Spotify News: Spotify, Joe Rogan in Podcast Deal

The streaming giant's audio business gets a big boost

The mega news of Spotify’s big move to sign a multiyear licensing deal to bring The Joe Rogan Experience exclusively to its audio streaming platform prompted us to collect some key links about the deal.

Joe Rogan Inks Exclusive Multiyear Podcast Deal With Spotify

The deal, terms of which were not disclosed, means that Spotify eventually will become the exclusive home for the popular podcast, which regularly ranks as one of the top podcasts on Apple’s charts. The comedy talk series will remain free and accessible to all Spotify users. It will debut Sept. 1 on Spotify and be available on other platforms until it becomes exclusive to the streamer later this year.

“It will be the exact same show,” Rogan said on his Tuesday morning show in announcing the move. “The only difference will be it will now be available on the largest audio platform in the world.”

The New Howard Stern: Podcast Giant Joe Rogan Inks Exclusive Deal With Spotify

Spotify has claimed its biggest podcasting victory yet. On Tuesday, the Swedish streaming giant announced an exclusive deal with comedian Joe Rogan, who has the number one podcast in the world.

It’s a major pivot for Rogan, who has kept his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, independent since launching it in 2009. He will retain ownership and full editorial control of the show, which will be available on Spotify starting in September and become exclusive to the platform at the end of the year. The video version of the podcast, which currently streams on YouTube, will only be available in full on Spotify, as well.

The news comes on the heels of some other interesting Spotify news, with a big focus on their video aspirations.

Spotify is testing video podcasts with two YouTube stars

Spotify is now testing video podcasts in its app, starting with two YouTube stars: Zane Hijazi and Heath Hussar, hosts of Zane and Heath: Unfiltered. The global test, which allows the creators to upload their recorded video footage to the app, will show up for 50 percent of the show’s Spotify podcast listeners, a source close to Spotify tells The Verge, and videos will only be coming to three recent episodes, numbers 28 through 30.

The test doesn’t visually indicate which episodes have videos to accompany them; listeners will only know once they tap to press play and they see the video footage at the bottom of their screen. They can tap it to make it full screen.