Published by Albert Bonnier Förlag, the book is a behind-the-scenes of how Swedish visionaries Daniel Ek and his financial partner Martin Lorentzon, built their start-up and turned it into the world’s leading music streaming company. Investigative journalists Carlsson and Leijonhufvud will act as consultants on the TV adaptation. Yellow Bird UK’s managing director Berna Levin will serve as executive producer, and Luke Franklin as producer.  

Asked if broadcasters were already circling the project, Levin told nordicfilmandtvnews.com: “We are in talks with two of the most prominent international streaming services plus a UK broadcaster who are pursuing the project with real intent, and I’m confident of finding a home for the project and financing it is not going to be an issue in this particular case due to the subject matter.”

According to the press statement, Spotify’s turbulent journey into the US market and chess match between the new kids and the old guard in the music industry will be central to the story. “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,” commented Leijonhufvud.

Co-author Carlsson said:” 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.”

For Levin, the Spotify Untold is “a modern-day David vs. Goliath set in the dynamic arena of the music industry”, and the limited series “will explore one of the greatest and most surprising technological advancements of our time.”

The screen adaptation of ‘The Spotify Untold’ is the latest project of the UK sister company of Banijay Group’s leading Scandinavian production outfit Yellow Bird, set up in 2017 to expand into the English language market. After the fantasy thriller Hidden that premiered on NENT Group’s Viaplay in February, Yellow Bird’s next major TV show Young Wallander produced for Netflix starts filming on Monday. The six-part series set in contemporary Sweden focuses on the formative years and experiences of Henning Mankell’s iconic detective Kurt Wallander.