The Partner
In episode 5 of The Playlist, we follow Martin Lorentzon as he makes his way to the inception of Spotify. However, we don’t begin with a flashback; rather, we’re skipping forward 5 years since Spotify’s launch party. In this episode, Martin talks about how proud he is of Daniel and how he has a giant flashback of himself at the wedding.
Martin tells Daniel at the wedding that he grew up in the “happiest generation.” ..
The Stockholm Stock Exchange are not happy with his antics and he is demoted in a meeting, instead of being an integral part of the business. ..
Daniel is taken to a casino and is given the opportunity to gamble away a significant amount of money. He uses this as an opportunity to think bigger and do something that’s globally encompassing. Something like music. Martin uses this as a metaphor to encourage Daniel to think about his future and what he wants to do.
After winning big at the casino, Martin agrees to put 12 million into Daniel’s account to make this a reality and create something perfect that everyone wants. Martin admits that you have to have complete faith in your partner in order to see this through to the end, even if everyone else sees it as foolhardy or crazy. ..
Daniel is the founder of a tech company and he has a lot of responsibility for its success. He needs to be able to work with his team and make sure that their goals are aligned. This is especially important because without Daniel’s help, Spotify will not be able to grow as fast as it wants to.
Martin met some rich capitalists on the golf course and used his charisma to play them against each other. He realized that he undervalued Spotify and knew now that it could have been worth a lot more. But still, it worked and he managed to get them a good amount of money using his “madman” trick. This off the back of this, Daniel and Martin launched Spotify in 2008 and prompted them to be well on their way.
Martin finds out he has Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and it changes everything. That is only made worse when Taylor Swift hits out against Spotify and Apple, deciding to boycott both platforms. Given she’s the biggest artist in the world, that’s bad news for the team.
After a heated argument with his partner, Martin is forced to speak to Stanley alone about how the game has changed and how piracy was originally. Despite being responsible for 1 in 20 streams on the platform, it’s a humbling moment for Martin who’s undermined by his partner.
We return to the wedding, where Daniel speaks to Martin privately down by the shore after his big speech. There’s a lot of talk about the IPO and Daniel makes the tough choice to force Martin to stand down as Chairman. Martin hugs Daniel but the latter doesn’t reciprocate, eventually walking away and leaving Martin to reflect on his journey to this moment.
The Episode Review
Martin’s departure from Spotify is a major blow to the company, as he was a driving force behind its growth and success. His departure leaves the company with a lot of questions and uncertainty, as to who will take his place at the helm.
Daniel, the entrepreneur in episode 1, has slowly become much more ruthless and cold as the episodes have progressed. This makes for an interesting character examination. ..
The show has done a great job fleshing out its different characters in these stand-alone episodes and keeping the actual music artists until last is a nice way of showing the company’s success against the pros and cons of various artists on the platform. As we know, music artists are paid pennies to be on Spotify and it’ll be interesting to see how the show captures that moving forward.
The final episode of the season is sure to be an intriguing one. ..
