Much-awaited web series The Playlist has been doing rounds on the OTT ever since it was released on global OTT giant Netflix on October 13, 2022. The Playlist trailer was released two weeks ago (while writing this) and ever since then, fans had sensed that the content might portray a true story. For the unversed, 'The Playlist' is a Swedish series that has been directed by Per-Olav Sorensen and Hallgrim Haug. The six-episode web series has been buzzing among the fans and it is considered to be another big by Netflix. The Playlist star cast includes Edvin Endre as Daniel Ek, Christian Hillborg as Martin Lorentzon, Gizem Erdogan as Petra Hanson, Joel Lutzow as Andreas Ehn, and more. The Playlist has a wide starcast of Swedish actors, however, the web series has been succeeding in impressing fans from all over the world. Going by the Playlist synopsis, the six-episode web series is "Led by Daniel Ek, a group of passionate young entrepreneurs come together in what seems to be the impossible task to change the music industry - and the world. They set out to create a legal streaming service for music." As the term entrepreneurship comes, fans are wondering and asking Is The Playlist a true story or The Playlist a real story not?
The answer to this question is Yes. The Playlist is a true story based on the inception storyline of the audio streaming and media service provider Spotify. Swedish actor Edvin Endre is playing the character of Daniel Ek, while Christian Hillborg has played the character of Martin Lorentzon. Notably, The Playlist is a true story of the creation of global music streaming giant Spotify, however, few scenes and facts have been tweaked in order to dramatise the series for the public. Spotify was the brainchild of Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek. It came at a time when nobody could imagine that instead of CDs and cassettes, music could be stored online, and there could be a business model where everything was free for the consumer, and still profit could be made.
The playlist further shows how no investors were ready to invest in the business idea of Daniel and Martin in the initial stages. Furthermore, The Playlist shows the transformation of Spotify from a startup that was finding it hard to pay its employees and get investments to becoming the biggest music streaming provider in the world.
To be more precise, The Playlist is heavily based on the book Spotify Untold, which was written by Swedish business reporters Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud. Although the series is a fictional representation, the book Spotify Untold is a work of nonfiction. The book focuses of Martin and Daniel’s efforts to launch Spotify in the US in the face of massive opposition from competitors Apple and Microsoft, and the music industry. The book is based on a wealth of interviews and the reporters’ knowledge of the industry which they have written about since Spotify’s inception.
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About Spotify
Spotify is a Swedish audio streaming and media services provider founded on 23 April 2006 by Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon. It is one of the largest music streaming service providers, with over 433 million monthly active users, including 188 million paying subscribers, as of June 2022. Spotify is listed (through a Luxembourg City-domiciled holding company, Spotify Technology S.A.) on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depositary receipts.
Spotify has been criticised for exploiting artists - it pays musicians just $0.003 - $0.005 per stream on average, although this does work at a 70-30 split in the artist's favour. At the high end of this pay scale, artists would need to have their song streamed 200,000 times to make $1,000. Hollywood singer Drake is the most streamed artist on Spotify, with more than 50 billion streams, and is estimated to have made more than $210 million in royalties - but for smaller artists, it is much harder to profit from their work.