![]() The company saw a couple billion dollars in market value go kaput. Spotify’s customer support line was overwhelmed. (In a related side plot, climate scientists raged about Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson proclaiming on the show last week, “There’s no such thing as climate, right?”) Then came the backlash from consumers, some unknown number of whom have said they canceled their subscriptions and moved to rivals like Apple Music and Tidal. Like a tropical depression strengthening into a hurricane, the situation became a Category 5 shitstorm last week when Neil Young and Joni Mitchell made the decision to pull their music, though Mitchell’s music had yet to be removed at press time. But you almost certainly hear about Joe Rogan every time something crazy is said on his show. (Another source said that Spotify and Higher Ground are in active production on new shows in this vein.) As for the other offerings under the Spotify banner, chances are you haven’t heard of them. I’m told the Obamas are more interested in lifting young new voices than carrying shows themselves, and that this focus hasn’t always aligned with Spotify’s. Moreover, informed sources told me the Obamas’ production company, Higher Ground, has been frustrated with Spotify at times, finding it difficult to get additional shows off the ground. But the buzz around these efforts has paled in comparison to the couples’ best-selling memoirs, or even the award-winning features they’ve produced for a separate content deal they have with Netflix. (They currently don’t have anything else in development with Spotify, someone familiar with the matter confirmed.) The Obamas, whose 2019 deal was rumored to be in the same general ballpark, have produced a few compelling shows, including one podcast hosted by Michelle Obama and another in which Barack Obama teamed up with Bruce Springsteen. ![]() Harry and Meghan have produced a lone 33-minute holiday special since inking a reported $25 million Spotify contract in December 2020. ![]() Part of that has to do with the reality that the company’s other big-ticket deals just simply haven’t gained the same traction. The Joe Rogan Experience, which debuted in the earlier and comparatively quaint podcasting era of 2009, towers over its Spotify peers. In the words of one seasoned audio industry insider, having Joe Rogan “is like dropping a Taylor Swift album every day. Spotify needs him way more than he needs Spotify.” (Spotify didn’t have a comment for this story.) But all of that is part of the appeal for Rogan’s loyal army of superfans, many of them young and male, which is what makes him so valuable to a company whose success depends on attracting large numbers of engaged paying subscribers. It’s a face that comes with voluble “anti-woke” bona fides a hyper-macho sensibility somewhere between MAGA and Bernie Bro and, most problematically, a warm embrace of vaccine skepticism. With his outsize media footprint, no-fucks-given hosting style, and an estimated 11 million listeners per episode, Rogan is, like it or not, the face of Spotify’s podcasting play. Content, of course, has a tendency to court controversy, and Rogan is now giving Spotify more controversy than it bargained for. The strategy was a means to attract new customers while showing Wall Street a path forward that didn’t involve siphoning roughly 70% of Spotify’s revenues back to the music industry. They also embarked on a series of mega deals for high-wattage talent, signing the Obamas, Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, and, of course, podcasting phenomenon Joe Rogan, who entered into an exclusive licensing agreement for a reported $100 million. The audio gold rush was well underway, and Spotify mined its riches with a push into podcasting, acquiring Gimlet Media, Parcast, and The Ringer. ![]() After radically reshaping how we listen to and purchase music, in 2019 Spotify set its sights on new conquests.
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