Sad to see that start to change, but I'm also kind of optimistic for one reason: there's just so damned much audio content out there that it is people's attention, not audio content, that is scarce. I don't think platforms have the upper hand in audio content the way that, say, Netflix does. I think that's why platforms like Luminary haven't really taken off.
With such a low entry barrier, there's so much content available that exclusive deals don't seem to have much influence, no podcast is "must have". Not available? I'll just play the next one on the list. Many will remain open and free. Fortunately, podcasts can financially sustain themselves under these conditions, it wasn't a forced move.
From the second paragraph of the article "The show will hit Spotify September 1, and become exclusive to the platform later in the year."
Doesn't this mean it will no longer be available via the RSS feed?
Edit: typo
The same thing happened with decentralized websites and blogs.then everyone got attracted by the managed platforms and now the web is more centralized than ever.
It's the platforms that have contributed to the podcast boom of recent years, not the "open ecosystem". Anyone can start a website and upload recorded audio, which may be the reason nobody uses RSS seriously anymore because "curated" content is the new norm.
The JRE podcast has been around for ages, and it built up an audience on YouTube because that has has been the dominating media platform for more than a decade. Now Spotify is investing heavily in big names like Gimlet and now JRE, which will help it become the next dominating platform for this decade.
The silver lining would be the ability to avoid ads as a premium subscriber, and not have to pay Google for the privilege.
As a contracted podcaster on a paid platform, does that mean his management and production team spend less time on trying to court advertising dollars? Does it mean fewer conflicts of interest? Does that mean less of (well I hardly ever listen to him, but for argument's sake) my information is sold?
Some of that could probably be figured out now. Some of it we will only know after Spotify has experienced financial distress a few times.
Now it moves to a walled garden with content unavailable to the outside world.
Consider what would happen to the quality of books if copyright couldn't be applied them: every book would have a 'free and open feed' on the internet, but overall I don't think readers would benefit.
If anything it should inspire creative new solutions to the issue.
Spotify is clearly paying him enough that none of this matters. It’s the correct trade to make if he thinks JRE has passed peak growth and it’s time to focus on monetization.
Spotify is pouring money into attracting exclusive talent in order become more sticky to consumers and to build a moat against alternatives. They want to erode other platforms (including the open web) so that they become the unichannel.
This is not a sign of existing channels not working. This is taking land from natives and taxing it. It's being done by a powerful player that doesn't want freedom of choice, so long as the only option is their own.
This is not good for anyone but Spotify and Joe Rogan's net worth.
Seems like Spotify might be adding video later in the year but until that happens, we don't know what we will be getting.
Also, most "real" podcast app have better playback options. I want to be able to see chapters, and skip silence, but forcing to use Spotify for an open format is bad for everyone. Podcasts are great because they are open, and give you choices in playback apps.
And for the record, this has nothing to do with compensation for content creators. I want everyone to get paid. I personally am probably in the top 0.1% of podcast consumers and spend roughly $50 per month directly supporting podcasts. There are numerous other revenue models for successful podcasts. Joe Rogan wasn't exactly poor before this exclusivity deal.
I think it illustrates that Spotify has a lot of money and needs to pay more publishers to use its platform.
JRE stopped live streaming his shows a year or more ago and they were on YouTube which I wouldn't consider open. They would complain pretty regularly about being demonetized because they played a short clip that Joe or a guest was commenting on.
Seems like this deal gives them more ability to have fewer restrictions imo