Joe Rogan says he got a subscriber bump from all the controversy

Photo by Michael S. Schwartz/Getty Images

I hope everyone is ready for a very calm week. I'm ready to stay focused on my own projects and not get distracted by billionaires with money to burn. Wishing me luck.

From recent controversy, Joe Rogan gained two million subscribers.

The recent controversy surrounding Joe Rogan's past use of a racial slur and vaccine misinformation only increased his fan base.

Rogan's numbers have been consistently growing since he joined, without spiking, according to unnamed sources. I've reached out to the service.

This doesn't surprise me on one hand. The backlash that kicked off after Neil Young pulled his music from Spotify led to a lot of publicity around Rogan at a time when certain mostly right-wing audiences are rallying around figures who claim they are being silenced even as they draw in immense crowds.

Rogan's growth doesn't mean the incident was good news for the company, as it led to real turmoil with the employees, saw several major names pull their music from the service, and continues to be a brand. If I had to make a guess, I would think that the company would take a better public image if it had 2 million more subscribers.

The earnings call for Wednesday morning is at 8AM.

There is an exclusive deal with Therapy Gecko.

One of the stranger shows I've written about on here is Therapy Gecko, which is why SiriusXM has landed another ad sales and distribution deal with it. The show is about a lizard psychologist who travels the universe talking to strangers, and it gets more than 900k monthly downloads. More than 2 million people are willing to subscribe to watch a man dressed up in a lizard outfit and green face paint talk therapy, or something like that, thanks to the series created by the man known as Lyle Forever.

Stitcher will handle distribution of ads under the deal. The audio release of the show is covered by the deal.

This is one of a lot of similar deals that have been made recently. The company locked down ad sales for Brandon Marshall and Chad Ochocinco as part of a larger audio deal with the network.

The company will report earnings at 8AM on Thursday.

Apple adds more stuff to its show.

The reports that aggregate the listening habits of paid and free subscribers are now available for download. The listening report breaks down where people are listening to and how much they are listening to. It is useful to see the differences between how paid and free listens are tuning in. The reports can be accessed through Apple Podcasts Connect.

Three new sections called Darkside, tbh, and Popped have been added to Apple's storefront across platforms. The shows in the true crime, culture, and entertainment categories are highlighted in the collections. You can pitch your series here.

Independent artists are earning more with the new pay system.

Last year, SoundCloud started a program where independent musicians could get paid out based on their fans' subscription revenue, rather than being lumped into a giant pool with major artists and divvied out the pennies. Independent artists are earning 60 percent more on average than they were with the traditional model, thanks to a major shift in how artists are paid.

There are Caveats, of course. It's not clear how much of a subscriber's money goes to the pool. SoundCloud tells me that depends on their listening habits. The figure still suggests that the new model isn't all talk. It should lead to higher payouts for smaller artists.

The Upfronts are almost here.

I am seeing a lot of big and familiar names on the list for the IAB'sPodcast Upfronts. We have NPR, SXM Media, and Wondery, plus some more surprising entrants like Disney and Paramount. It's a long list, so check it out over here. The event will be held from May 10th to May 12th.

Substack's newsletter app is now a podcasts app.

An update yesterday made the app a lot richer. The app now has a full-screen interface. You can queue up recordings. If Substack wants to help creators see its platform as a viable one for podcasting, it will need table stakes features.

Get ready to say hello to someone new on Thursday. See you then!

On Tuesday, you will receive analysis, insights, and commentary on the audio industry.