The Playlist From: Per-Olav Sorensen, Christian Spurrier. Starring: Edvin Endre, ChristianHillborg, Ulf Stenberg, Gizem Erdogan. Netflix, 6 episodes of 45 minutes. From Thursday 13 October.
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Daniel Ek is sure: he is going to save the music industry. At least, if theindustry will listen. That’s a problem for him at the beginning of the Swedishdrama series The Playlist. Much to his frustration, the co-founder and bossof the streaming service Spotify has to go to great lengths to get into aconversation with the major record companies about the use of their music.Once those conversations start, he doesn’t understand why they don’t want tocooperate right away. “We are the future, we make the rules now,” says Ek(well played by Edvin Endre) in a scene to his legal advisers. “If they don’tget it, they can let themselves be further exploited by The Pirate Bay.”
While the music industry struggled with the digitization of music and thecollapse of revenues, Ek tried with Spotify to develop an attractive and legalalternative to illegal download services like The Pirate Bay.
You can’t call the ending of the series a spoiler: sixteen years after it wasfounded in Stockholm, Spotify has become a natural part of life for many. Theservice now has 433 million users, of which 188 million are paid subscribers.Spotify managed to get ahead of major American tech companies such as Apple,Google and Amazon.
Tech entrepreneurs
How did Ek and his team manage it? The Playlist makes a commendable attemptto answer that question. Or at least in part. Ever since The Social Network, the film about Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, many similar stories abouttech entrepreneurs have been filmed. This year alone several series from thiscorner appeared, including WeCrashed and The Dropout. Unlike those storiesfull of chaos and scammers, the Spotify story seems to lend itself less todramatization. The life of the somewhat dull Ek does not seem spectacularenough.
In the first episode, we see how he made millions selling a business indigital advertising and then focused on making the best music player ever.It’s a typical story about a tech entrepreneur who has to fight to change anentrenched industry.
At the end of the first episode it becomes clear which solution the makershave found to bring more tension and energy into the whole. “It didn’t go likethat,” the character Per Sundin suddenly tells the camera. In the next episodewe see his side of events that were first shown from Ek’s perspective. As theboss of the Swedish branch of record company Sony Music, we see Sundin’sstruggle with the rapidly changing music industry. This approach will becontinued throughout the season: each episode is told from the perspective ofa different main character, including talking to the viewer (that breaking thefourth wall is a tired trick that film and series makers sometimes have tostop).
Edvin Endre as Spotify boss Daniel Ek. Jonas Alarik / Netflix
Different perspectives
We follow the shrewd lawyer Petra Hansson, the eccentric co-founder MartinLorentzon and the principled programmer Andreas Ehn, among others. The side ofmusicians is highlighted through a fictional character, singer Bobbi T. Themakers undoubtedly have the book The Spotify Play by journalists JonasLeijonhufvud and Sven Carlsson as a source of inspiration. Yet Netflix reportsin press releases that The Playlist is fiction. Understandable from adramaturgical point of view, because that way you can add more tension.
By far the best episode is called ‘The Law’ and it deals with the importantrole Hansson played for the company. She was given the task of arranging therights and thus convincing labels to put their music on Spotify. While thestubborn Ek could not hide his displeasure and impatience during thenegotiations, she had to bring the parties together. But as natural asstreaming music is now, it was so special in 2006. And so it took a whilebefore everyone saw the light. Actress Gizem Erdogan, also strong in theseries Karlek & Anarkic, plays the part with conviction. You understand howthe lawyer managed to keep things together with a mix of self-confidence,creativity and sobriety.
Gizem Erdogan as lawyer Petra Hanson. Jonas Alarik / Netflix
The clash with Daniel Ek’s original idea comes to the fore in the series. Freemusic for everyone via a streaming service sounds nice, but it is not arevenue model. The programmer in particular feels the pain when there is talkof a paywall. As is often the case, a utopian dream collides with the harshreality of capitalism. That is also the case for the musicians who have tosurvive in the modern music industry. The criticism that Spotify is only goodfor record companies and that artists earn far too little often returns andhas been incorporated into the series. The feud between pop star Taylor Swiftand Spotify is touched upon here. After Swift spoke out about the unfairdistribution of royalties, she had her music removed from the service. Latershe returned, probably on very good terms.
The series shows that things are not so well arranged for smaller acts. Whosefault is that? Ek points to the labels that would exploit their artiststhrough bad contracts. This aspect of the series doesn’t quite work,especially since the singer we follow in the series is fictional. That makesit not tangible enough. And that while the problems for many musicians haveonly gotten bigger since the corona crisis. Streaming would also be anadvertisement for performances, but touring is also becoming increasinglyloss-making for larger acts, partly due to rising prices (the popular bandAnimal Collective recently canceled a European tour for this reason).
In 2022, Spotify is much more than a music service: the company is investingmore and more energy in podcasts. There are also discussions in this worldabout the role of Spotify: for example, rock singer Neil Young withdrew hismusic from the service as a protest against the controversial podcaster JoeRogan. That issue might be something for a next season of The Playlist.