3 ms·

I feel neither positively nor negatively about Rogan himself (I've never listened to him) but it was plainly a very stupid investment on Spotify's part. Anyone

by mvdtnz 3y ago

I feel neither positively nor negatively about Rogan himself (I've never listened to him) but it was plainly a very stupid investment on Spotify's part. Anyone could have predicted (and most of us did) that only a fraction of his audience would follow him behind the paywall and removing him from mainstream free outlets would instantly diminish his cultural relevance.

bluescrn 3y ago
‘Diminishing his cultural relevance’ may have been the goal. Reducing his audience, censoring his most controversial past episodes and preventing certain conversations from happening in front of his large audience in future?
- Shish2k 3y ago
  Spotify paid $200 million… to tie a podcaster to their sinking-ship podcast platform (and this plan only works if they know and intend for their platform to sink)… just to get him from a big spotlight to a small spotlight?
  - bluescrn 3y ago
    Elon paid vastly more for Twitter, seemingly primarily as an act of activism. In this incredibly divided world, politics has started to come before profit.
    - Shish2k 3y ago
      And when they paid an additional several hundred million buying up tens of random science and tech news and D&D podcasts - was that to intentionally kill those podcasts too? Or were they just a necessary sacrifice in order to create a more believable “we want our product to succeed” fascade, so that Joe didn’t realise he was getting tricked?
  - rickdeckard 3y ago
    It wasn't a "sinking-ship podcast platform", it was Spotify's strategy to own content and thus reduce cost for per-play licensing. They went for the Netflix strategy for growth. We now know the podcast-idea didn't translate into as many paid subscribers as they expected, but with ~25% of all Spotify subscribers listening to podcasts [1] it's not a "sinking-ship podcast platform" [1] https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/spotify-podcast-subscriptions-no-creator-fees-until-2023-1234961186/ https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/spotify-podcast-subscr...
    - A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
      FWIW, there is rationale for platform to own content vs licensing deal that forces platform's hand to 'make unavailable' items their customers already purchased[1]. Not that I disagree with you. [1]https://www.playstation.com/en-us/legal/psvideocontent/?et_rid=&et_cid=231130-VIDREMVL-AM-CSA-B-FLX&Linkid=231130-VIDREMVL-AM-CSA-B-FLX&emcid=em-pl-500377 https://www.playstation.com/en-us/legal/psvideocontent/?et_r...
    - dundarious 3y ago
      In the last few months, several podcasts that were only available on Spotify, have become available via traditional podcast means. For example, Heavyweight. Others did so earlier, though for specific reasons (Science Vs had a spat with Rogan over "dis/misinformation", where I largely agree with them factually, but disagree with them on the use of those terms, etc.). I think it's fair to say there's a reasonable indication that Spotify exclusivity has been a bad bet for a decent amount of their podcast portfolio. Maybe it works still for Rogan-sized podcasts, but even that's unknown. I wouldn't be dismissive of a label of "sinking ship", even though it's stronger than how I would put it -- it's plausible enough.
      - rickdeckard 3y ago
        The frame of reference is "was", so back in 2019 when Spotify negotiated with Joe Rogan
        3y ago
stjohnswarts 3y ago
paywall? all you have to do is sign up for the freemium version of spotify?

by mvdtnz 3y ago

bluescrn 3y ago

‘Diminishing his cultural relevance’ may have been the goal. Reducing his audience, censoring his most controversial past episodes and preventing certain conversations from happening in front of his large audience in future?

Shish2k 3y ago
Spotify paid $200 million… to tie a podcaster to their sinking-ship podcast platform (and this plan only works if they know and intend for their platform to sink)… just to get him from a big spotlight to a small spotlight?
- bluescrn 3y ago
  Elon paid vastly more for Twitter, seemingly primarily as an act of activism. In this incredibly divided world, politics has started to come before profit.
  - Shish2k 3y ago
    And when they paid an additional several hundred million buying up tens of random science and tech news and D&D podcasts - was that to intentionally kill those podcasts too? Or were they just a necessary sacrifice in order to create a more believable “we want our product to succeed” fascade, so that Joe didn’t realise he was getting tricked?
- rickdeckard 3y ago
  It wasn't a "sinking-ship podcast platform", it was Spotify's strategy to own content and thus reduce cost for per-play licensing. They went for the Netflix strategy for growth. We now know the podcast-idea didn't translate into as many paid subscribers as they expected, but with ~25% of all Spotify subscribers listening to podcasts [1] it's not a "sinking-ship podcast platform" [1] https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/spotify-podcast-subscriptions-no-creator-fees-until-2023-1234961186/ https://variety.com/2021/digital/news/spotify-podcast-subscr...
  - A4ET8a8uTh0 3y ago
    FWIW, there is rationale for platform to own content vs licensing deal that forces platform's hand to 'make unavailable' items their customers already purchased[1]. Not that I disagree with you. [1]https://www.playstation.com/en-us/legal/psvideocontent/?et_rid=&et_cid=231130-VIDREMVL-AM-CSA-B-FLX&Linkid=231130-VIDREMVL-AM-CSA-B-FLX&emcid=em-pl-500377 https://www.playstation.com/en-us/legal/psvideocontent/?et_r...
  - dundarious 3y ago
    In the last few months, several podcasts that were only available on Spotify, have become available via traditional podcast means. For example, Heavyweight. Others did so earlier, though for specific reasons (Science Vs had a spat with Rogan over "dis/misinformation", where I largely agree with them factually, but disagree with them on the use of those terms, etc.). I think it's fair to say there's a reasonable indication that Spotify exclusivity has been a bad bet for a decent amount of their podcast portfolio. Maybe it works still for Rogan-sized podcasts, but even that's unknown. I wouldn't be dismissive of a label of "sinking ship", even though it's stronger than how I would put it -- it's plausible enough.
    - rickdeckard 3y ago
      The frame of reference is "was", so back in 2019 when Spotify negotiated with Joe Rogan
      - 3y ago

stjohnswarts 3y ago

paywall? all you have to do is sign up for the freemium version of spotify?