Joe Rogan Hosted Musician Gary Clark Jr. on His Podcast - and the Blues Artist's Streams on Spotify Shot Up 500% Among Rogan's Listeners

Joe Rogan Hosted Musician Gary Clark Jr. on His Podcast – and the Blues Artist’s Streams on Spotify Shot Up 500% Among Rogan’s Listeners

Joe Rogan’s massively popular podcast not only drives millions of listens of his show on Spotify – it also can boost music streams of guests featured on “The Joe Rogan Experience,” too.

One of Spotify’s theses behind its investment in podcasts is that they spur higher engagement for the music side of the house: Users who listen to podcasts on average listen to more music, according to the company. Now Spotify has new stats it says demonstrate that flywheel effect as it relates to Rogan’s show, which has more than 14 million followers on the platform.

Grammy-winning blues guitarist and singer Gary Clark Jr. was the featured guest on “The Joe Rogan Experience” on Friday, March 22. Clark Jr. joined Rogan timed to the drop of his latest album, “JPEG RAW,” and performed his song “Habits” off of the new album live in the podcast studio – a first on Rogan’s show. (Watch a clip at this link.)

As a result, Clark Jr.’s music saw a significant jump in consumption on Spotify. In the 72 hours following the episode’s release Friday, Clark Jr.’s streams increased 180% in the U.S. and 150% globally, compared with the previous daily averages in March.

“JRE” fans responded even more enthusiastically. Spotify saw a 500% increase globally in streams of Clark Jr.’s music in the same 72-hour period among listeners of “The Joe Rogan Experience.” In addition, Spotify registered an 80% increase in global user-generated playlist additions of the blues artist’s “Habits.” (Spotify declined to disclose number of streams, providing only percentage increases.)

Rogan’s podcast consistently stands at No. 1 on Spotify’s U.S. charts and has topped its year-end rankings for the last three years. Under Rogan’s $250 million deal renewal with Spotify announced last month, “The Joe Rogan Experience” is no longer exclusively available on Spotify (which had exclusive distribution rights for three years) while the company will manage distribution and ad sales.

Rogan’s “impact and influence spans beyond podcasts, and Gary Clark Jr.’s appearance is one of the many examples we’ve seen that showcases how opportunities across our platform result in success for all the creators involved,” a company rep told Variety.

Spotify has touted a similar effect for Alex Cooper’s “Call Her Daddy,” which the company says has spurred song streams of her music guests to more than double or even quadruple in a 48-hour period after their appearances on the podcast.

Rogan, following his new deal with the streamer, released a Spotify playlist of hype songs he’s compiled over the years to get ready for his shows. His Green Room playlist now has 351 songs, totaling more than 24 hours, and Spotify naturally hopes that will generate incremental music-streaming usage.

At the same time, Rogan has courted controversy with his podcast that has created headaches for Spotify. That included a boycott of Spotify by artists including Neil Young and Joni Mitchell in early 2022 over Rogan’s anti-vax episodes. Now that “The Joe Rogan Experience” is no longer exclusively on Spotify, both Young and Mitchell have returned their music to the platform in recent weeks.

More from Variety