It is not yet known what will be the subject of the second season of Serial or when the hit podcast will return, but fans who can't wait to indulge in the true-life crime drama will have another platform to stream the episodes when they debut.
Pandora announced on Monday that it will exclusively allow users to stream episodes on its platform at the same time that they air.
The spin-off from This American Life, Serial followed the true story of Adnan Syed, who is currently serving life in prison after being found guilty for the murder of Hae Min Lee back in 2000. Co-produced and hosted by Sarah Koenig, the podcast raised doubts that Syed was guilty, quickly becoming a pop culture phenomenon and winning a Peabody Award last April.
Now, along with being available on Serial's website, iTunes and podcast apps, Pandora users will also get to tune in to the weekly program.
"Serial Season One was a phenomenon and we at Pandora are among the many eagerly anticipating Season Two," Pandora's CEO, Brian McAndrews, said in a press release. "We think our listeners will love Serial and look forward to helping build its growing number of fans."
Although we still don't know the exact premiere date of season 2, Serial will be available on Pandora on Thursdays at 6 a.m. ET. For those who haven't followed the podcast or who want to replay old episodes, the music streaming platform is also making season 1 available starting Tuesday, Nov. 24.
"For people already listening to Serial and This American Life, nothing will change. But we believe lots of people who'd like our shows simply haven't heard of them, or haven't started listening to podcasts," said Ira Glass, editorial adviser of Serial and host of This American Life. "Serial is the biggest podcast in the world, but only 17 percent of Americans listen to podcasts at all. That's why it's so exciting for us to work with Pandora. Pandora reaches millions of people who never listen to public radio or download podcasts. This'll get our shows to them."
The platform has "chapterized" content to break up episodes into three- to five-minute segments so that listeners can easily pick up where they left off or replay some of their favorite moments.
Pandora previously added non-music content back in 2011, when it added 20 comedy stations, but this is the first time it has brought on a podcast.
"We also have our fingers crossed that Sarah Koenig's voice sounds enough like Justin Bieber's that Pandora's genome pushes the show on hordes of millennials," Glass joked.
Over eight million people downloaded each episode of the first season of Serial.
Source: Pandora
Photo: Casey Fiesler | Flickr
