# The Playlist
**The Playlist** is a Swedish biographical drama limited series that dramatizes the founding of the music streaming service Spotify, released globally on Netflix on October 13, 2022.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) It centers on the young Swedish tech entrepreneur [Daniel Ek](https://www.edgepedia.org/daniel-ek) and his key partners, who are portrayed as revolutionizing the music industry by offering free and legal streamed music around the world.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) The series is a fictionalized account based on the non-fiction book *Spotify Untold* by the Swedish business journalists Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud.[2](https://bonnierrights.se/2022/09/release-date-set-for-the-playlist-the-netflix-series-based-on-spotify-untold/) • [3](https://www.nationalworld.com/culture/television/the-playlist-release-date-netflix-series-launch-spotify-cast-true-story-3878160)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Format | Six-episode Swedish-language limited series; episodes run roughly 45 to 56 minutes[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) • [3](https://www.nationalworld.com/culture/television/the-playlist-release-date-netflix-series-launch-spotify-cast-true-story-3878160) |
| Premiere | All six episodes released on Netflix on October 13, 2022[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) |
| Source material | *Spotify Untold* by Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud, drawing on more than seventy interviews[2](https://bonnierrights.se/2022/09/release-date-set-for-the-playlist-the-netflix-series-based-on-spotify-untold/) |
| Director | Per-Olav Sørensen (*[Quicksand](https://www.edgepedia.org/quicksand-tv-series)*, *Nobel*)[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) |
| Writers | Head screenwriter Christian Spurrier, with co-writers Sofie Forsman and Tove Forsman[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) |
| Production | Yellow Bird UK, a Banijay Group company[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) |
| Lead cast | Edvin Endre as Daniel Ek; Christian Hillborg as Martin Lorentzon; Ulf Stenberg as Per Sundin; Gizem Erdogan as Petra Hansson; Joel Lützow as Andreas Ehn; Janice Kamya Kavander as Bobbie T[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) |
| Reception | 100% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer from 9 reviews; 86% Popcornmeter[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_playlist) |
## Spoilers
### Premise and structure
The series follows Daniel Ek, a self-taught coder, and his business partner [Martin Lorentzon](https://www.edgepedia.org/martin-lorentzon) in Stockholm in the early 2000s as they set out to build a legal music streaming platform that would change the industry and make the pair billionaires.[3](https://www.nationalworld.com/culture/television/the-playlist-release-date-netflix-series-launch-spotify-cast-true-story-3878160) Ek's stated mission is to solve music piracy by developing a service so attractive that users would rather pay for it than download music illegally; along the way he encounters legal hurdles and comes into conflict with the file-sharing site Pirate Bay.[3](https://www.nationalworld.com/culture/television/the-playlist-release-date-netflix-series-launch-spotify-cast-true-story-3878160)
Its defining device is the point-of-view structure. Each of the six episodes retells the company's rise from the perspective of a different figure, with episode titles naming the facet each represents: The Vision (Ek), The Industry (record-label head Per Sundin), The Law (lawyer Petra Hansson), The Coder (programmer Andreas Ehn), The Partner (Lorentzon), and The Artist (the fictional musician Bobbie T).[5](https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/81186296) • [6](https://www.mediavillage.com/article/the-playlist-a-fragmented-history-of-spotify/amp/) Reviewers described the result as a Rashomon-like tale in which the same events recur with variations reflecting each narrator's flawed memory; one nightclub conversation, for example, is shown three times from different characters' perspectives.[7](https://www.techradar.com/streaming/netflix/this-forgotten-netflix-tv-show-has-100-percent-on-rotten-tomatoes-and-tells-the-story-of-how-spotify-changed-music-forever) • [6](https://www.mediavillage.com/article/the-playlist-a-fragmented-history-of-spotify/amp/) Screenwriter Christian Spurrier said the approach reflects the book's material: "There isn't only one version of the truth."
The final episode departs from the founding period. Set in a fictional but plausible 2025, it depicts Spotify being called before the [United States Senate](https://www.edgepedia.org/united-states-senate) to answer for its royalty practices, with Bobbie T facing Ek in a congressional hearing that could destroy the company.[8](https://www.svt.se/kultur/tv-recension-the-playlist) • [5](https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/81186296)
### Cast and characters
Edvin Endre (*Vikings*) plays Daniel Ek and Christian Hillborg (*The Last Kingdom*) plays Martin Lorentzon.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) The supporting cast draws on real figures from Spotify's history and orbit: Ulf Stenberg (*Beartown*) as former Universal executive Per Sundin, Gizem Erdogan (*Love & Anarchy*, *Caliphate*) as lawyer Petra Hansson, and Joel Lützow (*Gåsmamman*) as early employee Andreas Ehn.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) Janice Kamya Kavander plays Bobbie T, a fictional artist created to represent the musicians affected by the platform's economics.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) • [3](https://www.nationalworld.com/culture/television/the-playlist-release-date-netflix-series-launch-spotify-cast-true-story-3878160) Valter Skarsgård appears as Pirate Bay co-founder [Peter Sunde](https://www.edgepedia.org/peter-sunde), alongside Amy Deasismont, Hanna Ardéhn, Ella Rappich, Agnes Kittelsen, Sofia Karemyr, Sam Hazeldine, and [Patrick Baladi](https://www.edgepedia.org/patrick-baladi) in supporting roles.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) • [9](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-playlist/)
## Production
It was produced by Yellow Bird UK, the British arm of the company behind the *Wallander* adaptations, with Per-Olav Sørensen directing and Eiffel Mattsson producing.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here) The first teaser was released on September 13, 2022, a month before the premiere.[1](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here)
The series was conceived as a limited series telling one complete story, and Netflix did not renew it for a second season.[3](https://www.nationalworld.com/culture/television/the-playlist-release-date-netflix-series-launch-spotify-cast-true-story-3878160) • [10](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/yellow-bird-u-k-producers-080000958.html)
## Reception
Critical response was divided along national lines. On Rotten Tomatoes the series holds a 100% Tomatometer score from 9 reviews, with an 86% audience score.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_playlist) Swedish critics were cooler: the review aggregator Kritiker computed an average of 3.3 out of 5, with Dagens Nyheter, Expressen, and TVdags at 4/5 but Aftonbladet at 2/5 and Svenska Dagbladet at 2/6.[11](https://clark.kritiker.se/serier/the-playlist/) Variety's reviewer scored it 40, writing that the production could be admired but was "too mid-tempo to properly quicken the pulse," and noting that music itself takes a backseat to the management of music for most of the running time.[9](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-playlist/)
The perspective structure drew both praise and criticism. [The Age](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-age)'s Debi Enker wrote that the series "smoothly and intelligently weaves its stories into an enlightening whole,"[12](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_playlist/s01) while MediaVillage's reviewer found that each episode largely rehashes the same few events from a different angle, which becomes repetitive, and that several narrators disappear almost entirely after being introduced.[6](https://www.mediavillage.com/article/the-playlist-a-fragmented-history-of-spotify/amp/) SVT's critic placed the show in the wave of "tech bros gone wild" series such as *Super Pumped* and *WeCrashed*, and argued that despite the title it offers little insight into how Spotify's recommendation algorithms changed listening.[8](https://www.svt.se/kultur/tv-recension-the-playlist) The Guardian's Stuart Heritage, by contrast, found Ek portrayed as more "reasonable" and "human" than other tech figures such as Meta's Mark Zuckerberg, and judged the series worth watching despite what he called an incredibly strange ending.[13](https://omni.se/forutsagbart-och-tjatigt-men-anda-vard-att-titta-pa/a/y66vMK)
## Relationship to the real story
Netflix bills the series as a fictionalized account, and several characters are invented, most prominently Bobbie T and the congressional hearing that frames the finale.[5](https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/81186296) • [3](https://www.nationalworld.com/culture/television/the-playlist-release-date-netflix-series-launch-spotify-cast-true-story-3878160) The source book, *Spotify Untold* (published by Bonnier Fakta in 2019), was written by the *Dagens Industri* reporters Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud and drew on more than seventy interviews with people around the company.[2](https://bonnierrights.se/2022/09/release-date-set-for-the-playlist-the-netflix-series-based-on-spotify-untold/) [TechCrunch](https://www.edgepedia.org/techcrunch) described the adaptation as loosely telling how Spotify was created in 2006 as a small Swedish startup responding to the music industry's growing piracy problem.[14](https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/27/netflix-shares-trailer-for-spotify-series-the-playlist/) A Swedish music-industry writer who consulted on the production's research into streaming economics later criticized the finished series for a distorted picture of the industry, while crediting its structure of showing the same events through Ek, Ehn, Hansson, Lorentzon, Sundin, and Bobbie T as creative.[15](https://www.musikindustrin.se/2022/10/14/johansson-the-playlist-kraschlandar/)
## References
1. ['The Playlist' Launches on Netflix on October 13 - Watch the Teaser Here, About Netflix](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/the-playlist-launches-on-netflix-on-october-13-watch-the-teaser-here)
2. [Release date set for The Playlist, the Netflix series based on SPOTIFY UNTOLD, Bonnier Rights](https://bonnierrights.se/2022/09/release-date-set-for-the-playlist-the-netflix-series-based-on-spotify-untold/)
3. [The Playlist: release date of Netflix series about launch of Spotify, NationalWorld](https://www.nationalworld.com/culture/television/the-playlist-release-date-netflix-series-launch-spotify-cast-true-story-3878160)
4. [The Playlist, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_playlist)
5. [The Playlist, Netflix official site](https://www.netflix.com/ie/title/81186296)
6. ["The Playlist": A Fragmented History of Spotify, MediaVillage](https://www.mediavillage.com/article/the-playlist-a-fragmented-history-of-spotify/amp/)
7. [This forgotten Netflix TV show has 100% on Rotten Tomatoes, TechRadar](https://www.techradar.com/streaming/netflix/this-forgotten-netflix-tv-show-has-100-percent-on-rotten-tomatoes-and-tells-the-story-of-how-spotify-changed-music-forever)
8. [Tv-recension: Spotify förändrar musikvärlden i The playlist, SVT Nyheter](https://www.svt.se/kultur/tv-recension-the-playlist)
9. [The Playlist Reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/tv/the-playlist/)
10. [Yellow Bird U.K., Producers of Spotify Drama 'The Playlist,' Shuts Down After Six Years, Yahoo Entertainment](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/yellow-bird-u-k-producers-080000958.html)
11. [The Playlist (2022) – recensioner, betyg & streaming, Kritiker](https://clark.kritiker.se/serier/the-playlist/)
12. [The Playlist: Season 1, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/the_playlist/s01)
13. ["Förutsägbart och tjatigt – men ändå värd att titta på", Omni](https://omni.se/forutsagbart-och-tjatigt-men-anda-vard-att-titta-pa/a/y66vMK)
14. [Netflix shares trailer for Spotify series 'The Playlist', TechCrunch](https://techcrunch.com/2022/09/27/netflix-shares-trailer-for-spotify-series-the-playlist/)
15. [JOHANSSON: The Playlist kraschlandar, Musikindustrin](https://www.musikindustrin.se/2022/10/14/johansson-the-playlist-kraschlandar/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Series and fictional screen worlds › Scripted television and comedy series › Drama and prestige series (individual series) › Historical and period drama*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license