Spotify has signed a new multi-year licensing agreement with Joe Rogan for The Joe Rogan Experience.
The deal, announced by Spotify on Thursday (October 8), extends a partnership between the two parties that began in 2020.
Spotify did not disclose the financial terms of the agreement.
However, the Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, reported that the deal’s terms are similar to those of Rogan‘s previous Spotify agreement.
That deal, signed in 2024, carried an “estimated earnout” of USD $250 million, according to the WSJ.
Spotify said new JRE episodes will keep arriving on its platform each week under the agreement – and will also continue to be available on other services.
That maintains the non-exclusive arrangement that Spotify and Rogan put in place in 2024.
“The partnership with Spotify has been an amazing fit, and they’re incredible to work with,” said Rogan. “I’m extremely happy and excited to continue with them for years to come.”
“The partnership with Spotify has been an amazing fit, and they’re incredible to work with.”
Joe Rogan
“Joe has built something incredibly enduring, and his show continues to resonate with a massive global audience because there’s simply nothing else like it,” said Jordan Newman, Spotify’s Head of Content Partnerships.
“Spotify‘s podcast business has grown alongside JRE over the years, and we’re excited to keep building on that partnership for years to come.”
“Spotify‘s podcast business has grown alongside JRE over the years, and we’re excited to keep building on that partnership for years to come.”
Jordan Newman, Spotify
Spotify calls The Joe Rogan Experience “the world’s most popular podcast.”
According to the company, the show has 18 million followers on Spotify and has been the platform’s most-followed podcast since the partnership launched in 2020.
Spotify also says JRE ranked as the No. 1 podcast on every major platform in 2025.
In the US, the show topped the Top 50 Podcasts ranking for Q2 2026 from Edison Research at SSRS. The ranking measures reach among weekly podcast consumers aged 13 and older.
Rogan first brought JRE to Spotify in 2020 via an exclusive licensing deal that the WSJ reported at the time would cost the company more than USD $100 million. The New York Times reported in 2022 that the deal was actually worth more than USD $200 million.
That agreement made both the audio and video versions of the show available exclusively on Spotify.
At the time, MBW analyzed what the Rogan deal, and Spotify’s other podcast investments, could mean for record labels and music publishers.
In February 2024, Spotify and Rogan struck a new agreement that ended the show’s exclusivity to the platform.
Under that deal, Spotify took charge of distribution and ad sales for the show, while Rogan reportedly received a guaranteed minimum fee plus a share of ad revenue.
Speaking on Spotify’s earnings call that month, then-CEO Daniel Ek said the company’s exclusive podcast deals had been “net positive” but were “not driving as much [revenue] as the opportunity that we see on the ad side.”
Ek also said that wider distribution aligned Spotify more closely with creators, who “obviously [want] to be on many different platforms and [want] to have as big of an audience as possible.”
Neil Young pointed to the end of that exclusivity when he announced his return to Spotify in March 2024.
Young had removed his music from the platform in January 2022 in protest over Spotify’s hosting of The Joe Rogan Experience.
“My decision comes as music services Apple and Amazon have started serving the same disinformation podcast features I had opposed at Spotify,” Young wrote at the time.
The renewal comes as Spotify continues to expand the Spotify Partner Program, which pays eligible video podcast creators a share of Premium video revenue and lets them monetize their shows with ads.
On September 17, Spotify said it would bring the program to more than 35 new markets, including Italy, Spain, Brazil, Mexico, and Colombia.
Spotify said the total it pays out each month to shows enrolled in the program has grown by more than a third since it relaxed eligibility requirements earlier in 2026.
Alongside Thursday’s announcement, Spotify published a Q&A with Rogan about his listening habits.
Asked whether he listens to music when exercising, Rogan said: “Mostly ’90s hip-hop. Lots of Wu-Tang, Nas, Biggie, and Kool G Rap on my workout playlist.
“Occasionally I flip it and go with ’60s rock, but more often than not, it’s music from what I think is the golden age of hip-hop. I just love the beats and aggressive lyrics to keep my energy high.”
Rogan also said the last song he sent to a friend was Wooden Horse by Craig Mack: “It’s a forgotten gem from what I think is an underappreciated artist.”Music Business Worldwide
