“ The Playlist ” is a Swedish series that has been directed by Per- Olav Sorensen and Hallgrim Haug. It takes us through the commencement story of the audio streaming and media service provider Spotify. The streaming platform was the concoction of Martin Lorentzon and Daniel Ek. Spotify came at a time when nothing could imagine than rather 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. It was such a crazy notion that no investor wanted to believe the two entrepreneurs. The series takes us on a trip where we see the metamorphosis of Spotify from an incipiency that was chancing it hard to pay its workers and get investments to getting the biggest music streaming provider in the world.
Spoilers Ahead
‘ The Playlist ’ Plot Summary What Is The Series About?
Daniel Ek was working as a coder for a website called Tradera. But Daniel wasn't satisfied. He wanted to do commodity big in life. He wanted to leave his mark on the beach of time. He'd applied for a job at Google as he wanted to work with the big ordnance, and he believed that he'd get through. But to his disappointment, Google rejected him, as he didn’t have the proper qualifications that they were looking for. That night, Daniel realized that to get the commodity that he noway had, he'd have to do the commodity that he'd no way done. He addressed Google itself and figured out its algorithm. Tradera, the website he worked for, came in the top 600 results that day. His elders told him to get relief from whatever he'd done right down, as Google was hanging to sue them. It gave Daniel a lot of tones- confidence that sitting in a room, long hauls down from their headquarters, he was suitable to do commodity that brought him to their attention. commodity snapped inside Daniel, and he decided to leave his job. He gave himself time to come up with a business idea. Daniel created Advertigo, a kind of digital advertising agency that managed to conform advertisements, utmost efficiently for the druggies. At the same time, Tradedoubler, the Swedish online marketing mammoth, was listed on NASDAQ. Tradedoubler got veritably interested in his technology and decided to buy him out. Overnight, Daniel was a millionaire but still, he wasn’t satisfied. Martin Lorentzon and Felix Hagno were the authors of the Tradedoubler, and in just half a decade, they had reached great heights. Martin was a person who was constantly on the lookout for notoriety ready to take pitfalls and was crazy as he was. He gave a green signal to Daniel and told him that if he had an idea that could make them contend with the big boys of Silicon Valley, also he'd be on board and further than happy to fund it.
During that time in Sweden, the music companies were being criticized for the inordinate costs they charged for their music CDs. The youngish generation, in the age of the internet, didn’t want to pay for music. The Pirate Bay, an online indicator of music, understood the request and waged a war against the big record companies. They had all the music on their portal for free. The record companies were incurring huge losses because of it, and Per Sundin, the managing director of Sony in Sweden, had accepted the fact that if they didn’t do commodity incontinently, the situation would go out of control. The big record companies were still dealing with CDs, and they weren't ready for the change. Online streaming was still an alien concept to them. Daniel wanted to use the conception of the Pirate Bay to produce commodities more licit. He wanted to produce a “ free music point. ” He wanted to produce commodity more refined. He didn’t know how he'd get the music rights or how he'd figure out the other complications, but he knew that with the correct platoon and support, he'd be suitable to do it.
Martin Lorentzon came on board and decided to go on Daniel Ek’s vision. Daniel was veritably clear about how they would approach their thing. He knew that to produce such a streaming point, he'd need to have the most stylish platoon of coders he could get. He came into contact with a brilliant coder named Andreas Ehn and told him that he wanted to produce a noway - seen- before music streaming platform where there would be no downloads, no lags, and the callers would get an instant response. Andreas culled his platoon, and together they started developing their technology. But it sounded like developing the technology, which was unheard of ahead, was still an easy task as compared to taking rights from the music companies. They went to the Swedish Music Rights Holders Organization( STIM), which was still unconscious of the conception of free streaming services, and so were the big ordnance running the record assiduity. Daniel Ek tried to meet Per Sundin and ever managed to catch hold of him in a bar and kind of pitched his idea. But the expression “ free music ” irked Sundin so much that he didn’t hear Daniel at all and gave him a piece of his mind. Sundin had come fed up with Pirate Bay, and he allowed
Daniel’s offer was along analogous lines. But what he didn’t know was that Daniel had a business model where everyone was going to get paid, and yet the music would be free. Daniel had hit a roadblock. He was unfit to crack a deal. So rather than going to the people advanced up the food chain, he attacked the base and reached out to the consumers directly. He went to the council and told the youth of the country about his website.
Per Sundin tried to go against the drift for quite some time. No matter how important trouble he put in, he was again and again pushed back to the reinforcement. He wasn't ready to accept the fact that the world was changing. He didn’t understand that digitalization was ineluctable. He didn’t have important knowledge about the whole conception, and that's why he stressed that it would destroy everything. The Sony superintendent used his connections to shut down Pirate Bay, but the business only doubled after the raid. After not chancing any other option, Per Sundin decided to have a discussion with Peter Sunde, theco-founder of Pirate Bay. Peter had this whole testament about a romantic society where there would be no doorkeepers, and everything would be for free. After meeting joe, Per Sundin was indeed more certain that this whole facade was just a sham. But his assistant prompted him to at least hear the proposition that Daniel was making and see their technology. Sundin was blown down by seeing what this digital platform named Spotify was able of doing. He could hear any music in the world without going through the excruciating process of downloading. He decided to take it to his elders. Though the top officers of Sony were still not satisfied with it, Per Sundin was suitable to bring Universal Music on board together with numerous other record markers. It was the morning of a new dawn. The world was about to change, and Per Sundin had decided to be on the right side of it. Though Spotify was launched as the first of its kind, legal and free music streaming platform, there were a lot of other roadblocks that they still had to attack.
Petra Hansson And Her Conflict With Andreas Ehn
Petra Hansson, who was working at a famed Swedish law establishment( Mannheimer Swartling), left her job and came the head of legal at Spotify. He was approached by Martin Lorentzon, who had promised to give her complete autonomy. Petra came on board because Spotify demanded an expert moderator. They were still floundering with the record markers because none of them wanted to give them the imprints. Petra knew there and also that she had to give these music titans commodities to savor. She proposed that if Spotify had a paywall, also the music companies might be interested in what they were offering. She said that once they got allured in also Spotify could amend its programs latterly. Daniel and Andreas were completely against the idea of having a paywall because it was against their whole conception of free music. So, after constant arguments with Daniel and his platoon and after entertaining the option of quitting Spotify, Petra came up with the idea that kept the principles and ideals of Spotify complete and yet gave commodity to the record markers to get attracted to the deal. She came up with the concept of Spotify decoration. She asked Daniel to keep the music free but to use certain functions, like creating a playlist, simply for people who have a Spotify decoration class. It struck a passion with the utmost of the people present in the room, but one man didn’t like it and allowed that it was against whatever they stood for. It was Andreas Ehn, the first hand of the association. He'd been given the position of Chief Technology Officer at Spotify. Andreas believed in the ideals of a weak state. He believed that whatever they were creating should be accessible and free for everybody. He believed that there shouldn’t be any scale, neither in society nor in associations. He believed that the merit of a person should speak for itself rather than the position they hold. Andreas felt that Petra had destroyed everything since she had come.
Andreas knew that he and his platoon had presumably created the perfect music streaming player and that everybody should be allowed to reap its benefits. He considered music a necessity rather than a luxury. He wanted all the features of the streaming service to be free. He had a lot of ideological differences from Petra. Andreas believed that access gave freedom, and he'd presumed that Daniel, of all people, would understand it. But Daniel had to run the business. He also wanted to do it on his terms, but he couldn’t come as romantic as his principal technology officer. Daniel took Petra’s side, and Andreas felt hurt by it. Andreas realized that his struggle to produce a model of communism that worked would lead him nowhere. He knew that he'd abide by the rules. He realized that everybody in the world was disposable. He knew that Daniel would get his relief withinminutes., as there were tons of coders who were willing to work with him.
According to Andreas ’ perspective, Petra was the villain who destroyed everything that they had stood for. But what Andreas didn’t understand was the fact that Daniel Ek and Martin Lorentzon weren't trying to run a weal state, but they wanted to produce a profit-making association. He was being romantic in his approach and vision, but that isn't how the others saw the world. Petra, on the other hand, was more realistic in her approach. She knew she had been hired to do a job, and she was trying her stylish to do it. Andreas had given his everything to the company. After Petra came, she changed the whole narrative and Andreas ’ heart didn’t allow him to be a part of the association. Andreas left Spotify and decided that no matter how charming the proposition was, he'd always prioritize his principles over anything different in life.
‘ The Playlist ’ Ending Explained Did Daniel Ek Agree To Meet The Demands Of Bobby T?
Effects were changing, and Spotify was landing the request and moving towards getting a monopoly. Daniel asked his mate Martin Lorentzon to step down from his position, as he felt that his presence was spoiling the character of the company, and he didn’t want to take any kind of threat just before they were going to be listed on NASDAQ. Martin Lorentzon was an eccentric character. He was vivacious and wild. He liked taking pitfalls. He wasn't notoriety who followed the book, but he had his unique way of performing. He'd been Daniel’s mate from the veritably morning. He'd funded Spotify for the original times when there were no investors on board. But his unconventional style didn’t go well with the CEO of co-founder Daniel Ek. Martin Lorentzon was presumably suffering from a neurotypical condition known as ADHD, and his geste had come disturbing for his old friend. Martin Lorentzon didn’t want to overstay his hello. He stepped down from his position but always wished the veritably stylish for Daniel and his platoon. Where on the one hand, Spotify was thriving; there were artists on the platform who weren’t indeed suitable to pay their rent. demurrers had started against Spotify and its exploitative business model. The workers of Spotify, the record markers, the mediators, and everybody differently was earning, except the artists, who were creating the product that they were dealing with.
Bobby T had known Daniel Ek for a veritably long time. They had gone to the same academy. Bobby was also a musician who was also on Spotify. While her friend was enjoying all the riches in the world and opulent life, she had to do multiple jobs to support her family. Bobby uploaded a videotape that entered a lot of traction and was viewed by a lot of people throughout the world. She didn’t want to be a part of the kick in the morning, but she just wanted to let her friend know about her condition and where he'd gone wrong. But seeing Daniel’s arrogant station, she wasn’t left with an important choice. She came to the face of the kick, which had a hashtag called “ Scratch the Record. ” Daniel was veritably clear about the fact that it wasn't Spotify’s responsibility to pay the artists. He believed that Spotify gave them a platform to showcase their gift to the world, and that was further than enough. He went to meet Per Sundin and asked him to deal with Bobby T as she had been inked by his record marker. Sundin denied it and said that he won’t be suitable to do that. Daniel allowed that because the record companies were taking their fair share of the gains from Spotify, it was their responsibility to deal with their artists and address their enterprises.
“ The Playlist ” creates a fictitious reality and shows that, till the time 2025, the kick had garnered a lot of support from people throughout the world. Bobby T desisted to be just an ordinary musician. She had come a celebrity activist. Daniel was called to Washington DC, to appear before the US Senate, where a commission had been formed that aimed at reviewing their business model. Senator Landy asked some delicate questions to Daniel and called Spotify a combination that was confining the profitable growth of the musicians. Bobby T was representing the musicians, and she demanded that artists should be given a fixed price per sluice. She supported that Spotify’s business model went against the statutory minimum pay envelope that was introduced and fixed times ago by theU.S Senate. Bobby’s stage was veritably clear. She said that exposure didn’t pay the bills; plutocrats did. She wanted a law that would bear Spotify to do so, as she believed that the streaming mammoth was thriving on a commodity that they weren't indeed paying for. Also, the option of not being on the platform couldn't be profited by a miscarrying artist since Spotify had acquired a huge knob of request share and could be called a monopoly. Toward the end of the series, “ The Playlist, ” we see that Daniel goes to meet Bobby and makes it clear that he's not ready to get embrangle down by the demurrers. The bank had approved his loan of a billion bones as he possessed a significant chance of the request. It had boosted his spirits. He was adamant about doing whatever he wanted to. He didn’t feel that he was exploiting the artists. He didn’t feel that it was his responsibility to pay them.
Is ‘ The Playlist ’ Grounded On A True Story?
“ The Playlist ” is grounded on a nonfiction novel called “ Spotify Untold, ” written by Leijonhufvud and Sven Carlsson. Though the new focuses more on the difficulties Daniel had in taking his business to the United States and the contest he'd with Apple, the series focuses more on the origin story of Spotify and the gospel behind it. The series uses real names of people and portrays certain events that did be in reality, but it also takes creative liberty and modifies some data and characters for dramatic purposes. For illustration, though the character Bobby T was created for the screen, the fact that Taylor Swift left Spotify was true. Per- Olav Sorensen and Hallgrim Haug have also taken the liberty to produce an image sequence that's set in the future, in the time 2025. Though the makers explicitly indicate that the end sequence is a complete work of fabrication, perhaps they wanted to make an enterprise about how effects could turn out in the future.
A financial vehemence could be seen in the eyes of Daniel Ek when he last met Bobby. Though he talked about free music, the only people who were at a disadvantage because of it were the musicians who created it. Though the autonomy of the record companies had reduced to some extent, they still were being exploited. The food chain that Andreas Ehn wanted to destroy was still complete. The record markers were still thriving, and now they were incurring indeed more gains with smaller arrears. The irony of the situation was that the flagbearer of change, who formerly wanted to produce a socialist platform, had now himself come an integral part of the financial setup, and was ready to go to any extent to maintain the status quo of this structure.
“ The Playlist ” is a 2022 Drama memoir series directed by Per- Olav Sørensen.