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Joe Rogan’s podcasts are swiftly being removed from Spotify

For $100 million, Spotify can remove whatever they want.

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Image: KnowTechie

The massively popular Joe Rogan recently signed a huge deal to bring his podcasts to Spotify. Well now, as part of that deal, Spotify has removed several podcasts from the Joe Rogan Experience podcast library. As of now, the company has removed a total of 42 Joe Rogan podcasts from the platform.

Rogan initially signed the deal to move his entire 11-year library of podcasts exclusively to Spotify in 2020. The deal was reportedly worth more than $100 million and gave Spotify exclusive rights to all Joe Rogan Experience podcasts. According to Digital Music News, Rogan was aware that Spotify would be taking this liberty with his content. Citing a recent podcast interview from his channel, Rogan says “There were a few episodes they didn’t want on their platform, and I was like ‘okay, I don’t care.'”

So far, the company has removed a total of 42 podcasts from the platform. As of now, Spotify hasn’t given any explanation as to why it has removed certain episodes, and it most likely won’t say anything at all. The streaming giant wants to have full control of what kind of content will be found on its platform, and after forking over $100 million for the contract, Spotify will likely do whatever it wants with the Joe Rogan Experience.

Spotify is distancing itself from potential controversy

From the podcasts that have been removed so far, we can see that Spotify is looking to distance itself from people who may be considered too controversial for whatever reason. The company has removed seven podcasts featuring controversial conspiracy theorist David Seaman as well as four episodes containing comedian Chris D’Elia.

The most recent episode removed is an interview with Bulletproof Coffee founder Dave Asprey. Asprey has been a frequent guest on the podcast and Spotify has removed three episodes featuring the eclectic entrepreneur. It is not exactly clear why Asprey would be targeted by these removals, though he does have quite an interesting take on wellness.

According to the article mentioned above, Asprey has claimed that he will live until he is 180 and believes in some questionable anti-aging theories. He claims that his coffee is super healthy and that other coffee manufacturers leave all sorts of unnecessary toxins in their products. Though these claims don’t necessarily make Asprey seem like a problem for Spotify from a PR standpoint, the company has the right to do whatever it wants with the content it has purchased.

One of the more interesting removals is the stripping of anything that super controversial right-wing radio host Alex Jones was involved in. All episodes containing Jones were removed when the show first came to Spotify, but Rogan did an episode with Jones shortly after the acquisition. So far that episode has not been removed, but we will see what happens in the future.

Joe Rogan is arguably the biggest name in podcasts, and his deal with Spotify was a massive one. We are seeing now everything that comes along with this kind of deal, including the removal of some of Rogan’s content. Obviously, this isn’t too much of an issue for Joe Rogan, as he is still cashing checks and laughing to the bank.

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Staff writer at KnowTechie. Alex has two years of experience covering all things technology, from video games to electric cars. He's a gamer at heart, with a passion for first-person shooters and expansive RPGs. Shoot him an email at alex@knowtechie.com

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