Skip to main content

Joe Rogan is coming to Spotify — and so are the advertisments

Popular podcast host and comedian Joe Rogan made headlines in May with the announcement that he was moving his hit show, The Joe Rogan Experience, exclusively to Spotify. But Rogan isn’t the only thing coming to Spotify: Here come the ads, too.

“We are planning on being the No. 1 audio platform across multiple platforms … and Joe undeniably is the top podcaster out there,” Dawn Ostroff, Spotify’s chief content officer, explained during an interview Tuesday, June 23, with journalist Dylan Byers at the Collision From Home event. “It’s hard to find somebody who’s so dedicated to this space … he’s built an audience over many years, and his audience is loyal. He’s the biggest version of the audio podcaster right now. So given our ambition, it made all the sense in the world.”

Recommended Videos

The Joe Rogan deal, announced May 19, is a huge one for sure, which will shake podcasting to its core. Some have argued that it may even kill the decentralized concept of podcasting altogether.

But as Spotify scales up its plans for audio podcasts and its exclusive library, the company has plans not to trash, but transform podcasts, especially the medium’s outdated monetization strategies. Most advertising on podcasts today involves hosts — even big names such as Bill Simmons — interrupting conversations, musings, and anecdotes to read statements about how great “Brand X” is. It all feels archaic, Byers noted, especially in comparison to the conversation the ad community is having around addressable television, a technology that lets a brand know precise details about who is watching a given show.

“It’s incredibly fragmented. There’s been no unified business here, everyone is out selling their podcasts individually … We don’t even have a unified metric system,” Ostroff lamented.

Spotify's Dawn Ostroff at the Collision From Home event
Spotify Chief Content Officer Dawn Ostroff speaks with journalist Dylan Byers at the Collision From Home event on Tuesday, June 23. Image used with permission by copyright holder

To that end, Spotify announced in January at CES that it planned to deliver one. For starters, the company announced Streaming Ad Insertion (SAI), a new technology to bring ads to podcasts on the platform. It offers tech similar to that planned for addressable television, to bring key data including anonymized gender, age, and device type info to advertisers and podcasters.

But it’s just phase one, Ostroff explained.

“The next part is in-app offers,“ she said, which allows a listener to reference an ad from the show and go back to it. “We’ll have the ad tagged in the actual description of the podcast, giving listeners a visual cue” to remind them of the brand.

“It’s a $700 billion pie globally right now, so there’s a lot of money being spent by brands across many different mediums,” Ostroff explained. The golden goose of TV advertising is addressable TV, which the industry has hemmed and hawed over for years. But it seems Spotify is leapfrogging TV, bringing all of that functionality straight to podcasts.

“It’s going to be a game-changer,” she said.

Jeremy Kaplan
As Editor in Chief, Jeremy Kaplan transformed Digital Trends from a niche publisher into one of the fastest growing…
Apple might once again be considering a TV of its own
The Apple TV Siri Remote in hand.

Toward the end of the first decade of the 2000s, rumors swirled that Apple had its sights set on making a TV — a proper set, not a streaming device like what the Apple TV has become. Steve Jobs even claimed to have figured out exactly how to add the product to the company's portfolio, but the idea never came to fruition before his untimely passing. In today's Power On newsletter, Mark Gurman said that Apple "may even revisit the idea of making an Apple-branded TV set."

Gurman didn't mention details beyond that. In fact, the mention of the TV set came on the heels of a discussion around Apple's upcoming smart home device. Gurman's phrasing regarding the TV — "something [Apple] is evaluating" — is the key here. Gurman suggests that revisiting an Apple-branded TV might be dependent on the success of upcoming smart home devices, especially since HomeKit has been the least popular and least-supported platform of the three major choices.

Read more
The uncertain future cost of Apple’s Emergency SOS feature
Person holding iPhone 14 searching for Emergency SOS satellite.

It's been roughly two years since the launch of the iPhone 14 and its Emergency SOS via satellite feature. You might recall that during the first two years, Apple said it would be free to use but that it might require a subscription after that time, according to MacRumors. Last year, Apple extended the time limit by one more year, so you actually have until November 2025, when the trial period ends.

That's good news. The Emergency SOS feature is, quite literally, lifesaving. During April of this year, three university students lost their way in a canyon and used the feature to call for help. Another story arose in July where the feature came through once more in a moment of crisis. And if you keep digging, you'll find numerous other examples of how this tech is truly beneficial.

Read more
Apple’s smart home display already sounds like a convenience victory
Nest Hub Max

Over the past few weeks, rumors of Apple developing a smart display for home control have picked up pace. The company is said to be developing two versions, and one of them might even feature a robotic arm and revive an iconic Mac’s design. 

Now, Bloomberg has shared some juicy details about how the entry-level option will look and work. The device will offer a 6-inch screen with a square-ish format flanked by sensors, including a FaceTime camera in landscape orientation. 

Read more