The Joe Rogan Experience did something out of the ordinary Tuesday, publishing a nearly two-hour episode featuring Elon Musk directly to the X platform.
The full podcast was nearly two hours and 45 minutes, with the first hour and 52 minutes being published to X.
Rogan utilized “#Ad” to symbolize the podcast was paid to publish the episode on the platform. The Federal Trade Commission’s truth-in-advertising laws require Rogan to disclose paid advertisements in his social media posts.
As of this publication, the episode has garnered more than 25 million views according to X’s publicly available metrics.
The move from Joe Rogan comes at an interesting time. Earlier this year, it was reported that the comedian’s ever-popular podcast was nearing the end of its exclusive contract with Spotify. However, the company has denied those claims, which contradicts reports from both The New York Post and The New York Times that claimed Rogan and Spotify signed an exclusive three-and-a-half-year deal for the show in 2020.
Earlier this year, Spotify CEO Daniel Ek admitted that some of the company’s podcasting endeavors haven’t panned out. He called some ventures in 2022 “a mistake“. Deals between the platform and Barack and Michelle Obama, and Prince Harry and Meghan Markle ended in 2022 and 2023 after their contracts weren’t renewed.
