sincere and humble apologies”.

He has also caused Spotify a major headache after hosting guests who espoused Covid conspiracy theories.

It led Joni Mitchell and Neil Young to remove all their music from Spotify two years ago.

Mr Rogan said that it was his aim to invite guests who have “different opinions” but he admitted that “I don’t always get it right”.

The podcaster has won a huge audience with long- form interviews with guests such as Jordan Peterson and Elon Musk. The interviews are less confrontational than typical radio interviews and can last for over three hours.

Yesterday, Mr Rogan said: “I only have people on the show that I’m genuinely interested in talking to. I never do a podcast just because a person is popular.”

Research last year by YouGov found that Mr Rogan’s listeners, compared with the population at large, were younger and more likely to be male, are much keener on fitness and more enthusiastic about setting up a business. Spotify shares were up 2.8pc after the news yesterday.

In June, Spotify and Archewell Audio, the Duke and Duchess’s podcast production company, agreed to terminate a $20m deal they signed in 2020.

In December, Spotify announced it would cut 1,500 jobs in a third round of redundancies in 2023. It said Paul Vogel, its chief financial officer, would depart as it “needs a CFO with a different mix of experiences”.