Joe Rogan on Spotify is a fundamental shift in open content and podcasting – and a blow to Apple and YouTube

It’s war baby. Spotify has written a check that declared war on YouTube and Apple in one simple penstroke (and a few Tweets)

Joe Rogan today announced his hugely popular “Joe Rogan Experience” show is moving to Spotify.

No big deal?

Sure, from September, you’ll be able to listen to and watch all of Joe’s previous content and any new shows he makes. From year’s end – Spotify is the ONLY place you’ll be able to do that.

That means the Joe Rogan experience won’t be on Apple Podcasts any more. It won’t be on YouTube anymore.

Let’s put that in perspective.

Today, at this minute. Joe Rogan Experience is the #1 podcast on Apple Podcast.

Three of his episodes are in the top 20 podcast episodes on iTunes. And this is just Australia.

Now look at YouTube where Joe’s channel has 8.4 million subscribers. Each episode gets millions of views.

Of course, I’m no Joe Rogan, but I can tell you that from a combined total of some 800+ podcast epsiodes, I can tell you that the overwhelming #1 podcast platform is Apple Podcasts.

Here’s how all my shows break down:

That’s Spotify in Blue. The fourth largest, and way way down in the numbers.

Of course, this is exactly Spotify’s strategy. Take all those people who love Joe and get them using their existing Spotify app for more than just music streaming, and get a whole bunch of other people to download Spotify.

Boom, a big business win.

And it will still be free. No Spotify Subscription required, there will just be ads – as there are today.

This is an easy win for Joe – big dollar deal with Spotify, guaranteed income, not relying on the ebbs and flows of episodes that do better than others getting more or less advertising revenue.

But it’s a huge loss for the podcasting “industry”. Podcasting is an open concept. Create content, make it available to subscribe to on any platform.

Joe’s show is no longer a podcast, it’s a “Show” on Spotify.

In my view, he will lose audience. And lots of them. But at the scale he’s at – it won’t matter – it will still be huge.

The real risk is the chequebook war this ignites and how it changes the base for podcasting.

Only time will tell if this is a success for Spotify, and for Joe. Hopefully Joe’s business deals are smart enough to ensure he retains ownership and possession of his entire back and forward catalog so he has the freedom to move, and perhaps re-open to the masses for his next deal.