Is true tech set to become the new true crime? The Playlist, a new “fictionalised” series about the creation of music streaming service Spotify, becomes the fourth drama this year to tell the story of an upstart start-up, following The Dropout (about Theranos), WeCrashed (WeWork) and Super Pumped: The Battle for Uber (about former Uber boss Travis Kalanick).
These trace a well-established rise-and-fall arc, but Swedish-language Netflix show The Playlist has no spectacular collapse to document. Nor can it rely on the gravitational pull of a central subject’s outsized ego. Despite courting criticism about royalty payments and the problematic $200mn deal with podcaster and arch-controversialist Joe Rogan, Spotify continues to grow while it, and its co-founder Daniel Ek, have generally avoided being mired in sleaze and scandal.
All this might suggest that there isn’t much material to sustain six episodes — especially since the timeline doesn’t extend beyond Spotify’s origins in the mid-2000s. But in fact, The Playlist offers a welcome departure from the chaos and hubris. Undistracted by incident or personal histories, the series delivers a focused account of how an implausible idea to provide the world with free access to any song was made possible by a small company in Stockholm.
Part of the appeal of this series is that it resists indulging Ek (Edvin Endre) as a singular visionary. After the first episode — in which we see the twentysomething create and sell one company (a targeted advertising service) while sitting in his underwear, before laying the foundations for Spotify with his partner Martin Lorentzon (Christian Hillborg) — he stops being the central figure. Instead, each of the remaining five chapters is told from the perspective of other key individuals: Lorentzon; Petra Hansson (Gizem Erdogan), the lawyer who rationalises with the uncompromising Ek; and Per Sundin (Ulf Stenberg), the record company boss standing in their way. Sundin opens up a broader context for the show, narrating how established labels suddenly began to lose their stranglehold over the music industry.
Things become more compelling as the various (at times conflicting) vantage points build a more textured story. But despite the sound performances and smart structure, the series could benefit from slicker pacing and sharper dialogue. As it is, The Playlist falls into a slightly sedate rhythm that’s hard to get hooked on.
★★★☆☆
On Netflix now
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