Spotify uproar gave its star podcaster Joe Rogan 2M subscribers?
What's the story
Controversial podcaster Joe Rogan has claimed on his podcast that his "subscriptions went up massively" due to the Spotify uproar that took place in January. "During the height of it all, I gained two million subscribers," the comic and UFC commentator made the reveal while hosting British political commentator Douglas Murray on a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience that streams on Spotify.
Context
Why does this story matter?
Ever since Rogan's uber-popular podcast was accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines, both Spotify and the stand-up comic faced huge backlash. It was condemned by over 250 scientists, doctors, nurses, educators who wrote an open letter to the firm. Musician Neil Young also asked the platform to remove his music, which the latter did. But, amid the chaos, Spotify sided with Rogan.
Quote
What did Rogan say?
Rogan's reveal came after Murray posed a question to him. "You have been put through the ringer, Joe. Since we last met, they did a number on you," Murray asked. "It's interesting, my subscriptions went up massively — that's what's crazy," Rogan replied, while adding, "During the height of it all, I gained 2 million subscribers. ... Yeah, [the media] went for it."
Details
This is why Rogan criticized CNN
Rogan also criticized CNN, which had falsely claimed that he took "horse dewormer" to cure his COVID-19. "It's also fortunate that the people who went for it were CNN. They're so untrustworthy and people know how biased they are and socially weird their anchors are," he lashed out. To note, Rogan actually had ingested the human approved form of the antiparasitic drug, Ivermectin.
Information
Rogan's podcast profitable for Spotify
While Spotify doesn't publicly disclose the number of followers for The Joe Rogan Experience, each episode of the podcast reportedly gets a solid 11M listeners. And this is why the firm doesn't believe in "silencing" him, even though he brings in controversies like the COVID-19 one and him uttering the N-word. Notably, Spotify-Rogan struck a a $100M deal in 2020 for the podcast.