
Joe Rogan’s podcast is becoming a Spotify exclusive - xoxoy
https://www.theverge.com/2020/5/19/21263927/joe-rogan-spotify-experience-exclusive-content-episodes-youtube
======
tren-hard
> Listeners won’t have to pay to access the episodes, but they will have to
> become Spotify users. Spotify said in a press release that Rogan retains
> creative control over his show. It didn’t disclose how much it spent on the
> deal. The company will also work with an ad agency to jointly sell ads
> against the program. Rogan said last year his show reached about 190 million
> downloads a month.

What an unfortunate ending to JRE for me. A show that used to be sponsored by
flesh-light and filmed in Joe's living room is now a celebrity talk show
hosted in a walled garden.

Huge props to Joe and Young Jamie for growing it into this behemoth but sucks
to see them turn their back on free publishing/consuming model of podcasting.

~~~
gigatexal
I hate this, too.

I mean everyone has a price but I’m so disappointed. I’m not going to
subscribe to Spotify for this podcast. He couldn’t just up the advertising his
podcasts charge? This is super lame.

~~~
nailer
>>> Listeners won’t have to pay to access the episodes

> I’m not going to subscribe to Spotify for this podcast.

You can still listen to it free.

~~~
gigatexal
And give them my data: hahah fat chance.

~~~
nailer
ok

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dpc_pw
While most people whine: How long before he would potentially get canceled on
YT anyway? YT is a terrible place for content creators, and almost all people
I watch complain about it, but can't really do much about it since it's a
monopoly. I for one am happy to see some diversification and competition in
the space.

~~~
eozoon
I don't think most people would have a problem if he simply switched YT for
Spotify. It's the exclusive part (ie. no more RSS based mp3 feeds, as in, the
"podcast" part of the show) that people complain about.

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cmsj
> podcast

If it's exclusive to Spotify, it's not a podcast anymore. That's fine, but
it's just not a podcast, it's a show on Spotify.

~~~
nailer
Is it still a TV show if it's excusive to a particular streaming service or TV
channel?

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mileycyrusXOXO
Spotify is terrible for podcasts. It clearly is a music player first and
podcast player second - someone thought since both are just audio streams why
not do both?

~~~
isbadawi
What would make it better for podcasts? Just curious, I use it for podcasts
and have no major complaints. Any alternatives you suggest?

~~~
felipemesquita
Spotify taking shows that used to be published in RSS and making them
exclusives is bad for the really nice ecosystem of podcasts and podcast
players that run on RSS, using just simple directories so users can add feeds
by search and not only URLs. This is great for privacy (no creepy trackers,
podcasts hosts only get your IP address from the download request) and for the
fact that it’s not ruled by a central authority (like YouTube or Facebook)
meaning creators aren’t subjected to arbitrary and sudden rule changes that
may seriously damage their income. This recent article has a great explanation
on this issue: [https://stratechery.com/2020/dithering-and-the-open-
web/](https://stratechery.com/2020/dithering-and-the-open-web/) My favorite
podcast player is Overcast (iOS). I’ve also heard that Castro is good too.
Hope you try one of these open players, there are many incredible podcasts
that aren’t on spotify.

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tracker1
I mostly blame YouTube for the move... Anyone that doesn't seem to be towing
the line of the major network/content sources seems to be losing a lot of
advertising, and it's not really surprising to see this.

I'm running an android tv and watched his shows, or at least clips pretty
regularly. I'm actually surprised there aren't bitchute and other video
options for Android TV (not sure about firetv or apple). Youtube is the 600#
gorilla and needs to be brought back down to size.

I don't blame creators for exploring other options... not everyone can get a
fat check from spotify... I also wonder if this will still have video?

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RickS
Despite already being a customer, I find this disheartening.

In my mind, this is the real headline: Spotify paid millions to harm our right
to choose where we consume content.

Music services have so far avoided the library fragmentation and exclusivity
wars that soured streaming video. You can generally get all music on all
services. Spotify was big enough to keep Apple Music from getting too hostile
in this space, but they've lived long enough to become the villain.

~~~
heyheyhey
> Music services have so far avoided the library fragmentation and exclusivity
> wars that soured streaming video.

Libraries were fragmented in music years ago but it eventually didn't work out
for either the artist (Radiohead with Spotify) or the service (Tidal). We're
just now seeing it with podcasts.

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css
This makes me incredibly sad: not that we are losing Rogan's show, but that
Adtech is finally absorbing the last type of media that was truly Free.

~~~
petercooper
I also think this is a bad move, but to play devil's advocate for a moment..
_if_ this deal had meant that the show became ad-free (it's not), would that
be preferable to it being open but with ads?

I only ask because I think some people here might say yes, though I personally
think the importance of being open and using open protocols like RSS
supersedes the business model.

~~~
css
I don't care about ads, I care about walled gardens. Especially walled gardens
that are designed to spy on you.

~~~
tracker1
That being the case, which is worse, youtube or spotify in this case?

~~~
jzoch
its a podcast. It just also is published on youtube. Listen to it via RSS on a
podcast app and thats my choice.

~~~
eozoon
> The JRE will debut on Spotify on September 1, 2020, and become exclusively
> available on the platform later this year.

The RSS podcast part will also be gone later in the year. I don't really
listen to Joe Rogan's show, but I feel this is a very bad move for a "podcast"
and am very said that a very prominent show decides to do this..

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Wesxdz
Spotify becoming the Epic-Games-Store-esque antagonist of audio?

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ornornor
FWIW, you can share a Spotify family with 5 other people. You don’t need to be
a family. Just to tell Spotify that you do live at the same address. You don’t
even have to know each other, and can live in different countries.

You can also use a vpn (turkey is a good location but there are others) and
tada every plan is now a fraction of what it costs in your actual locale. And
it’s like Netflix, the country you use it in defines the content you have
access to, not the country you’re subscribed in.

I ditched Spotify a long time ago, their player is garbage imo, music quality
is subpar, and they’re missing a lot of what I listen to. But I’d you’re going
to cave and give them your money reluctantly because you can’t live without
this podcast then this somewhat makes you feel you’re still sticking it to the
man.

~~~
jdeibele
I was going to add my mother-in-law to our Spotify account and Spotify wanted
her to be at the address provided on the account. I didn't follow through
because I assumed (didn't try) that they would do some sort of GeoIP lookup.
She's close (8 miles) but Comcast instead of CenturyLink so definitely
different IP range.

~~~
ornornor
No she just has to enter the same postal address when asked. That’s it. Geoip
wouldn’t work I think because what if you’re traveling or on a vpn etc

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jameshush
Just goes to show you how important content is. In this case it's even more
important than features and code for me.

This Saturday I'm going to sit down and spend half an hour: 1\. Cancelling
Apple Music 2\. Installing Spotify 3\. Signing up for Spotify 4\.
Resubscribing to not just this podcast, but the other 10 I have subscribed to.

I've stayed on Apple Music for _years_ because I was just too lazy to switch.
There's no way I'll pay for both Apple Music and Spotify though.

Great move Spotify. I have to applaude this even though you're adding an extra
errand to my day.

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iconjack
I've avoided Spotify for all these years because it always felt like it was
part of the Facebook / Apple universe, which I generally find annoying. But I
love Joe so I thought in preparation for this move, I'll go ahead and sign up,
not wanting to be a sourpuss about it. Sure enough, I could sign up with
Facebook, or with Apple (but not Google etc), or the old-fashioned way with
email and password. I filled out the nosy little signup form and the next step
was to install an app on my computer! No chance.

~~~
mindracer
I pay for premium Spotify so maybe its a little different but you don't need
to install an app, you can access their content via
[https://open.spotify.com/](https://open.spotify.com/)

~~~
iconjack
OK, thanks, good to know. That's not where it dropped me after signing up
though—it put me on an app download page and it didn't look to be optional.

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romanovtexas
Perhaps a sign of things to come, podcasts, like RSS and feeds will eventually
just be something you'll find exclusive on a dominant web platform. Sucks.

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typon
I wish this stupid podcast would die already. It's a podcast in which
misinformation is spread at a massive scale, under the guise of "I'm just
asking questions". The initial quirky, fun nature of this podcast died out a
few years ago, and it has been coasting on its past success for the recent
past. I wonder who will be the next Joe Rogan?

~~~
RickS
Whenever I overhear JRE on a subject I know anything about, I'm reminded of
Gell-Mann Amnesia:

“Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the
newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray’s case,
physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist
has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the
article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause
and effect. I call these the “wet streets cause rain” stories. Paper’s full of
them.

In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a
story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read
as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than
the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”

– Michael Crichton (1942-2008)

~~~
kgin
Absolutely. I both think the "fake news" meme is toxic and yet, at the same
time, know that EVERY news article for which I've had personal knowledge of
the events that actually took place... the article got it substantially wrong,
sometimes inventing whole facts out of thin air.

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cparsons3000
So it sounds like you will still be able to watch full episodes on video on
Spotify as well?

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nailer
This is blogspam from Vox media.

Link to actual announcement:
[https://twitter.com/joerogan/status/1262812859983151104?s=20](https://twitter.com/joerogan/status/1262812859983151104?s=20)

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KKKKkkkk1
So the Spotify earnings/share in 1Q'20 are -$0.22. They're spending $100 mil
on this deal. Does this make any business sense? I can hear echoes of AOL/Time
Warner.

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RosanaAnaDana
January: WWIII

February: Australia on fire

March: World Pandemic/ Global economic collapse

April: Murder hornets

May: Joe sells out

Whew. Fuck 2020.

~~~
xoxoy
The idea that Rogan hadn’t long sold out is a bit of a stretch.

~~~
nailer
To who? Butcherbox? Traeger Grills? The motherfucking Cash app building wells
for the pgymies in the congo?

Joe's always been sponsored by small companies who make things he likes. He
even still talks about Bellator and OneFC fights and boxing despite working
for the UFC. He about as independent as he can be. I doubt Spotify have any
creative input to the show.

So how has Joe sold out before, or now?

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type0
dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23239304](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=23239304)

although this thread is older and that second one is linking to "tech
crotches" of the web

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lawnchair_larry
That sucks.

