Spotify Story Getting Scripted Treatment with Netflix

Netflix is working on a scripted series about the Swedish start-up that evolved into one of the world’s leading music services, Spotify.

The limited series is inspired by the book Spotify Untold by authors Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud, both business reporters at Swedish Dagens Industri. The Swedish- and English-language drama will be produced by Yellow Bird UK, a Banijay Group company that is behind the upcoming Netflix series Young Wallander.

Per-Olav Sørensen (Quicksand, Home for Christmas, Nobel) will be directing and Berna Levin (Young Wallander, Hidden, The Girl in the Spider’s Web) will serve as executive producer.

Tesha Crawford, director of international originals for Northern Europe at Netflix, said: “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.”

Levin added: “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 globalized, digitized world.”

Sørensen said: “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 walking on yet an exciting path with Netflix.”