This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
Business News Deals Digital Media
Authors of Spotify tell-all book sell TV rights
By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 21 August 2019
The UK division of Swedish film and TV company Yellow Bird – best known for ‘Wallander’ and ‘The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo’ – has acquired the rights to the book ‘Spotify Untold’.
Published in Sweden earlier this year, the book tells the story of the rise of Spotify, with a particular focus on the streaming firm’s entry into the US market.
It includes the claim that at one time Daniel Ek believed that then Apple CEO Steve Jobs was prank calling him, breathing heavily down the line before hanging up. So that’s one scene to look forward to in the now planned TV drama series based on the book.
Says Yellow Bird executive producer Berna Levin: “‘Spotify Untold’ is the ultimate tale of achieving the impossible and unimaginable. A modern day David v Goliath set in the dynamic arena of the music industry, this is the true story of youth challenging the establishment. With reality trumping fiction at every turn, we will explore one of the greatest and most surprising technological advancements of our time”.
The book’s co-author Sven Carlsson admitted in an interview with Variety that they were unable to confirm that the Jobs heavy breathing story was true. But ‘Spotify Untold’ – which is still only available to read in Swedish – is based on more than 70 interviews with former Spotify execs, record company bosses and competitors.
Its other writer, Jonas Leijonhufvud, says of the TV deal: “We’re very excited. The rise of Spotify is one of the greatest stories to come out of Sweden in the past ten years. It’s a saga of a young founder who came out of nowhere and beat Apple at their own game”.
And I guess it sort of is. A bit. Maybe. Whatever, there’s no word on when the show will make it to our screens. Will it be before or after the whole streaming industry collapses? You’ll have to wait and see.
