There is one company at the centre of The Playlist, and the series tells its story six times. Each episode hands the telling to a different person, so the same events keep returning, seen from a different chair.
I just finished the six episodes on Netflix. It is a dramatization, not a documentary: Netflix presents it as fiction, and it was inspired by the book Spotify Untold by Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud. I watched it as a story about building something, and what it gave me was a lot to think about: entrepreneurship, leadership, management and, most of all, different points of view.
A Startup Story in Six Seats
The Vision follows Daniel Ek, a self-taught coder who takes on the music industry’s piracy problem. The Industry moves to Per Sundin, a label executive watching the Pirate Bay copyright trial and wondering whether his own side’s pushback is helping the thing it fights. The Law follows a young lawyer, Petra Hansson, who leaves a top firm to deal with Spotify’s licensing and the major labels.
The Coder is about Andreas Ehn, a programmer who shares Daniel’s vision of access and joins to solve the technical problems. The Partner is told by co-founder Martin Lorentzon, looking back on the first five years of what the episode calls bankrolling Daniel’s mistakes. The Artist brings in Bobbi T, a musician who argues that the business model exploits artists, and who faces Daniel in a hearing the series stages.
Entrepreneurship Is Not One Person’s Story
Most startup stories I know are told from the founder’s chair. The Playlist does that in the first episode and then keeps going. By the time the series reaches the lawyer, the programmer and the investor, the founder is one person in a larger group of people who each carry part of the work.
The idea may start with one person, but the series keeps showing that it takes law, licensing, engineering and money to move it forward, and that each of those is its own job with its own pressures.
Leadership and Management, Seen From Both Sides
Leadership looks different depending on where you stand. The label executive in The Industry is also leading, and also under pressure. The series gives him his own episode instead of treating him only as an obstacle. Management shows up in the quieter material: negotiations, legal structure, team building, and partners who have to trust each other over years.
That makes it more than a straight success story. It keeps asking the same question from different sides: what does this decision look like to the person who has to live with it?
Why the Points of View Matter
This is the part that matters most to me. A story told once feels like a verdict. A story told six times feels like a set of questions. Whether you are on the founder’s side, the industry’s side or the artist’s side changes what counts as progress and what counts as damage.
It reminded me of other stories about building something, Pirates of Silicon Valley among them. That is the 1999 TV film about Steve Jobs and Bill Gates, narrated by Steve Wozniak.
One Caution
Because it is dramatized, I would not treat its scenes or dialogue as the historical record. The hearing in the final episode, for example, is the series’ own staging. I enjoy it for the questions it raises, and I would check the facts elsewhere before repeating them.
Key Takeaways
- Entrepreneurship: a founder’s idea needs law, licensing, engineering and money, and the series gives each its own episode.
- Leadership: people on the other side of the table are also leading, and also under pressure.
- Management: partnerships and structure take years of work that rarely looks dramatic.
- Points of view: telling the story from six chairs turns a verdict into a set of questions.
- A dramatization is not the record. Enjoy it, then check the facts.
Where to Watch
The Playlist (2022, six episodes, Swedish original) is on Netflix.
Featured image: AI-generated.