Joe Budden is parting ways with Spotify – and he’s taking his popular namesake podcast with him. Budden made the announcement Friday, Aug. 28 on his most recent episode entitled “Views From The SPOT.” While it’s not clear where Budden’s podcast will land, he reiterated it won’t be Spotify.
“Listen, we have seven episodes left … What seven episodes left means is that September 23rd, new episodes of this podcast will no longer be available on Spotify exclusively,” Budden said. “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,” Budden said.
He detailed some of the history during the two years he’s been with the streaming giant since Budden signed his deal in 2018. He noted how his podcast exceeded expectations and helped put Spotify on the map with podcasting.
“Two years ago, Apple controlled it, all of it … We’re 900 percent above your projections … The site crashed when we launched. They had to make some major changes … (we) broke the system. Awesome,” Budden said.
Budden said he went on to get offered better deals on other projects with different companies which didn’t require as much output.
“It’s (the podcast) is my most valuable asset also for me, for me right now I’m being paid the least in it. I’m talking about in terms of time,” Budden said. “We have earned nine figures. Not low. Not one. … We have been number one for a year straight. … Not a bonus in site.”
Due to his background in music, Budden said he was familiar with being undervalued, but tried to make sure he honored his contract. He said Spotify was more concerned about quantity over quality.
“We all come from music. This ain’t new to us, niggas trying to rob us, we know what this is … Spotify, my contract with y’all, I helped design it. Y’all didn’t know,” Budden said. “There’s an entire ecosystem here that you have to respect if you’re looking to feed the soil. See everybody’s not looking to feed the soil some are just looking to take the fruit.”
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He said the problem became exacerbated after the company refused to approve vacation days he and his team requested for Christmas and New Year’s Eve. Instead of bonuses, Budden said executives offered to give them Rolexes for their great ratings. Shen he and his team picked out the watches they wanted, Budden said they told them they were too expensive.
Afterwards, Budden said everything they sent up to executives on how to award them for their labor, they refused. So he suggested they give money away to fans of his podcast in December. Again Spotify refused, Budden said.
“That was the first time it dawned on me that Spotify is pillaging,” Budden said. “You pillage the audience from the podcast and you’ve continued to pillage each step of the way without any regard for actually how the people feel, the impactful people the people that are responsible for making all of this come to fruition is how I felt. “
His cohost Rory chimed agreeing the value they added to Spotify was priceless.
“That’s my problem to the two things that you said in this whole segment: Executives focusing just on the numbers and then the word value,” Rory said. “Because the amount of people that we brought to Spotify in the podcast market and the info they got from it, it’s invaluable you can’t put a price on that.”
Spotify told The Verge in a statement that they’d hoped to keep Budden on as talent, but respected his decision.
“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.”
