Spotify Untold, a book that tells the behind-the-scenes story of music streaming service Spotify, is being adapted for television. The book chronicles how Swedish hacker turned tech entrepreneur Daniel Ek founded Spotify and went head to head with Steve Jobs and Apple for dominance in the music industry. Penned by Swedish reporters Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud, Spotify Untold delves into how the company cut secret deals with record labels and fought its way into the US Market. In an interview with Variety, the authors dubbed the book “a character-driven story of Spotify’s rise from a tiny start-up to the biggest music streaming company in the world.” Currently, the book is only available in Swedish.
Spotify Untold is being adapted for the small screen by Yellow Bird UK, a London-based studio owned by The Banijay Group, a French production house. According to Yellow Bird, the show is currently in development as scripted mini series. Berna Levin, executive producer for the series, said in a statement, “Spotify Untold is the ultimate tale of achieving the impossible and unimaginable. A modern-day David vs. 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.”
Carlsson and Leijonhufvud will be retained as consultants on the project. Leijonhufvud said of the upcoming series, “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.”
Carlsson added, “The Spotify story is a drama at the highest levels of tech, music and finance. It’s perfect for the screen and Yellow Bird is the ideal partner, with their strong track record in making Nordic stories come alive on the international scene.”
As Carlsson alluded to, Yellow Bird has had success bringing Scandinavian stories like Spotify Untold to the forefront, having sold UK-Swedish series Young Wallander to Netflix last year.
Yellow Bird UK has yet to announce a timetable for Spotify Untold‘s debut.