Staff Reporter | On 12, Dec 2019

Netflix will tell the story behind Spotify in a new drama.

The untitled scripted series about the Swedish start-up that shook the music industry is inspired by the book Spotify Untold by Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud – both business reporters at Swedish Dagens Industri.

At the height of piracy, established heavy-hitters were fighting against where the turbulent music industry was heading. The series centres on young Swedish tech entrepreneur Daniel Ek and his partner, Martin Lorentzon, who revolutionised a whole industry by offering free and legal streamed music around the world. It is a story about how hard convictions, unrelenting will, access and big dreams can help small players challenge the status quo by evolving the way we can all listen to music. 

It will be produced by Yellow Bird UK, the production company behind the upcoming Netflix series Young Wallander. Per-Olav Sørensen (Quicksand, Home for Christmas and Nobel) will be directing and Berna Levin (Young Wallander, Hidden and The Girl in the Spider’s Web) will serve as executive producer.

Tesha Crawford, Director of International Originals Northern Europe at Netflix, says: “The founding tale of Spotify is a great example of how a local story can have a global impact. We are really excited about bringing this success story to life and we look forward to continuing our great collaboration with director Per-Olav Sørensen and the team at Yellow Bird UK.”

“I’m thrilled to be making this timely and entertaining series for Netflix. The story of how a small band of Swedish tech industry insiders transformed music – how we listen to it and how it’s made – is truly a tale for our time. Not only is this a story about the way all our lives have changed in the last decade, it’s about the battle for cultural and financial influence in a globalised, digitised world,” adds Levin.

“I am excited to bring the story of Sweden based Spotify to life on the screen. It is an ongoing fairytale in modern history about how Swedish wiz kids changed the music industry forever. The story is truly exciting and challenging. Challenging because the Spotify story has not ended yet – it is still running with high speed and will probably change while we work on the project. I am also happy to continue my cooperation with Netflix. The completely different projects we have done together so far really challenges me as a director, and I am looking forward to walk on yet an exciting path with Netflix,” comments Per-Olav Sørensen.

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