Netflix Is Making A TV Series About The Creation of…Spotify?
Spotifyis getting theNetflixtreatment. In what looks to be the streaming giant’s bid to make the nextSocial Network, Netflix has ordered a Swedish scripted series about the origins of the music streaming service Spotify.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, Netflix has greenlit the development of a limited series based on the bookSpotify Untoldby Swedish business reporters Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud.The book details the origins of the music streaming company, which launched in 2006 during the height of online music piracy in the early 2000s. At the time that many predicated the end of the music business, Swedish tech entrepreneur Daniel Ek and his partner Martin Lorentzon debuted Spotify, which would go on to revolutionize the music distribution business — though not without its critics along the way.
The yet-untitled Swedish and English-language series will be produced by Yellow Bird UK, a division of pan-European group Banijay.Berna Levin(Young Wallander) will executive produce, whilePer-Olav Sorensen(Quicksand) is directing.
“It’s the story of how a small band of Swedish tech industry insiders transformed music — how we listen to it and how it’s made — it is truly a tale for our time,” said Levin. “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.”
Tech companies are all the rage for big and small screen adaptations lately, with David Fincher kicking off the phenomenon with his Oscar-nominated 2010 film about the early days of Facebook,The Social Network. Aaron Sorkin, who wroteThe Social Network’s Oscar-winning screenplay, also delved into the story of Steve Jobs and Apple’s early days with the Danny Boyle-directed 2015 filmSteve Jobs. Also in the works is the disastrous saga of WeWork, which will be written byThe Big Short’s Charles Randolph. While it’s unlikely that the Spotify Netflix series will reach the heights ofThe Social Networkor evenSteve Jobs, a “Spotify origin story” probably won’t be as laughable as it sounds.
