Joe Rogan vows his podcast will still be free once it moves exclusively to Spotify

One of the biggest and longest-running podcasts will soon be exclusive to Spotify.

Comedian and podcaster Joe Rogan announced today that his show, the “Joe Rogan Experience,” will arrive on the streaming service starting September 1. Both the audio and video versions of the show will be exclusive to Spotify, Rogan said on social media, beginning “somewhere around the end of the year.”

This is a noteworthy deal for Spotify, which first elbowed its way beyond music streaming into podcasts and video in 2015. Spotify’s podcast listenership is now competitive to Apple’s; however, Spotify’s own data shows that most of its users still stick to music.

Rogan, also known for his work with Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) and Fear Factor, assured fans on social that the show will not change with the multi-year licensing agreement (and presumably handsome payout): “It will be the exact same show . . . nothing else will change. It will be free, it will be free to you, you’ll just have to go to Spotify to get it.”

Neither Spotify nor Rogan has shared the terms of the deal, including the price. Back in 2018, Bloomberg reported that Spotify paid north of $1 million for the rights to Amy Schumer’s then-new show, citing “two people familiar with the matter.” Fast Company has reached out to Spotify for more details.

The deal has already affected Spotify materially, at least in the short term: With the exclusivity announcement, Spotify’s stock was up by nearly 9% before regular trading closed on Tuesday.