Joe Budden seems to be earning a substantial income from podcasting through his Patreon deal.
The rapper-turned-major podcaster accidentally posted a screenshot of his earnings on Instagram earlier this month, revealing he’s made $902,000.
According to the screenshot taken via Complex, “The Joe Budden Podcast” has approximately 155,000 active members and has received around 30 million visits on the platform over a 30-day period.
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In 2021, it was announced that the Joe Budden Network was transitioning to Patreon. In a statement to Complex, he doubled down on the importance of ensuring creators are valued and appropriately paid.
“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,” he said.
He reportedly receives subscription rates ranging from $5 to $25 each month, which include perks such as behind-the-scenes clips, a private community chat on Discord, and a new franchise series, as reported by Complex.
As part of his deal, he also serves as Patreon’s Head of Creator Equity, tasked with guiding the platform’s programs and policies that benefit creators.
From the podcasting world alone, Budden revealed in April 2024 that he had earned at least $7 million before taxes.
“Listen, years of hard work, y’all can do it too it’s not unachievable there you go like. This is not unimaginable. You work hard keep your head down to the finish line man. Just focus on the content what you need to do,” he advised.
His initial foray into podcasting in 2015 was not generating a profit, as previously reported by AFROTECH™; this all changed in 2018 when he signed a two-year deal with Spotify to produce two weekly episodes.
However, he chose to walk away from Spotify when the company presented him with a renewal contract worth nearly $20 million but came with numerous strings attached.
“There’s this thing going on in the industry where they’re misleading you with words. You gotta pay attention to words…words mean things,” Budden said on the “Earn Your Leisure” podcast. “So, these artists running around talking about partnerships, what the f-ck does the partnership matter if they get paid in perpetuity off everything? Like you can own it, but if you ain’t profiting off of it, then it means nothing.”
