Celebrity
‘The Joe Rogan Experience’ Returns on YouTube with Full Episodes!
Joe Rogan is one of the most popular podcasters, with the most downloads on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. Fans were disappointed to find out…
Joe Rogan is one of the most popular podcasters, with the most downloads on his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience. Fans were disappointed to find out they could no longer access his full podcasts on YouTube.
Rogan was signed with Spotify with exclusive rights to his podcasts on the streaming platform, which meant he couldn’t post his content anywhere else. However, he is now free of that contract and can post his content wherever he wants.
Joe Rogan on his podcast (Source: Dallas Morning News)
So, Rogan is back on YouTube now, and within a few days, the views on the podcast have skyrocketed, directly increasing his revenue. This is also excellent news for the 16.3 million subscribers he has on YouTube.
Joe Rogan’s multi-million deal with Spotify
On May 19, 2020, Rogan shared about his big contract with the streaming platform Spotify, which started on September 1, 2020. This contract was worth $200 million, which was one of the biggest deals ever in the podcast world.
His deal with Spotify made him unable to post his podcasts on YouTube and people could listen to his podcast through the platform exclusively. However, he was still allowed to post short clips of his podcast on his YouTube account.
The episodes of Rogan’s podcast were released the day after they were recorded so that clips would be easily posted on YouTube.
Joe Rogan started posting full podcast videos on YouTube
Rogan’s contract with Spotify has yet to end; however, he seems to have freed himself from the no-podcast uploading policy on YouTube. He started uploading full podcast videos on his YouTube channel on February 29, 2024.
The first full video he posted in years had more than 15 million views and many happy comments. Currently, his videos have gained over a million views, which he posts almost daily.
On February 9, 2024, Rogan let the world know the news through his Instagram post. He wrote, “The podcast is now officially back on @apple. We should be back on @youtube with full episodes in the coming weeks. Shoutout to @spotify for absolutely being the coolest and smartest people I’ve ever had the pleasure of being in partnership with. I’m very excited the podcast will now have a much broader distribution.”
The post received more than 300k likes and most of the comments expressed how happy they were with the news. One commented “Hell yeah! Now start doing the podcasts again in LA, so you have a wider breadth of guests like you used to.”
Joe Rogan had 70 episodes removed from Spotify
Rogan was criticized by many for spreading wrong information about Covid-19 in some of his podcasts. During the heat, 113 episodes of his videos were removed by Spotify, which was detected by the website titled JRE Missing.
However, misinformation about COVID-19 was not the only thing that got his videos removed from the streaming platform. Some videos included offensive language and inappropriate comparisons.
In February of 2022, singer Neil Young warned Spotify to remove Rogan from the platform, or he would pull his music; however, the platform did not address his request. Singer India Arie exposed Rogan’s racist words on the podcast and said she would stop using Spotify to support Young through her Instagram account.
Rogan apologetically spoke about the matter after these allegations and his videos were removed from Spotify. He said he found his past words and actions shameful and regretful.
However, he also defended his case, saying some of his clips were taken out of context, and he only quoted the slur to talk about others using it. He said, “I certainly wasn’t trying to be racist, and I certainly would never want to offend someone for entertainment with something as stupid as racism.”
Although Rogan received a lot of heat from the public, Spotify only resorted to deleting his old podcast episodes. Spotify CEO Daniel Ek also responded saying they need Rogan’s podcast as it is a part of their business model.
Joe Rogan’s professional background
Rogan wasn’t always fixated on choosing comedy as a profession. However, his love for comedy from a young age and encouragement from a few friends got him to try stand-up comedy.
In 1988, he tried his first stand-up comedy, which started his professional career in the area. However, the process was not easy, and he had to work odd jobs, such as teaching martial arts and doing construction work, to pursue his calling in New York.
Rogan moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1990s after he landed his first acting gig in the American sitcom Hardball. He then starred in the NBC sitcom NewsRadio.
In a similar timeframe, Rogan became a regular performer at The Comedy Store. He then gained prominence after becoming the backstage interviewer for the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC).
Joe Rogan promoting supplements from his brand Onnit (Source: Instagram)
The podcaster then started hosting the reality TV show Fear Factor in 2001, which made him more famous. He also continued his stand-up comedy career and toured extensively.
Rogan also became known for speaking out against alleged joke theft in the comedy world, notably accusing comedians like Carlos Mencia and Dane Cook. In recent years, he has expanded his career to the next level with his podcast.
Not only that, but he is also actively writing books and appearing in movies. He also continues to be involved in UFC as a color commentator, adding more to his portfolio and bank balance.