If you’ve been a regular fan of the Joe Budden Podcast, you would know that Joe Budden has been taken shots at Spotify over the past few months. The streaming platform has signed many big players like The Ringer, Joe Rogan, Kim Kardashian and Barack & Michelle Obama this year, and Budden knows his worth.
Apparently, the two sides have been trying to negotiate a deal and while the JBP has been offered a significantly larger deal than in 2018, Joe is sticking to his guns.
Over the past two years, Joe has been exclusively on Spotify and performing very well on the platform (listeners are up by 900%), which is why he feels like he deserves more money than what he is being offered. They also disagree where podcasting is going in five years and he would not take a deal that would not work favorably to them.
On the Wednesday episode, he update listeners:
“We have seven episodes left. We are approaching the end of our Spotify contract. September 23rd, I cannot tell you where this podcast will be. But as it stands, I can tell you where it will not be, and that is Spotify.
Spotify never cared about this podcast individually, Spotify only cared about our contribution to the platform.”
He also explained that he felt like he should have received a bonus for how well the podcast has been performing, but he didn’t get anything. He was confused as to why. The team has not even taken vacation days for Christmas and New Year’s Eve because they would have missed two episodes.
On the contract they offered:
“It is more money than I have ever been privy to in my life, but I would not be able to sleep at night [if he took the deal]. That was the first time it dawned on me that Spotify is pillaging,” he says. “You pillage the audience from the podcast, and you’ve continued to pillage each step of the way without any regard for [the fans.]”
As of this moment, consider the JBP free agents.
On this side, we can tell you that the only reason we even go on Spotify is to listen to the podcast. Besides that, we’re on Apple Music for our musical needs.
UPDATE: Spotify issued a statement after news surfaced of Joe Budden’s departure. Joey responded.
“It was our desire to keep Joe Budden on Spotify. As Joe referenced on his show, we made him a considerable offer — one that was significantly larger and many times the value of the existing agreement and reflective of the current market and size of his audience. Unfortunately, we could not come to terms and we respect his wishes to find a new home for his show.”
Charlamagne, Joe Budden is a network. We’ll talk later.
— Joe Budden (@JoeBudden) August 27, 2020
The part some ppl are missing is that not once have i ever asked anybody (besides Ian)….. for anything. I go get mine… Go “these are our standard practices” another podder lol
— Joe Budden (@JoeBudden) August 27, 2020