4 Months After $250M Spotify Deal, Joe Rogan Sets the Record Straight on the “Best Platform” Ever

Since 2020, Spotify has been the home of the “Joe Rogan Experience”. One of the largest podcasts running, JRE signed a multi-year deal estimated to be worth $250 million in February this year. Spotify even revealed that overall podcast consumption on the platform has increased by 232%, since JRE joined the platform. Despite the success, Joe Rogan overlooked them when it came to the picking the best platform.

“The Joe Rogan Experience” has become quite the phenomenon in the podcasting world. Rogan’s deal with Spotify proved to be a worthwhile investment for the streaming giants and the 56-year-old. However, despite the amount of money he’s been able to earn through Spotify, Rogan believes there is no better platform than YouTube.

“They are awesome,” YouTube is the best, according to Joe Rogan

YouTube was the first platform of choice for Joe Rogan when he started his multi-million-dollar podcast back in 2009. He stayed loyal to them for over a decade before making the jump to Daniel Ek‘s platform in 2020. But guess what? The UFC color commentator thinks that there are quite a few perks for content creators who operate mostly on YouTube.

The longtime UFC commentator believes that as far as platforms in the internet space are concerned, things don’t get better than YouTube. But why did he jump to that conclusion? Well, Rogan is all about accessibility, and YouTube, he believes, does that better than anyone else.

“They’re awesome, they’re awesome. They have the best platform. I mean, it’s the most accessible. It’s so easy to share [content],” said Joe Rogan on JRE episode #2161, featuring fellow comedian Tony Hinchcliffe as the guest.He also pointed out YouTube’s ultimate selling point, something that OTT giants like Netflix, Amazon Prime and others don’t possess.

“The sharing thing is huge because you don’t really share Netflix movies and stuff. I tell people,” Rogan added. The YouTube feature to share the video link making it accessible for everyone is something the OTT’s haven’t taken up. This gives YouTube another edge when it comes to content distribution.

The conversation began when Rogan was asking Hinchcliffe to look up something on YouTube and said they will edit it out of the episode later, probably due to the platform’s policies. Though he appreciates YouTube’s accessibility, he has been annoyed the platform’s strict copyright policies before as well.

During an episode of JRE on March 20 this year, he tried to play an Eric Bana movie called ‘Chopper.’ But the fear of a copyright strike made him hesitant “We can’t play it because of f*cking YouTube. Listen YouTube I love you, but come on, don’t get silly.” Still, its clear that Rogan loves YouTube, but does that mean he doesn’t love Spotify?

It was his exclusive deal with Ek’s platform in 2020 that shot Rogan from stardom to superstardom. For consecutive years, the JRE topped Spotify charts as the most popular podcast on a global level. But it was not all smooth sailing.

When Rogan faced backlash for his work during the pandemic, reports of tension between the UFC commentator and the streaming giants were in the news. Censorship and even entire episodes being taken down from the catalog were discussed on social media platforms. The exclusivity to Spotify meant that fans were left without options to explore this content elsewhere. However, that situation has turned around now with the new deal he signed with the platform.

After putting pen to paper on a new non-exclusive deal with the platform, the JRE host would shower words of praise on the execs of Spotify.

Rogan lauded Spotify for having the “coolest and smartest people”

Yes, for Joe Rogan, despite how much he loves YouTube, his partnership with Spotify has been a personal success. After re-signing with the platform earlier this year, he claimed he was as happy as he could have been, working with the people of Daniel Ek’s platform. He seemed excited about the continuation of his partnership. The new deal has no issues with Rogan sharing his episodes on YouTube, unlike the previous deal, which restricted his content.

“Shoutout to [Spotify] for absolutely being the coolest and smartest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of being in partnership with. I’m very excited the podcast will now have a much broader distribution,” tweeted Joe Rogan following his re-signing. The new deal allows Rogan to have his podcast on YouTube, Apple and Amazon, giving him a wider reach. JRE still holds the No. 1 spot on the podcast charts even as we speak.

Spotify stood by Rogan when several artists temporarily took their music off the platform in protest against the 56-year-old. So it’s not surprising that the Texas resident chose to continue with them, albeit in a non-exclusive deal, making sure both parties make a handsome amount of revenue from their joined endeavor. Meanwhile, JRE being back on YouTube has driven a lot of the original fanbase back to the platform.

YouTube has given rise to so many talented content creators, which is a reason why Joe Rogan speaks so highly of them. But what do you think? Do you prefer Spotify or YouTube? Drop your comments below.