Netflix Drops Trailer for Spotify Miniseries 'The Playlist'

Netflix on Tuesday dropped the official trailer for The Playlist, a fictionalized account of Spotify's rise to fame.

Launching Oct. 13, the limited series centers around Swedish entrepreneur Daniel Ek, and the people who helped him revolutionize the streaming music industry. "It is a story about how hard convictions, unrelenting will, access and big dreams can help small players challenge the status quo by evolving the way we can all listen to music," according to Netflix.

While the nearly two-minute-long trailer, set to the tune of Swedish DJ Avicii's "Levels," paints a dark picture of startup culture, swanky parties, and congressional testimonies, Netflix makes it clear that the six-episode series is a dramatized version of the real story.

The show is inspired by the book Spotify Untold by Swedish business reporters Sven Carlsson and Johnas Leijohnhufvud, and it sounds like producers took some liberties with historical facts—as most programs of this kind do. After all, there's no way The Social Network (Facebook), WeCrashed (WeWork), or The Dropout (Theranos) get every detail right, intentionally or not.

Edvin Endre of Vikings fame stars as Ek, who came up with Spotify in 2002, after peer-to-peer music service Napster shut down and illegal services like Kazaa and The Pirate Bay took its place. At 19, the technologist had enough wealth to retire. Instead, he decided to create "a service that was better than piracy and at the same time compensates the music industry."

Endre is joined by Ulf Stenberg (Beartown) as Per Sundin, Gizem Erdogan (Love & Anarchy) as Petra Hansson, Joel Lützow (Gåsmamman) as Andreas Ehn, Christian Hillborg (The Last Kingdom) as Martin Lorentzon, and Swedish artist Janice Kamya Kavander as Bobbie T.

"The Playlist is at its very core a story about music," according to director Per-Olav Sørensen. "Portraying in fiction how Spotify changed the music industry is impossible without the perspective of the artists, and our character Bobbie T. is representing their voices in this story."

Valter Skarsgård, Amy Deasismont, Hanna Ardéhn, Ella Rappich, Agnes Kittelsen, Sofia Karemyr, Sam Hazeldine, and Patrick Baladi appear in supporting roles.

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