Netflix Releases The Playlist, a Fictionalized Show About Spotify

Netflix is chronicling the early days of streaming titan Spotify with a Swedish limited series called The Playlist. Premiered on October 13th, the six-episode show dramatizes Spotify’s success story by diving deep into streaming’s impact on artists’ businesses. 

The 50-minute episodes are based on the 2021 book Spotify Untold, a page-turning story written by investigative journalists Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud. Besides following Spotify’s timeline from a modest Stockholm start-up to a music industry trailblazer, Netflix’s The Playlist also offers insights about key legal issues. 

After getting rejected by a Silicon Valley employer, Daniel Ek (Edvin Endre) took matters into his own hands and founded his own company.

The Playlist’s narration follows six perspectives through each episode, including the founder’s vision, the industry’s blue-blooded names, and the free-willed coder. 

Directed by Per-Olav Sørensen, the docu-drama miniseries stresses that although it is based on hard facts, its episodes are a fictionalized version of what happened. 

It seems like 2022 is a 360° year for the streaming platform, as Spotify launched its ticket-selling website in August.