Tag: The Clearing

Spotify and Chernin Entertainment Announce Multiyear First Look Partnership

September 24, 2020

As podcasting consumption has grown worldwide, so has the trend of podcasts serving as the source material for movies, TV shows, and news broadcasts for an always-on audio medium. Today, Spotify is excited to turn that volume up to eleven with the news that we are partnering with Chernin Entertainment to draw from our hundreds of original series for film, television and digital series.  

The explosion in podcasting has become a powerful source for creators across all mediums, and the partnership will help accelerate the embracing of podcast content as foundational intellectual property (IP). The agreement will include access to more than 250 Spotify originals from around the world. In fact, the two companies are already in collaboration with Pineapple Street Media on the forthcoming adaptation of the acclaimed podcast series The Clearing. 

“At Spotify, we believe that the extraordinary growth of audio will continue to attract the world’s great creators and make podcasts a premier destination for original IP,” said Spotify Chief Content and Advertising Business Officer Dawn Ostroff. “As we continue to expand our content ambitions, we are thrilled to collaborate with Peter Chernin, who, along with his exceptional team, are the perfect partners to help us share these stories with audiences across mediums and around the world. Together, we can usher in a new era for podcasts as source material.”

The partnership will build on the foundation of Spotify podcast adaptations to date including Homecoming for Amazon’s Prime Video and continue with a reimagining of The Two Princes for HBO Max and The Horror of Dolores Roach for Prime Video. With movie titles like Ford v Ferrari, The Planet of the Apes Trilogy, The Greatest Showman, and Hidden Figures, and TV series like New Girl, See, and Truth Be Told, Chernin Entertainment is well positioned to realize the extraordinary potential in adapting audio content for visual mediums. 

“Audio is by far the fastest-growing medium in the entertainment business, and with over 250 originals and thousands of hours of content, Spotify has one of the largest libraries of unattached IP that exists in the world today—and that library is being added to daily,” says Chernin Entertainment Chairman and CEO Peter Chernin. “This treasure trove of content plus the acceleration of new voices and stories provides an enormous opportunity to transform these addictive stories and IP into content for the screen.” 

Stream The Clearing, set to be adapted by Spotify, Chernin Entertainment, and Pineapple Street Media.

New True Crime Podcast Chronicles Woman’s Exploration of Dad’s Dark Past

July 11, 2019

The name April Balascio may sound familiar. She made headlines when she discovered that her long-estranged father, Edward Wayne Edwards, was a murderer. Now, the full story of her chilling realization, The Clearing, is captured in a gripping new true crime podcast from Pineapple Street Media in association with Gimlet, debuting on Spotify July 18. 

Edwards was an eccentric, difficult, and often abusive dad. He was known for a criminal past that included offenses like armed robbery and even gained notoriety for his book about it. April long wondered if he hid darker secrets and called a detective in 2009 to tell him about her suspicions—a call that led to her father’s arrest and eventual conviction on multiple murders. But the story didn’t end there.

Three years ago, April met journalist and author Josh Dean, and the two formed an unusual partnership. They began to work together to dig back into her childhood, unravel the truth of her father’s life, and overturn a viral online narrative that had turned Edward Wayne Edwards into a kind of serial killer caricature. 

Hosted by Dean and produced by Pineapple Street’s Jonathan Menjivar (formerly of This American Life), The Clearing tells the story of how April came to discover the full truth about her dad—as she visits with detectives, former neighbors, and victims’ families—and tracks April’s emotional journey along the way.  

The first two episodes of The Clearing will premiere for free on July 18 on Spotify and wherever podcasts are available. New episodes will drop each week thereafter.

Learn more about The Clearing ahead of the show’s debut.