Marc Fennell knows a thing or two about telling a good yarn. Over the past 15 or so years, the multi-hyphenate presenter/producer/storyteller has tackled all manner of surprising subjects from the for the world's hottest chilli to the , proving to have a real knack for seeking out the kinds of “stranger than fiction” stories that hide on the fringes of culture. Although he is keen to point out he’s far from alone in this endeavour, surrounded as he is by a talented team of researchers and producers.
This latest entry sees Fennell and team uncover the rise and fall story of Australian based tech startup Guvera, whose music streaming service once rivalled the likes of Spotify and Apple Music. Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution (now streaming at ) is a typically sprawling tale that seemingly has it all: larger than life characters, corporate back stabbings and an almost Shakespearean level of tragedy at its centre. And it was this multi-layered aspect to the Guvera legend that drew Fennell and his team to the story in the first place.
“We were looking at a range of startups and then we kind of focused on the story of Guvera,” recalls Fennell. “I remember the name. I remember being sceptical. Everything else though, from my point of view, was a discovery."
The brainchild of entrepreneur Claes Loberg, Guvera launched in 2010 at a time when music streaming was in its infancy. With piracy still somewhat prevalent in the culture after the birth of Napster some ten years earlier, consumers were looking for a convenient, legal alternative to buying their music through physical means. Guvera’s business model offered up free music to the masses with libraries available to its subscribers free of charge, while passing on the cost to advertisers - a concept which at the time would have been considered even more revolutionary were it not for a certain other Swedish tech giant making waves overseas.
Spotify, with the backing of the European financial machine behind it, would inevitably emerge as the victor of the music streaming wars, but it’s still fascinating to ponder the what ifs of it all - especially when considering that Guvera beat Spotify to launch in a handful of key territories.
A recreation scene of the inside of Guvera's office, in 'Red Flag: Music's Failed Revolution'.
“There is an alternative universe where they (Guvera) came out on top,” Fennell explains. “The fact that these are two companies that came from opposite ends of the world was something that I thought was really worth exploring.”
Another fascinating wrinkle in the Guvera tapestry was its setting on the Gold Coast - a corner of the globe not typically associated with technological innovation, and a far cry from Silicon Valley.
The number of globally recognized startups founded on our shores are few and far between, yet here was an Australian company making a name for themselves on the world stage. And this proved to be yet another key differentiator for Fennell and his team in trying to tell what is in many ways an underdog story.
“Why is it that Australia doesn't have its own Silicon Valley? Guvera kind of answers that to some degree,” says Fennell. “The lack of being able to get investment is partially what drove some of the choices around where their money came from.”
Marc Fennell on the Gold Coast while making 'Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution'. Credit: SBS
Complementing the work of Guvera’s founder Claes was Darren Herft, the money man whose presence looms large over the film, as well as Brad Christiansen, the co-founder and brand champion who provides some of the film's most insightful moments as he relives the trauma of seeing his creation fail to reach its full potential.
And it’s the way Fennell gets these former employees to share their side of the story, with the benefit of hindsight and often with good humour, which makes Red Flag such captivating viewing. As outside observers, we put ourselves in their shoes and in the process gain a better understanding of what drives an individual to pour every ounce of themselves into a concept that may never have ever seen the light of day.
“I think Claes absolutely did have a revolutionary idea at a time when the industry needed revolutionary ideas” explains Fennell, “Now did it work in practice? At stages, yes. And at stages, no.”
This push and pull between what Guvera stood for VS. what it ultimately became is something that is felt strongly in the film's latter half, when the true cracks start to appear and we begin to see the lengths some within the business went to in order to keep the money flowing, leading to perhaps the film's greatest mystery of all: the whereabouts of some 180 million dollars’ worth of funding.
we untangle the bad decisions from the good work...
As new facts emerge and we hear a steady stream of horror stories from those at the centre of a slow-motion car crash, a picture begins to emerge that is equal parts surprising, maddening, and tragic.
As for Fennell, whilst this latest entry in a long line of wonderfully observed documentaries draws its own potential conclusions, his hope is that viewers take away their own deeper questions from the failings of Guvera.
“It's a story of a series of very complicated decisions that doomed them to failure,” he concludes. “But it doesn't necessarily mean it was doomed from the beginning. I hope one of the things that comes out of (the film) is that we untangle the bad decisions from the good work.”
Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution is available to stream free . Red Flag: Music’s Failed Revolution will be subtitled in five languages, streaming on SBS On Demand in Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Vietnamese and Korean.
Stream free On Demand
Red Flag: Music's Failed Revolution
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Explore more of Marc Fennell's work in the at SBS On Demand, including Mastermind Australia and these documentaries:
Stream free On Demand
The Mission
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The Kingdom
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Came From Nowhere
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Framed
