The Playlist (Season 1)

The Playlist (2022) is Netflix's drama miniseries about the birth of Spotify, and you can watch online on iFILM. Directed by Per-Olav Sørensen, it tracks how two Swedes talked the music business into giving songs away for free.

Coder Daniel Ek (Edvin Endre) and his backer Martin Lorentzon are the engine of the story. Piracy is gutting the labels, downloads are killing sales, and Ek pitches something the suits call insane: instant, legal streaming with no per-track fee. Each of the six episodes retells the same rise from a different vantage point — the founder, the lawyer, the artist, the label boss, the investor, the programmer. Same milestones, six versions of the truth that refuse to line up.

Adapted from the book by reporters Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud, the series resists turning Ek into a flawless hero and lets the cost of "free music" stay genuinely contested. It's for anyone who likes startup stories without the gloss. Stream The Playlist online on iFILM.