La playlist

Any story about the origin of a tech start-up is always fascinating with all the struggles and challenges it faces to become what it is. This is one such film.

The viewer gets to have a front seat as Spotify's story unfolds from the points of view of the major actors that made it the biggest thing in music streaming service: Daniel Ek, Martin Lorentzon, Petra Hansson, Andreas Ehn and Bobbi T.

Undoubtedly, it's an engaging story that introduces the viewer to key moments that pushed the start-up forward and upward. All the episodes are enlightening. And one particular episode is fun to watch. The idea of Petra Hansson in episode 3 flitting to different locations by opening different doors is brilliantly playful. Episode 4 is the heart of the series as it reveals how Andreas Ehn's creative coders solve the technical problem of buffering to come up with a unique network protocol. Andreas enthuses that the result "is the best designed, most user-friendly, most complete music player ever."

Episode 6 brings to the fore the consequent, if unintended, problems that Spotify's business model is wreaking upon the musicians themselves. This brings the company to a critical juncture. The essential question is will Daniel Ek compromise and address the plight of the average musician?

The talented cast succeeds in telling the story of this business giant. Kudos to Gizem Erdogan, Ulf Stenberg, Edvin Endre, and Janice Kavander for their solid performance. Bobbi T is a fictional character.)

There's just one scene though that's puzzling; this is the last scene. Check it out.

As is true in life, the multibillion-dollar company has to grapple with the need to change with the times. Only time will tell whether it will sustain its progressive trajectory.

This film is spot on.

I like how this series takes multiple perspectives to show us the rise and controversy of Spotify, and what issues were plaguing the record industry at the time. It's certainly worth the watch, especially if you like stories about start-ups.

However, if you do watch it, you lose the quality of the acting if you watch the dubbed version.

I did find the overall story to be quite interesting as it evolved, from the founder's vision and relentless pursuit, to the major issues faced when trying to realise that vision, and the compromises and realities faced as time went by. And ultimately, the main losers in the whole story were the very ones Spotify claimed to be serving.

Pleasantly surprised by the show, binged the whole show in a day, though I wish I forgot the last episode. The last episode literally added to value to the this mini series in my opinion, it felt like a bit of and afterthought.

Interesting to see it shot from the different perspectives of different characters.

I was engaged right from the offset.

The acting was very good and believable. The sound track was obviously obviously inspired by The Social Network score, but not ad good.

Would definitely say it's worth a watch, but I'm a little biased as I generally enjoy Movies/show about tech start ups.

The 6 episode mini series, based on the story of the rising of streaming platform Spotify, deals with contradictory and complex matters as value of music and musicians' labor, debates on the copyrigt, and people's right of free access to the streamed music.

The playlist, unlike the majority of other examples of the similar kind of screen productions, doesn't focus on aggrandising its main object; it is pretty far away from a praising story on Spotify.

Interestingly, one of the episodes contains a story set in 2024 and 2025. Swedish directors, via this episode, reveal their predictions on the near future of Spotify, music industry and related struggles for rights.

I had no idea about it and went in blind. This surprised me. The acting, the cinematography and the flow of the story is authentic and genuine. I do not know if this is completely true to the reality story, but it is very hooking for sure. Episode 2 was epic, the acting and the conflict between cultures, portrayed genuinely. "Heisenberg" looking guy won me over!

2 episodes in and I am getting 2 perspectives of the story with it moving forward, I can only assume it is going to get better. The only thing I hate about series/shows these days is they are either too 'teenage-ish' or too unrealistic.

I would definitely rate this a solid 9/10 for the 2 episodes I have seen. Let's see how it goes!