Photo by Chris Unger/Zuffa LLC via Getty Images
This is Hot Pod, The Verge’s newsletter about podcasting and the audio industry. Sign up here for more.
For all of the changes Spotify has gone through over the past year, there is still more to come. Those three-year podcast deals the company struck are coming up for renewal, and what Spotify decides to do with them could have reverberations across the industry. The Joe Rogan Experience — the first, the biggest, and the most consequential — will expire in 2024. Today, after speaking with podcasters, producers, analysts, agents, and executives (mostly on background, though a few brave souls went on the record), I take a look at how the Spotify / Rogan relationship could play out.
Let me be clear: this is purely a thought exercise. I…
