[anon23432343]

It was and still is a stupid decision to buy Joe Rogan. I don't get why people listen to him... He is not funny nor smart. It sometimes feels you get better value when watching morning tv shows...

[Shish2k]

Are “it was a stupid decision to buy him” and “I don't get why people listen to him” supposed to be related statements? The business decision isn’t about your personal feelings, it’s about his objectively measurably enormous audience

[anon23432343]

I want to see how they got the 200 million back and as they have to lay off 17% of there people it looks like a stupid decision in the end.

[Roritharr]

Would you say that about any other type of media/culture/art you dislike?

"I don't get why people like the Mona Lisa, the painting is neither original nor particularly well done"

Is just as much a subjective statement. JRE is, by most released figures the top interview podcast on the planet, his interviews regularly move Charts of third party media like Book Bestseller Lists and Music Charts.

There obviously is a huge audience and value there and I can only assume their agreement over 200M was based on some pretty solid math.

[coryrc]

> I can only assume their agreement over 200M was based on some pretty solid math.

Working at Microsoft during the Ballmer era and seeing the number of multi-billion-dollar acquisitions written-down to nothing, I would never assume corporations spend large amounts wisely.

[kvonhorn]

> "I don't get why people like the Mona Lisa, the painting is neither original nor particularly well done"

And it's so small, too.

[FalconSensei]

The Mona Lisa is art, and it is a "you can like it or not" situation. A podcast that allows for spreading misinformation about vaccines can be responsible for the deaths of many

[andsoitis]

> I don't get why people listen to him...

People have different tastes. That's OK.

The Joe Rogan Experience has continued to be at the top of Spotify's podcast charts, bringing in 11m listeners an episode. https://www.forbes.com/sites/brianbushard/2023/07/03/top-pod...

[eddtries]

It’s light entertainment and he tends to cover topics I am interested in like BJJ/Muay Thai. If he goes on about Covid etc I just half listen, it’s rarely that long.

[stjohnswarts]

It's simple, different people have different opinions in life and his show is still the most popular podcast on spotify. was it worth $200 million, I have my doubts on that one.

[baby]

He’s a great podcaster.

[epistasis]

Good enough to bring in $200M of revenue through subscriptions or ads?

[kvetching]

He's really gone downhill lately. Looking really rough. And stoned on top of that. I wonder if he can even comprehend half of what his guests are saying.

[10u152]

You don’t listen to Joe Rogan to listen to Joe Rogan. You listen because he has the most interesting guests on.

[1letterunixname]

Joe Rogan isn't an insightful, active listener like Charlie Rose was and with actual interesting guests at a higher signal level.

[anon23432343]

And lets people spread fake news and stupid theories.

Just because they are "interesting" they should not get a free promo.

[HideousKojima]

>It was and still is a stupid decision to buy Joe Rogan.

>I don't get why people listen to him...

I think you just contradicted yourself here. Whether or not it was a stupid decision to buy the rights to his podcast is orthogonal to whether or not he's funny or smart or if his content gives "value" to listeners.

[rowanG077]

You don't watch Joe Rogan for Joe Rogan. You watch Joe Rogan for the guests. I love his episodes with Elon Musk.

[mvdtnz]

I feel neither positively nor negatively about Rogan himself (I've never listened to him) but it was plainly a very stupid investment on Spotify's part. Anyone could have predicted (and most of us did) that only a fraction of his audience would follow him behind the paywall and removing him from mainstream free outlets would instantly diminish his cultural relevance.

[stjohnswarts]

paywall? all you have to do is sign up for the freemium version of spotify?

[bluescrn]

‘Diminishing his cultural relevance’ may have been the goal.

Reducing his audience, censoring his most controversial past episodes and preventing certain conversations from happening in front of his large audience in future?