Spotify is getting the small-screen treatment.
Spotify Untold, a new book chronicling the company’s rise from Swedish startup to industry-disrupting music powerhouse, is set to be adapted into a TV drama.
The newly released tell-all novel by Sven Carlsson and Jonas Leijonhufvud has been optioned by Yellow Bird U.K., part of French production giant the Banijay Group, for a limited scripted series that is set to examine how the “secretive start-up wooed record companies, shook the music industry to its core and conquered Wall Street.”
The series will focus on Spotify’s “turbulent” entry into the U.S., a tussle that saw both tech icon Steve Jobs and Napster founder Sean Parker become involved, with Jobs recruiting music guru Jimmy Iovine to poach Spotify’s employees to Beats Music, soon to become Apple Music.
“Spotify Untold is the ultimate tale of achieving the impossible and unimaginable,” said Berna Levin, executive producer at Yellow Bird. “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.”
Added co-author Leijonhufvud: “The rise of Spotify is one of the greatest stories to come out of Sweden in the past 10 years. It’s a saga of a young founder who came out of nowhere and beat Apple at their own game.”
The series will be developed and produced by Yellow Bird U.K, with Levin serving as executive producer and Luke Franklin as producer. Carlsson and Leijonhufvud will consult on the project. The rights were sought from Eleonoora Kirk at Bonnier Rights.
