ReviewIn our playlist we guide you through the current range of on-demandfilms, series, albums and podcasts. What must you (not) have seen or listenedto and why? Today the Swedish drama series The Playlist.
Who is telling the truth in the six-part Swedish drama series The Playlist_about the genesis and the comet-like rise of the streaming service Spotify,the major player in offering almost the entire popular music history? Withsuch a reconstruction that pretends to represent reality, it is alwaysdifficult for the viewer to keep facts and fiction apart. The makers of _ThePlaylist have opted for a brilliant solution.
The Playlist
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Drama series (Netflix)
The six episodes are each told from a different perspective by one of thoseinvolved. As a result, certain events are placed in a different light by TheThinker, The Business Partner, The Company Lawyer, The Programmer, The SonyRecord Boss and The Singer, who feels exploited by Spotify.
The Playlist isn’t set up as a boring drama for computer geeks who swear bythe technicalities of paywalls and related stuff. It has more the character ofan overgrown boy’s book. The focus is initially on the creator, Daniel Ek, amusic lover and computer genius. He is annoyed by the poor quality of theillegal Pirate Bay site, where music is offered, much to the annoyance of therecord companies that are constantly taking the initiators to court.
mocked
Ek aims to set up a legal, user-friendly music service, in collaboration withthe record industry. But that seems an impossible task. I’m being mocked.Fortunately, he is not alone. He has an investor. Martin Lorentzon, who becamerich by selling advertisements on the Internet. He does see something in hisyoung counterpart whom he considers a genius. He doesn’t care about the agedifference (15 years) and clothing behavior (tailored suits versus unironedt-shirts).
The name Spotify – a combination of to spot (find) and identify (identify) -is quickly coined. But then the complicated procedures begin; setting up ateam with the best programmers in Sweden and arguing with the recordexecutives.
Scene from The Playlist © Netflix
The series, based on the book Spotify Untold , does not shy away from alsopeddling personal details of those involved. So Ek is a mother’s child. Hebombards her with devices she doesn’t need. Lorentzon turns out to be an ADDpatient with an energy bordering on hysteria. He often jumps on tables tofreak out.
Then there is an extraordinarily gifted programmer Andreas who takes care ofthe technical solutions. He is a model for the integrity of the company fromwhich less and less is left. His credo: “A computer is a child that you haveto learn everything.”
wickedly rich
Special is the contribution of the (fictional) singer Bobbi T, a formerclassmate of Ek who is emphatically in the picture at the beginning, but thendisappears. She reappears in the final parts (‘You thought you got rid of me’)in which she turns out to be a fierce opponent of her childhood friend who –now very rich – is accused by her of exploiting musicians on his site. Sheherself has no money to buy an iPhone for her daughter. Major artists such asTaylor Swift also want to see more money from Spotify.
The Playlist is a beautifully told drama that thoroughly addresses the battlebetween young dogs with vision and dozed dinosaurs, as Ek initially describedthe record directors. Who will win this battle? A jump to 2025 shows that thishas not yet been settled.