Joe Budden Announces Deal With Patreon After Parting Ways With Spotify

Only a couple of months after parting ways with Spotify and taking his podcast off the platform, Joe Budden has announced a new deal with Patreon.

Source: Phillip Faraone / Getty

The Love & Hip Hop star shared this news during the latest episode of The Joe Budden Podcast, confirming that his entire Joe Budden Network will be hosted on the Patreon platform moving forward. According to reports from The Hollywood Reporter, subscriptions to the retired rapper’s Patreon content will range between $5 to $25 a month, depending on which subscription tier listeners choose. By paying a monthly fee, supporters will have access to bonus episodes of The Joe Budden Podcast, behind-the-scenes clips, a private community chat on Discord, and more.

In another big move for Budden, he has also been hired as Patreon’s Head of Creator Equity: a paid advisory role in which he will help the platform create programs and policies that benefit creators. For anyone who has listened to Joe over the past couple of years, this is obviously something he’s very passionate about.

“I’ve seen firsthand that exploitation is everywhere in this industry – it’s become the status quo, and I’m tired of it,” Budden said in a statement. “I’m tired of constantly fighting for independence, and I’m tired of proving my value over and over again. This partnership with Patreon marks a new era for the creative economy: one where independence comes first, and creators get paid – something that shouldn’t be revolutionary.”

He continued, “Creators should get the biggest stake in their art, and the system isn’t ready to do that, so we’re going to change the system. This is the new blueprint, and we are the first.”

Budden and his team announced the end of their deal with Spotify back in August, following disagreements with the company over their contracts. Joe mentioned a lot of gripes with the company, saying he and his team were treated unfairly throughout his two-year contract, also claiming the company wouldn’t allow them to take a vacation for the holidays and tried to give them Rolexes rather than the bonuses they were entitled to.