Song Exploder podcast to re-launch as new Netflix docu-series

The hugely popular podcast Song Exploder, hosted and executive produced by Hrishikesh Hirway, will be moving to Netflix and airing as a docu-series. Filmmaker Morgan Neville will join Hirway in adapting the series to the streaming platform, where it will air on October 2nd.

In its podcast form, Song Exploder invites artists to tear into the creation process of their work, examining the machinations that make a song tick, from the songwriting stage to the production, instrumentation, and recording of the song itself. The Netflix show will largely follow a similar format, and the first season will feature artists like Alicia Keys (dissecting “3 Hour Drive”), Ty Dolla $ign (“L.A.”), R.E.M.’s Michael Stipe (“Losing My Religion”), and Lin-Manuel Miranda (“Wait For It,” from Hamilton).

The pivot to Netflix comes in the wake of news that past Song Exploder episodes will start to be removed from the podcast’s archives. “This is a bummer, but I’m starting to take episodes of Song Exploder down,” Hirway mentioned in a now-deleted tweet. “I’ve always hoped they’d all be available forever, but the reality of music licensing makes that impossible. As the podcast approaches 200 episodes, it’s just too expensive to keep all of them afloat.”

Check out the trailer for the upcoming Song Exploder Netflix series below.