The Coder

In Episode 4 of The Playlist, we switch perspective once again and focus on coder Andreas Ehn. Coding is an important part of any big tech company’s success, but it’s a difficult and meticulous job. Andreas though sees it as part of his DNA. He believes in taking the ugly, chaotic world we’re living in and making it perfect in a digital landscape. ..

Andreas is overworked and his bosses don’t appreciate the effort he puts in. He’s working for Stardoll, a company that only have eyes for making a tidy profit off add-ons for their online game tailored to kids. Daniel Ek notices Andreas’ boss grilling him from afar and suggests he quit and do his own thing. He pitches their tech start-up, and confirms that Andreas would be appreciated with likeminded people. ..

Daniel pitches his idea of Spotify and how he’ll cut out all the hassle and risks of downloading from Pirate Bay. He also meets Martin too and shows them their office space. It’s empty for now but Andreas’ expertise and brilliance helps to make this a success. He also decides to handpick a number of different coders to help them too. He has a vision for the world’s best coding team working here.

Andreas tells the group that access is the most important part of Spotify’s potential success… as well as speed. They work around the clock to program this in, working to try and make Spotify the best it can be. ..

Andreas and Martin are able to open up a relationship with the bartender because they look at her as beautiful. This opens up the possibility for them to date romantically, and Andreas is under pressure from Daniel though, especially as the system is now needing to be built on a P2P system rather than servers.

After a slick explanation in the show, the gist of it is that P2P basically means Peer to Peer and it’s a system that works to share between different users. It’s also a painfully slow process. Andreas skips out on dinner with his partner to help Daniel out at the club with Per, where he catches the tail-end of their scathing chat and how he throws Andreas’ laptop on the floor.

Ludvig is brought on as a consultant to help speed things up with Spotify, but it also works to undermine Andreas too given Ludvig is an expert in Peer to Peer coding. While he runs the front end, Andreas will run the back-end. Out at the bar, the team come up with an idea for a hybrid system. It’s Peer to Peer but only switches to the server for some songs when they’re random and outside what they believe the user is going to choose next. The delay is 0.250 milliseconds but it’s still too slow for Daniel. He wants it to be instantaneous.

Andreas lashes out at Daniel, claiming that he’s asking for the impossible. Daniel is not impressed and eventually tells Andreas that if he can’t hack it, he should just leave. Andreas gets his head back in the game and with a brand new network protocol… and it works. Daniel is blown away by what they’ve done but it comes at a cost

When Andreas heads home, he finds his girlfriend gone. His pursuit of the perfect music player has come at the cost of his romantic life. She leaves him a note, telling him life’s too short to be waiting. Unfortunately, Andreas’ night goes from bad to worse when he hears Daniel is restructuring the team to work directly under him. Andreas is also shocked by the idea of Spotify Premium, believing it undermines what they initially wanted to do. He’s overruled by the others and becomes disenfranchised with Spotify.

Andreas decides to prioritize his relationship with his bartender girlfriend and head back to Singapore. He tells her that he’s decided that he wants to live in the moment and focus on their relationship, rather than streaming music or using technology. They head to the airport and prepare to leave for Singapore.

The Episode Review

Spotify’s coding staff is under a lot of stress, as they are constantly trying to meet the high standards set by Daniel Ek. There are some similarities to The Social Network and WeCrashed, in that Daniel interrogates the coders about their work and how they’re doing. Although they eventually succeed, it comes at a cost. ..

The episode of “Work” features a moral message not to put work ahead of your relationships.

The Playlist has been a great series so far, and it looks like the spotlight is going to be on Martin next time. This means that all the different storylines we’ve seen so far will be tied together. ..