The Law
Petra Hansson is a hard working music executive who is trying to keep her life on track while also fighting for the music industry. She’s recruited by Sony Music to help with the Pirate Bay case, but she quickly realizes that this is a difficult battle. There are many lawsuits and conflicts of interest involved in this case, and Petra is quickly struggling to keep up.
Martin Lorentzon from Spotify shows up at her office. They had a meeting scheduled and although that was rearranged, he’s not taking no for an answer. He makes the same pitch to her regarding Spotify that Daniel has to his investors, but she brings up it would be a conflict of interest. So naturally, he goes all in and decides she should leave one of Scandinavia’s top law firm and come to work for Spotify.
Petra is incredulous when he tells her that he won’t be joining her at the firm because he’s already a partner at another company. She’s not an official partner, but she’s “Junior partner” which is basically just another title for “not quite partner but you’re getting there.”
Petra heads to see what Martin and Spotify are offering. It’s a culture shock, with a frat-boy feel and a very different work environment to what she’s used to. Petra finds that many of the people there are playing games and messing around! ..
Spotify, a music streaming service, is in negotiations with Sony Music Entertainment to gain access to the company’s vast music library. In order to gain access, the company must pay an upfront fee. Sony’s “attack dog,” Ken Parks, is present and will likely work to intimidate and undermine the Spotify team. ..
Ken is convinced this isn’t a viable and sustainable business enterprise. Daniel has heard enough and storms out, calling them all dinosaurs. Petra stays behind and listens as Ken hits the hammer blow and tells Petra and her team that they have no choice. They have to pay to see this through.
Petra realizes that the law Ken and the others are using is outdated from 1998 when Britney had her first smash hit. This means that the current wave of digitalization has not been factored into their sums.
The team is in trouble. They have less money left than they had before, thanks to Martin spending too much on his other business. They only have a few weeks left to launch their product and if they don’t do it now, everything will go wrong.
The group is discussing how to approach the Warner company when Petra interrupts. She reminds them that they need to stop acting like children and actually begin approaching these places with some tenacity and restraint. Given how hard Warner have been hit lately with the piracy, Petra suggests they start there. Petra tries to compromise, playing the role of middle-man and working out how they get around the licencing. She suggests a paywall.
Spotify’s algorithm and statistics allow the team to see what’s trending, how many plays different songs are getting, and which artists are doing well. Although this data is only for the users, Petra suggests they share this with record labels and investors. Daniel is adamant that they keep it for themselves. The others in the room – including Martin – are much more open to this idea.
Daniel’s stubbornness almost tanks the whole thing, as Petra heads back to her law firm she walked away from. This time the firm are much more serious and offer her the position of senior partner. The offer is only on the table for a limited amount of time. Petra’s heart isn’t really in it anymore though, wanting to instead find a way to try and make Spotify work. And then, a breakthrough.
After spilling pearls all over the floor in the board meeting, she shows up to see the group and demonstrates exactly what she has in mind using said pearls. User-generated playlists on Spotify are free but they can have the best of both worlds with Spotify Premium.
Spotify Premium is a business model that Spotify believes is the right way to go. Daniel concedes and believes this is the right way to go.
She goes to see him at his office, but he’s not there. She goes to his secretary and she’s not there either. She goes to the door and it’s locked. She calls out and no one answers. She starts to panic and decides to go back inside. When she gets there, she finds that the office has been ransacked and all of Sony’s personal belongings are gone. Petra is devastated, but decides that this is her only chance at getting what she wants and decides to take her case to court.
The pair decide to work together, but the deal will come at a steep price – 50% of the business to be precise. Although the pair of them can negotiate it down to around 15%, this would give Spotify a foot in the door and work to their favour if they can tip the balance of power. Thanks to their combined efforts, they manage to get every record label to sign up to Spotify. Everyone gets their happy ending right? Well no, because apparently that’s not the whole truth of the matter, which we find out from coder Andreas.
The Episode Review
This episode is a great example of how Spotify helped to elevate The playlist above a simple biographical drama into an insightful venture. There are many different perspectives on the show, and the constantly changing perspectives works really well to highlight how monumental Spotify was to riding that wave of digitalization we now occupy on a daily basis. It’s fascinating and inspiring to see how hard everyone worked to get it off the ground.
Spotify is on the rise, with coder perspectives being featured next time out. This change of perspective may be interesting, as the tone may darken a little. ..
