Spotify reportedly paid $200 million for Joe Rogan’s podcast

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According to a New York Times report, Joe Rogan was paid at least $200 million to commit to the platform for three and a half years. Rogan's deal price was previously reported in The Wall Street Journal as $100 million, but has continued to be used in the media without correction.

This news comes after a volatile month for the audio company and one in which musicians, podcasters, employees, and the medical community scrutinized the company's work with the controversial podcaster. A group of medical community members wrote a letter to the company asking it to remove a Rogan episode they said peddled COVID-19 misinformation. Neil Young pulled his catalog from the platform after reading the letter.

He wrote that he was doing this because he was concerned that the misinformation being spread by them could cause death to those who believe it.

Since then, Daniel Ek has issued multiple statements about his reluctance to moderate Rogan's show beyond its platform rules, which were only made public after Young and others pulled their music.

Rogan's show became controversial for other reasons. Rogan uses the n-word multiple times in a video. 70 episodes were mysteriously removed after the video surfaced. Rogan apologized for using the slur and making a racist joke, but never commented publicly. In a leaked memo, Ek confirmed that the company talked to Rogan and his team, and Rogan decided to remove the episodes. The company would give $100 million to creators from historically marginalized groups. The amount seemed to be the same as what Rogan was paid, but now it looks like it's half as much.