Spotify Technology SA (SPOT) 2023 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Good morning. My name is Julianne, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to Spotify's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Call. (Operator Instructions) I would now like to turn the call over to Bryan Goldberg, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin your conference.

早上好。我叫 Julianne，今天我將擔任你們的會議運營商。在這個時候，我想歡迎大家參加 Spotify 的 2023 年第一季度財報電話會議。 （操作員說明）我現在想把電話轉給投資者關係主管布萊恩戈德堡。你可以開始你的會議。

Thank you, and welcome to Spotify's First Quarter 2023 Earnings Conference Call. Joining us today will be Daniel Ek, our CEO; and Paul Vogel, our CFO. We'll start with opening comments from Daniel and Paul and afterwards, we'll be happy to answer your questions. (Operator Instructions) Before we begin, let me quickly cover the safe harbor.

謝謝，歡迎來到 Spotify 2023 年第一季度收益電話會議。今天加入我們的是我們的首席執行官 Daniel Ek；和我們的首席財務官 Paul Vogel。我們將從 Daniel 和 Paul 的開放評論開始，之後，我們很樂意回答您的問題。 （操作員說明）在我們開始之前，讓我快速介紹一下安全港。

During this call, we'll be making certain forward-looking statements, including projections or estimates about the future performance of the company. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ because of factors discussed on today's call in our letter to shareholders and in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在此次電話會議中，我們將做出某些前瞻性陳述，包括對公司未來業績的預測或估計。這些陳述基於受風險和不確定因素影響的當前預期和假設。由於我們在致股東的信函和提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中今天的電話會議中討論的因素，實際結果可能存在重大差異。

During this call, we'll also refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliations between our IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures can be found in our letter to shareholders, in the financial section of our Investor Relations website and also furnished today on Form 6-K.

在本次電話會議中，我們還將參考某些非 IFRS 財務指標。我們的 IFRS 和非 IFRS 財務措施之間的對賬可以在我們致股東的信中找到，在我們的投資者關係網站的財務部分，也可以在今天的 6-K 表格中找到。

And with that, I'll turn it over to Daniel.

有了這個，我會把它交給丹尼爾。

All right. Hey, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us. As we open this call, I really can't help but feel a tremendous amount of excitement about the progress our team made this quarter. In fact, this quarter represents our strongest Q1 since going public. And over the last few months, we've celebrated a few significant milestones, including surpassing over 0.5 billion users and reaching more than 200 million subscribers.

好的。大家好，非常感謝你們加入我們。當我們打開這個電話時，我真的忍不住對我們團隊在本季度取得的進展感到非常興奮。事實上，本季度是我們上市以來最強勁的第一季度。在過去的幾個月裡，我們慶祝了幾個重要的里程碑，包括超過 5 億用戶和超過 2 億用戶。

Further, our user growth exceeded our expectations by 15 million and our subscriber numbers by 3 million. And at our scale, it is pretty remarkable to see this level of reacceleration in our user growth. But it is a trend that's been consistent now for over the last 5 quarters. In fact, the last 2 quarters saw the largest MAU growth in our history.

此外，我們的用戶增長超出預期 1500 萬，訂戶數量超出預期 300 萬。在我們的規模上，看到我們的用戶增長出現這種程度的再加速是非常了不起的。但在過去 5 個季度中，這種趨勢一直保持一致。事實上，過去兩個季度的 MAU 增長是我們歷史上最大的。

The outperformance was broad-based, meaning growth was pretty evenly spread across every region without a single market dominating. And on top of this, we were able to accomplish this level of growth with lower marketing spend. We look at this as a promising sign, but it's too early to draw any conclusions yet.

出色的表現是廣泛的，這意味著增長相當均勻地分佈在每個地區，沒有一個市場佔據主導地位。最重要的是，我們能夠以較低的營銷支出實現這種增長水平。我們認為這是一個有希望的跡象，但現在下結論還為時過早。

And as you heard me say repeatedly over the years, a healthy top line user growth is the leading indicator of our ability to achieve future success on all other financial metrics. And when we successfully attract new users, it's only a matter of time before the conversion rate to subscriber increases, which then, of course, drives our revenue upwards over the long term. And this is a formula that's been worked for us exceptionally well and one I fully expect to play out again.

正如你多年來反复聽到我所說的那樣，健康的頂線用戶增長是我們未來在所有其他財務指標上取得成功的能力的領先指標。當我們成功吸引新用戶時，訂閱者的轉化率提高只是時間問題，從長遠來看，這當然會推動我們的收入增長。這是一個對我們非常有效的公式，我完全希望再次發揮作用。

And speaking of long term, I want to spend a moment talking about our approach to investment time lines and the outcomes they can deliver when we stay on the course. So let me give you a recent example. For those who turn in to our March Stream On event, we unveiled numerous crater tools and debuted an entirely new and updated Spotify experience, including a first of its kind AI DJ.

說到長期，我想花點時間談談我們對投資時間線的方法，以及當我們堅持到底時它們可以帶來的結果。所以讓我給你舉一個最近的例子。對於那些參加我們的 March Stream On 活動的人，我們推出了許多 Crater 工具並推出了全新和更新的 Spotify 體驗，包括首個此類 AI DJ。

And these changes marked the biggest updates to our user experience since we introduced mobile more than 10 years ago. But of course, this didn't happen overnight. These are things that we've been building on over the last 12 to even 18 months and in some cases, even longer. And as we shift to rolling out these features as well as several others across our 184 markets, we're seeing an acceleration in MAU retention and subs.

這些變化標誌著自我們 10 多年前推出移動設備以來我們的用戶體驗發生了最大的變化。但當然，這不是一夜之間發生的。這些是我們在過去 12 到 18 個月甚至更長的時間裡一直在構建的東西。隨著我們轉向在我們的 184 個市場推出這些功能以及其他幾個功能，我們看到 MAU 保留和訂閱量在加速增長。

And sometimes, our investments manifest themselves immediately but more often than not, their impact is gradual and takes shape over several quarters or sometimes even years. And while we really can't anticipate when the benefits will materialize, we do know that our growth is a consequence of our relentless pursuit of learning, iterating and improving.

有時，我們的投資會立即顯現出來，但通常情況下，它們的影響是漸進的，並在幾個季度甚至幾年內形成。雖然我們真的無法預測收益何時會實現，但我們知道我們的成長是我們不懈追求學習、迭代和改進的結果。

We make strategic investments, and we wait for the results to compound proving out the benefits for users, creators and of course, our other stakeholders. And by delivering an exceptional experience that is centered on creating value for the stakeholders, over time, we're seeing a correlation with a stronger financial performance.

我們進行戰略投資，等待結果復合，證明對用戶、創作者，當然還有我們其他利益相關者的好處。通過提供以為利益相關者創造價值為中心的卓越體驗，隨著時間的推移，我們看到了與更強大的財務業績的相關性。

I've often talked about the fact that our success is not attributable to just one thing, but literally hundreds, if not sometimes even thousands of improvements that we're investing in and working on in parallel. And that's not to say that every one of them ends up producing the outcomes we strive for. But over time, the things that do work, they do add up.

我經常談到這樣一個事實，即我們的成功不僅僅歸功於一件事，而是實際上有數百個，如果不是有時甚至是數千個我們正在投資和並行進行的改進。這並不是說他們中的每一個最終都會產生我們為之奮鬥的結果。但隨著時間的推移，確實有效的事情會累積起來。

And together, they have a compounding effect. So think of it really as waves of innovation, investment and improvement. There's an ebb and there's a flow over time, but over time, it really becomes more predictable and produces steadier results. And the key then it seems is to maintain a long-term focus to help us navigate current short-term uncertainties.

它們一起產生了複合效應。因此，請將其真正視為創新、投資和改進的浪潮。隨著時間的推移，有潮起潮落，但隨著時間的推移，它確實變得更可預測並產生更穩定的結果。關鍵似乎是保持長期關注，以幫助我們應對當前的短期不確定性。

But don't let all my talk about the importance of long-term investing allow you to believe that we are rethinking our commitment to driving efficiency. So as many know, last quarter and building on what we shared at last year's Investor Day, I talked about shifting towards becoming a more efficient company.

但不要讓我談論長期投資的重要性讓你相信我們正在重新考慮我們對提高效率的承諾。正如許多人所知，上個季度，在我們去年投資者日分享的內容的基礎上，我談到了轉向成為一家更有效率的公司。

There's really no question that we've become leaner in the last 6 months but this progress is still early in its reflection on our financials. The actions we've taken, coupled with other opportunities to reduce spending in areas like marketing and content production and real estate should lead to a steady progression of key metrics throughout the year, all of which makes me even more bullish about the remainder of 2023 and beyond.

毫無疑問，我們在過去 6 個月裡變得更精簡了，但這種進步在我們財務上的反映還處於早期階段。我們採取的行動，加上其他減少營銷、內容製作和房地產等領域支出的機會，應該會導致全年關鍵指標穩步上升，所有這些都讓我更加看好 2023 年剩餘時間超越。

And with that, I'll turn it over to Paul for more detail behind the numbers, and then Bryan will open it up for the Q&A.

有了這個，我會把它交給 Paul 來了解更多數字背後的細節，然後 Bryan 會打開它進行問答。

Great. Thanks, Daniel, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. Let's start with Q1. User growth was exceptionally strong in the quarter. Total monthly active users grew to EUR 515 million in Q1. This was EUR 15 million ahead of guidance, up EUR 26 million quarter-over-quarter, the largest Q1 net additions in our history and the second largest all-time only surpassed by Q4 of last year. The strength was broad-based, and we had record Q1 net additions across nearly all age demographics in both developed and developing regions.

偉大的。謝謝 Daniel，也謝謝大家加入我們。讓我們從第一季度開始。本季度用戶增長異常強勁。第一季度每月活躍用戶總數增長至 5.15 億歐元。這比指引提前了 1500 萬歐元，比上一季度增加了 2600 萬歐元，是我們歷史上第一季度最大的淨增幅，也是歷史第二高的增幅，僅次於去年第四季度。力量基礎廣泛，我們在發達地區和發展中地區幾乎所有年齡段的人口統計數據中都有創紀錄的第一季度淨增加。

Moving to Premium. We finished the quarter with 210 million subscribers, 3 million ahead of guidance, thanks once again to broad-based strength across all regions. Engagement trends were strong in Q1 with healthy uplift to year-over-year growth in content hours per MAU across all platforms. We also saw positive trends in our DAU to MAU ratio as well as in churn.

轉向高級版。我們在本季度結束時擁有 2.1 億訂戶，比預期提前 300 萬，這再次歸功於所有地區的廣泛實力。第一季度的參與度趨勢強勁，所有平台上每個 MAU 的內容時長都出現了同比健康增長。我們還看到了 DAU 與 MAU 比率以及客戶流失率的積極趨勢。

Our revenue grew 14% year-on-year, topping EUR 3 billion in the quarter. Results in the quarter were just slightly behind forecasts as premium revenue slightly outperformed, offset by a very modest underperformance in advertising. This marks the first Q1 in Spotify's history where we surpassed EUR 300 million in ad revenue. And turning to gross margin.

我們的收入同比增長 14%，本季度超過 30 億歐元。本季度的業績略低於預期，因為保費收入表現略好於預期，但被廣告業務表現不佳所抵消。這標誌著 Spotify 歷史上第一季度的廣告收入首次超過 3 億歐元。並轉向毛利率。

Gross margin of 25.2% was above guidance by 30 basis points. Moving to operating expenses. Growth was lower than forecast helped by less marketing spend than plan. When combined with our better gross profit, operating loss was ahead of guidance by EUR 38 million. The better-than-planned results also include EUR 44 million of severance-related charges. Free cash flow was a positive EUR 57 million in Q1.

毛利率為 25.2%，高於指引 30 個基點。轉到運營費用。由於營銷支出低於計劃，增長低於預期。加上我們更好的毛利潤，營業虧損比指導方針高出 3800 萬歐元。好於計劃的業績還包括 4400 萬歐元的遣散費。第一季度自由現金流為正 0.57 億歐元。

Now looking ahead, it's clear we have a lot of momentum coming out of Q1. With respect to second quarter guidance, we continue to see strong momentum in MAU and subscribers. We're forecasting 530 million MAU, an increase of 50 million from Q1 and 217 million subscribers, an increase of 7 million over Q1. We are forecasting EUR 3.2 billion in total revenue, a gross margin of roughly 25.5% and an operating loss of approximately EUR 129 million.

現在展望未來，很明顯第一季度我們有很多動力。關於第二季度的指引，我們繼續看到 MAU 和訂閱者的強勁勢頭。我們預測 MAU 為 5.3 億，比第一季度增加 5000 萬，訂戶數為 2.17 億，比第一季度增加 700 萬。我們預計總收入為 32 億歐元，毛利率約為 25.5%，營業虧損約為 1.29 億歐元。

On revenue, the currency translation benefits we've been experiencing for the last 6 quarters are expected to reverse in Q2, led by the weakening U.S. dollar relative to the euro. As a result, we are forecasting a 300 basis point headwind to growth. Excluding this effect, our constant currency revenue will be closer to EUR 3.3 billion, reflecting our expectation for accelerating currency-neutral growth to 14% versus 13% growth we delivered in Q1.

在收入方面，我們在過去 6 個季度中經歷的貨幣換算優勢預計將在第二季度逆轉，原因是美元相對於歐元走軟。因此，我們預測增長將面臨 300 個基點的逆風。排除這一影響，我們的固定貨幣收入將接近 33 億歐元，反映出我們對貨幣中性增長加速至 14% 的預期，而我們在第一季度實現了 13% 的增長。

From a profitability standpoint, we continue to expect a steady ramp in gross margins throughout 2023 as well as sequential improvements in our operating loss. And then one final note. As Daniel mentioned in his remarks, we will continue to be diligent regarding operating efficiency improvements and we'll be looking at areas such as real estate optimization.

從盈利能力的角度來看，我們繼續預計整個 2023 年毛利率將穩步上升，並且我們的營業虧損將持續改善。然後是最後一個音符。正如丹尼爾在他的發言中提到的那樣，我們將繼續努力提高運營效率，我們將關注房地產優化等領域。

During Q2, we hope to finalize some of these decisions, and this could lead to material noncash charge during the quarter. We have not included any potential charges in our Q2 guidance, but should they occur we will break them out during our Q2 earnings report.

在第二季度，我們希望最終確定其中一些決定，這可能會導致本季度產生重大的非現金費用。我們沒有在我們的 Q2 指南中包含任何潛在費用，但如果它們發生，我們將在我們的 Q2 收益報告中將它們分開。

And with that, I'll turn it back over to Bryan.

有了這個，我會把它轉回給布萊恩。

All right. Thanks, Paul. (Operator Instructions) And our first question today is going to come from Matt Thornton on advertising. Ad revenue actually reaccelerated in first quarter, which would seem better than feared. Can you talk to what you're seeing in the ad market, i.e., how it performed relative to your expectations and linearity through and exiting the quarter?

好的。謝謝，保羅。 （操作員說明）我們今天的第一個問題將來自馬特桑頓關於廣告的問題。廣告收入實際上在第一季度重新加速，這似乎比人們擔心的要好。你能談談你在廣告市場上看到的情況嗎，即它相對於你的預期和線性在本季度和退出本季度的表現如何？

Yes. As I said in my opening comments, we're slightly behind on the ad side, about [20 million] or so. The quarter was choppy, again. Incrementally throughout the quarter, it got a little bit better. We feel like we have momentum heading into Q2, but I think we've had similar sort of trends heading into Q1 as well. So it's a little bit too early to say. Overall, I think we feel really good about our relative position in the ad market and how we performed relative to how the overall market performed in Q1. Again, it was a bit up and down. We missed by a small amount, but nothing really that concerns us in any way.

是的。正如我在開場評論中所說，我們在廣告方面略有落後，大約 [2000 萬] 左右。這個季度再次起伏不定。在整個季度中，情況逐漸好轉。我們覺得我們有進入第二季度的勢頭，但我認為我們在進入第一季度時也有類似的趨勢。所以現在說還為時過早。總的來說，我認為我們對我們在廣告市場的相對地位以及我們相對於第一季度整體市場表現的表現感到非常滿意。再一次，它有點起伏。我們錯過了一小部分，但沒有任何真正讓我們擔心的事情。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Mike Morris on AI. Use of AI technology to create new music has resulted in concern from artists and rights holders as seen with the recent Fake Drake track. What is Spotify's responsibility in allowing or preventing the distribution of creative music that draws from another artist's work?

好的。我們的下一個問題將來自 Mike Morris 關於 AI 的問題。正如最近的 Fake Drake 曲目所示，使用 AI 技術創作新音樂引起了藝術家和版權所有者的關注。 Spotify 在允許或阻止傳播取自其他藝術家作品的創意音樂方面有什麼責任？

Yes. I mean, first off, let's acknowledge that this is an incredibly fast moving and developing space. I don't think in my history with technology, I've ever seen anything moving as fastest as the development of AI currently is at the moment. And obviously, you pointed out in your question that there's 2 parts of this. One is, our role as a platform for allowing innovation of creative works and then how we do to protect the creators and the artist ecosystem that we care so deeply about.

是的。我的意思是，首先，讓我們承認這是一個非常快速發展的空間。我不認為在我的技術歷史上，我見過任何像目前人工智能發展最快的東西。顯然，您在問題中指出了這兩個部分。一是我們作為允許創意作品創新的平台的角色，然後是我們如何保護我們如此關心的創作者和藝術家生態系統。

And so the big part of this is we have that dual focus, and we take that role of guardian, the artist creativity and the support that we are doing for artists and creators very, very seriously. So we're in constant dialogue with the industry about these things. And it's important to state that there's everything from what you've mentioned sort of fake tracks from artists, which falls in one bucket to everything of just augmenting using AI to allow for expression, which probably falls in the more lenient and easier bucket.

因此，其中很大一部分是我們有雙重關注點，我們非常非常重視保護者的角色、藝術家的創造力以及我們為藝術家和創作者提供的支持。因此，我們一直在與業界就這些事情進行對話。重要的是要說明，從你提到的藝術家的假曲目，到所有使用 AI 進行增強以允許表達的東西，都屬於一個桶，這可能屬於更寬鬆、更容易的桶。

So these are very, very complex issues that don't have a single straight answer on how you take the position depending on what would happen. But we're in constant discussion with our partners and creators and artists and want to strike a balance between allowing innovation and, of course, protecting artists.

所以這些都是非常、非常複雜的問題，沒有一個單一的直接答案來說明你如何根據會發生什麼採取立場。但我們一直在與我們的合作夥伴、創作者和藝術家進行討論，希望在允許創新和保護藝術家之間取得平衡。

Okay. Next question from Justin Patterson on operating efficiency. On the fourth quarter earnings call, you framed efficiency is a top priority for Spotify. As you've transitioned to a new org structure, how are you measuring your initial progress on speed and efficiency? And when can we expect these efforts to roll in more meaningfully to gross margin and operating expense?

好的。 Justin Patterson 關於運營效率的下一個問題。在第四季度財報電話會議上，你認為效率是 Spotify 的首要任務。當您過渡到新的組織結構時，您如何衡量您在速度和效率方面的初步進展？我們什麼時候可以期望這些努力對毛利率和運營費用產生更有意義的影響？

Yes. I'll start, and maybe Paul can add to it. So we're early on in our new work structure and the way we're working. But I'm feeling really good about it so far. And the leading indicators that I look to is really just speed of decision-making. And we've really kind of driven more collaboration and more speed of decisions now than we've had probably at any other time in the Spotify history. So I feel good about that.

是的。我會開始，也許 Paul 可以補充。因此，我們很早就開始採用新的工作結構和工作方式。但到目前為止我感覺非常好。我關注的領先指標實際上只是決策速度。與 Spotify 歷史上任何其他時間相比，我們現在確實推動了更多的協作和更快的決策速度。所以我對此感覺很好。

But that obviously will still take some time before that then leads into actual products that then leads to actual business results. So I think as it relates to that, we still have some ways to go before investors will see the actual output. But when I talked about efficiency, it's important to note that, that's just one part of the equation. The other part of the equation, obviously, on efficiency is just being diligent on what we invest in and what we spend on. And I don't know, Paul, if you want to talk a little bit more about what we're seeing there.

但這顯然仍需要一些時間，然後才能轉化為實際產品，進而產生實際業務成果。因此，我認為與此相關的是，在投資者看到實際產出之前，我們還有一些路要走。但是當我談到效率時，重要的是要注意，這只是等式的一部分。等式的另一部分，顯然，關於效率只是勤於我們投資的東西和我們花的東西。我不知道，保羅，你是否想多談談我們在那裡看到的東西。

Yes. I would add a couple of things. One is, I think we've talked about on the gross margin side seeing sequential improvement throughout 2023, and nothing's changed there. So you saw the Q1 number come in, you saw the Q2 guidance is sequentially better than Q1, and we expect that to persist throughout 2023. And same thing on the operating loss, we expect to see incremental leverage throughout the year with the sequential improvement in operating loss as well. So we're starting to see it come through on those lines.

是的。我想補充幾件事。一是，我認為我們已經談到了毛利率方面，看到整個 2023 年的連續改善，那裡沒有任何改變。所以你看到第一季度的數字進來了，你看到第二季度的指導連續好於第一季度，我們預計這種情況將持續到 2023 年。同樣，在經營虧損方面，我們預計全年槓桿率將隨著連續改善而增加經營虧損也是如此。所以我們開始看到它通過這些線路實現。

All right. Next question from Matt Thornton on our subscription business. ARPU was a little lower than expected. Can you talk to what's driving that, i.e., of how did FX plan mix, market mix, promotional activity vary versus your initial expectations and guidance? And how should we think about ARPU looking forward?

好的。 Matt Thornton 關於我們的訂閱業務的下一個問題。 ARPU 略低於預期。你能談談是什麼推動了這一點，即外匯計劃組合、市場組合、促銷活動與你最初的預期和指導有何不同？我們應該如何看待未來的 ARPU？

Yes. It's kind of a combination of all the things you mentioned. Clearly, we beat on the subscriber side by 3 million. So when we have that upside, some of it came from additional growth in our family and duo plans as well as people coming on promotional. And so all of those have an impact on ARPU. I would say the product mix, meaning more users coming in on family and duo is probably the biggest driver. Again, it's pretty minor in terms of where it came in on ARPU and it was pretty much in line with our expectations, maybe a hair below from an ARPU standpoint, but not material.

是的。這是你提到的所有事情的組合。顯然，我們在訂戶方面超過了 300 萬。因此，當我們有這種優勢時，其中一些來自我們家庭和雙人計劃的額外增長以及參加促銷活動的人。因此，所有這些都會對 ARPU 產生影響。我會說產品組合，這意味著更多的家庭用戶和二人組用戶可能是最大的驅動力。同樣，它在 ARPU 上的位置非常小，並且非常符合我們的預期，從 ARPU 的角度來看可能略低，但不是實質性的。

Okay. Another question from Justin Patterson. This is on our recent product updates. Daniel, could you share any initial learnings on listener and creator reactions to the new user interface. With the new user interface released, how should we think about the pace of product improvements and monetization opportunities going forward?

好的。賈斯汀帕特森的另一個問題。這是我們最近的產品更新。丹尼爾，你能分享一下關於聽眾和創作者對新用戶界面反應的任何初步了解嗎？隨著新用戶界面的發布，我們應該如何考慮產品改進的步伐和未來的盈利機會？

Yes. Perhaps just to start by setting context. It was a very successful event. We've had massive amounts of feedback both from users and creators, where, in particular, this was a creator-focused event. So creators have been overwhelmingly positive about all the new tools that they now have to express themselves and to connect with their audience.

是的。也許只是從設置上下文開始。這是一次非常成功的活動。我們收到了來自用戶和創作者的大量反饋，特別是，這是一個以創作者為中心的活動。因此，創作者對他們現在用來表達自己和與觀眾建立聯繫的所有新工具都非常積極。

But it's also to temper expectation. It's probably one of the largest single changes in the history of Spotify. So we take that very seriously. So for instance, the new home feed that we announced is still being rolled out. So most consumers in the world don't yet have access to that. We're rolling it out slowly just to make sure we have performance dialed up and that we can react to the feedback, and we've already made lots of iterations with the user feedback we've gotten.

但這也是為了緩和期望。這可能是 Spotify 歷史上最大的單一變化之一。所以我們非常重視這一點。例如，我們宣布的新家庭動態仍在推出中。所以世界上大多數消費者還無法獲得它。我們正在慢慢推出它，只是為了確保我們的性能得到提升，並且我們可以對反饋做出反應，而且我們已經根據我們得到的用戶反饋進行了大量迭代。

So it will be very successful when it's fully rolled out, and I feel really good about that. But I'm using this as a moment to educate all investors and analysts as well that there are some product improvements that we do that you just can't turn on the button on and there's some that you can. And this happened to be one of those things that takes multi quarters for us to roll out because it's not just a feature or something else. It's a whole new infrastructure behind it with a whole new instrumentation for our AI tools as well.

所以全面鋪開會很成功，我覺得非常好。但我也藉此機會教育所有投資者和分析師，我們做了一些產品改進，你無法打開按鈕，但有些是可以的。這恰好是我們需要多個季度才能推出的事情之一，因為它不僅僅是一個功能或其他東西。它背後是一個全新的基礎設施，也為我們的 AI 工具配備了全新的儀器。

So it's an important piece of infrastructure that we're basically still rolling out, but I feel really good about it and the response. And I think once that's fully rolled out, we can iterate massively on top of that as well. But the big focus for the next few months from the teams is just really kind of rolling this out, making sure it's very performant and that we can start then allowing our machine learning and AI teams to start iterating on top of that. And then we'll see compounding improvements for many years, just like I outlined in my initial remarks.

所以這是一個重要的基礎設施，我們基本上仍在推出，但我對它和響應感到非常滿意。而且我認為一旦完全推出，我們也可以在此基礎上進行大規模迭代。但在接下來的幾個月裡，團隊的重點實際上是推出它，確保它的性能非常好，然後我們可以開始，然後讓我們的機器學習和人工智能團隊開始在此基礎上進行迭代。然後我們將看到多年的複合改進，就像我在最初的評論中概述的那樣。

Okay. Next question from Mario Lu. With regards to the 6% workforce reduction announced earlier this year, is that the final or first round of reductions this year? And should we expect any additional severance charges other than the EUR 41 million in your operating expense in Q1?

好的。下一個問題來自 Mario Lu。至於今年早些時候宣布的6%裁員，這是今年最後一輪還是第一輪裁員？除了第一季度的 4100 萬歐元運營費用之外，我們是否應該期待任何額外的遣散費？

Let me take the second part first, just to get it out of the way. So the EUR 41 million is the charge on the operating expense line. There was actually EUR 44 million overall. There was a small component of a severance that hit gross margin. So there's been 2 numbers that have been floating out there, but it's EUR 44 million in total, EUR 41 million that hit the OpEx and then that EUR 3 million that hit the gross margin side. And in terms of workforce, nothing else to add in terms of workforce reductions. I think we've talked about. I'll let kind of Daniel take the efficiency side from here.

讓我先看第二部分，只是為了讓它不礙事。所以 4100 萬歐元是運營費用項目的費用。實際上總共有 4400 萬歐元。遣散費的一小部分影響了毛利率。所以有 2 個數字一直在浮動，但總計 4400 萬歐元，其中 4100 萬歐元影響了運營支出，然後是 300 萬歐元影響了毛利率。就勞動力而言，在裁員方面沒有什麼可補充的。我想我們已經談過了。我會讓丹尼爾從這裡開始提高效率。

Yes. I mean the only thing I'd really add is that we have really become a lot leaner over the last 6 months, but I think that progress is still early in its reflection on our financials. And then what investors should probably expect going forward is for us to keep looking for ways that can help us. And that includes, obviously, everything from our real estate footprint. We will keep reviewing the content deals we've made, are they performing, not performing and obviously have a much higher hurdle rates, as I mentioned last quarter as well on any new investments going forward.

是的。我的意思是，我唯一要補充的是，在過去的 6 個月裡，我們真的變得更精簡了，但我認為，從我們的財務狀況來看，進展還處於早期階段。然後投資者可能應該期待的是我們繼續尋找可以幫助我們的方法。顯然，這包括我們房地產足跡中的一切。正如我在上個季度以及未來的任何新投資中提到的那樣，我們將繼續審查我們所做的內容交易，它們是否正在執行，是否執行以及顯然有更高的門檻率。

Okay. A question from Rich Greenfield for Daniel. I would love to hear your perspective on the recent Apple versus Epic ruling. Being able to message about paying for Spotify off platform is clearly positive, but it appears that the court largely sided with Apple. And then I would also love to hear more about your recent trip to Washington, D.C.

好的。 Rich Greenfield 向 Daniel 提出的問題。我很想听聽您對最近 Apple 與 Epic 裁決的看法。能夠就在平台外為 Spotify 付費的消息顯然是積極的，但法院似乎主要支持蘋果公司。然後我也很想听聽更多關於您最近的華盛頓之行的信息。

Yes, Rich. I would characterize it probably as disappointed but not surprised with the ruling. As you rightly called out, it does still include the anti-steering provision, which I think is very important and a good step in the right direction.

是的，里奇。我認為它可能對裁決感到失望但並不感到驚訝。正如你正確地指出的那樣，它仍然包括反轉向規定，我認為這是非常重要的，也是朝著正確方向邁出的良好一步。

And I think it's also worthwhile pointing out, I just briefly read through the judge's remarks, I may be getting this wrong, but I'll try to paraphrase it, where the judge, I think, was referring and reacting to the fact that there's a larger conversation going on in Washington about future regulation and the judge just noted that they were simply making a decision, a ruling based on the existing law and not future regulation.

而且我認為這也值得指出，我只是簡單地閱讀了法官的評論，我可能理解錯了，但我會嘗試解釋一下，我認為法官指的是以下事實並做出反應華盛頓正在就未來監管進行更廣泛的討論，法官只是指出他們只是在做出決定，一項基於現有法律而非未來監管的裁決。

And this is kind of the point why I went to Washington. I do believe new laws are needed for this and that the App Store bill or Ooma bill that is also called is a very much needed improvement. And I had great meetings. I really did from bipartisan, both Republicans and Democrats. I found them to be very supportive of the issue, very understanding of some of these things.

這就是我去華盛頓的原因。我確實相信為此需要製定新的法律，而且也稱為 App Store 法案或 Ooma 法案是一項非常需要的改進。我有很棒的會議。我真的從兩黨那裡做了，共和黨人和民主黨人。我發現他們非常支持這個問題，對其中的一些事情非常理解。

And I think a lot of the people I spoke to didn't realize it was this bad. And for us, just to kind of level set for those that may not be involved in the intricate details, the primary issue for me is that when I started as a 14-year-old entrepreneur, the Internet was this democratic place that anyone anywhere in the world could have an impact. And right now, we're in a place where billions of consumers are using the Internet primarily through smartphones and primarily through apps.

我想很多和我交談過的人都沒有意識到情況這麼糟糕。對於我們來說，只是為了那些可能不參與復雜細節的人設定的水平，對我來說主要問題是當我作為一名 14 歲的企業家開始時，互聯網是任何地方任何人都可以參與的民主場所在世界上可能會產生影響。現在，數十億消費者主要通過智能手機和應用程序使用互聯網。

And there's literally 2 companies now that control all of that on the Internet, and they can unilaterally change the rules. They, in Apple's case, can prevent us from talking to our customers and prevent customers from even understanding that there are better deals in the marketplace. So this is super important to me on a principal level.

現在確實有兩家公司控制著互聯網上的所有內容，他們可以單方面更改規則。就 Apple 而言，它們可以阻止我們與客戶交談，甚至阻止客戶了解市場上有更好的交易。所以這在主要層面上對我來說非常重要。

I want better climate for innovation to bring progress. I want consumers and if they've opted into communication from a company, I want that company to be able to communicate to that consumer without the interference of these platforms. And those message points really resonated across both the House and the Senate and across the aisle of both Republican and Democrats. So I feel encouraged but it's still early days here in the U.S. And obviously, we've had a lot more progress on this issue lately in Europe.

我想要更好的創新氛圍來帶來進步。我想要消費者，如果他們選擇與一家公司進行溝通，我希望該公司能夠在不受這些平台干擾的情況下與該消費者溝通。這些信息點確實在眾議院和參議院以及共和黨和民主黨兩黨之間引起了共鳴。所以我感到鼓舞，但在美國這裡還處於早期階段。顯然，我們最近在歐洲在這個問題上取得了更多進展。

Great. Next question from Mario Lu on gross margin. Gross margins beat guidance by 30 basis points, but saw a drag from other cost of revenue. Can you explain what within other cost of revenue was the main drag and if that's expected to continue going forward?

偉大的。 Mario Lu 關於毛利率的下一個問題。毛利率超出指引 30 個基點，但受到其他收入成本的拖累。您能解釋一下其他收入成本中的主要阻力是什麼嗎？預計這種情況是否會繼續下去？

Yes. So there's a little bit of nuance in this. So let me kind of go through it. So when you look throughout 2022 and into 2023, we've seen a sort of steady increase on the other cost of revenue line. A lot of that has come from streaming delivery and other compute costs that had slowly risen throughout the year and it's been impacting us. And so when you look at it Q1 versus Q1, that trend had still continued to put a little bit of pressure on the gross margin as a negative.

是的。所以這裡面有一點細微差別。所以讓我來經歷一下。因此，當您展望整個 2022 年和 2023 年時，我們會看到其他收入成本在某種程度上穩步增長。其中很多來自流媒體傳輸和其他計算成本，這些成本在全年緩慢上升，並且一直在影響我們。因此，當您將第一季度與第一季度進行比較時，這種趨勢仍然繼續對毛利率造成一點壓力，成為負面影響。

That being said, some of the outperformance we saw in Q1 actually related to that being less of a drag than we thought and starting to see some of the efficiency improvements and initiatives that we put in place starting to pay off. And so while the increase that we've seen for the last kind of 3, 4 quarters persisted, the incremental increase was less given some of the efficiencies.

話雖這麼說，我們在第一季度看到的一些出色表現實際上與它比我們想像的要小的拖累有關，並且開始看到我們實施的一些效率改進和舉措開始產生回報。因此，雖然我們在過去 3、4 個季度看到的增長持續存在，但考慮到某些效率，增量增長較少。

And so we feel really good about that. We've got more plans in place to continue to improve that line item, which is sort of the non-royalty-bearing side of gross margin. So I think we're in a good place moving forward with how that should trend.

所以我們對此感覺非常好。我們已經制定了更多計劃來繼續改進該項目，這是毛利率的非特許權使用費方面。因此，我認為我們正處於一個很好的位置，可以朝著應該如何發展的方向前進。

Okay. Next question from Doug Anmuth on podcasting. With a decent amount of podcast content deals seemingly up for renewal in 2023 and '24, what gives you confidence you can retain exclusive talent while not overpaying and overinvesting?

好的。 Doug Anmuth 關於播客的下一個問題。有相當數量的播客內容交易似乎要在 2023 年和 24 年續簽，是什麼讓您有信心在不支付過多費用和過度投資的情況下留住獨家人才？

Yes. I think you're right in calling out the overpaying and overinvesting, and what I can start out by saying is we're not going to do that. And we're going to be very diligent in how we invest in future content deals. And the ones that aren't performing, obviously, we won't renew. And the ones that are performing, we will obviously look at those on a case-by-case basis on the relative value.

是的。我認為你指出過度支付和過度投資是正確的，我可以首先說的是我們不會那樣做。我們將非常勤奮地研究如何投資未來的內容交易。顯然，那些表現不佳的產品我們不會續訂。而那些表現出色的，我們顯然會根據相對價值逐案審視。

And I would say 2 things here. One, we have very sophisticated tools for measuring impact on the platform where we talked about this at the Investor Day, where we do understand the relative impact on lifetime value in our subscribers and so on and so forth. I think that helps us paying a fair price or understanding what a fair price would be.

我會在這裡說兩件事。第一，我們有非常複雜的工具來衡量我們在投資者日討論這個平台的影響，我們確實了解了對訂閱者終身價值的相對影響等等。我認為這有助於我們支付公平的價格或了解什麼是公平的價格。

But then the second part also, because we are now the largest podcasting platform, that means we have a great opportunity to amortize across a larger base. So relative to someone that's smaller, we should be in a better position should we want to renew a deal because we obviously can amortize that against a larger base of users.

但是第二部分也是，因為我們現在是最大的播客平台，這意味著我們有很好的機會在更大的基礎上進行攤銷。因此，相對於規模較小的公司，如果我們想要續簽交易，我們應該處於更好的位置，因為我們顯然可以針對更大的用戶群進行攤銷。

Okay. Question from Benjamin Black on subscription pricing. Since you haven't raised pricing, are you seeing any benefit from being the lower-cost distributor?

好的。 Benjamin Black 關於訂閱定價的問題。既然你們沒有提高價格，你們認為成為低成本分銷商有什麼好處嗎？

One would think so, given the outperformance in the quarter. But again, it is important to note that it's been fairly broad-based, the outperformance. And just by way of context, we did raise prices in 46 different occasions and markets last year. So it's not like we haven't raised prices. And even in those markets, we were still outperforming. So I've said this before and I'll say it again, I feel really good about our ability to raise prices over time that we have that ability, and we have lots of data now that backs that up.

鑑於本季度的出色表現，人們會這麼認為。但同樣，重要的是要注意它的基礎相當廣泛，表現出色。僅就上下文而言，去年我們確實在 46 個不同的場合和市場上提價。所以這並不是說我們沒有提高價格。即使在這些市場中，我們的表現仍然出色。所以我之前已經說過，我會再說一遍，我對我們隨著時間的推移提高價格的能力感覺非常好，我們有這種能力，而且我們現在有很多數據支持這一點。

We may have been marginally helped by being a lower cost provider, but it isn't a primary part of our strategy, and it's not something that we're thinking about. Instead, we're working with our label partners to really work with them to figure out what's the best opportunity for us to do that. And that's obviously a more complex trade with many other variables, and I've talked about that before. But when the timing is right, we will raise it. And I think that price increase will go down well because we're delivering a lot of value for our customers.

作為一個低成本的供應商，我們可能得到了一些幫助，但這不是我們戰略的主要部分，也不是我們正在考慮的事情。相反，我們正在與我們的標籤合作夥伴合作，真正與他們合作，找出我們這樣做的最佳機會。這顯然是一個更複雜的交易，涉及許多其他變量，我之前已經談過。但在適當的時候，我們會提出來。而且我認為價格上漲會很好，因為我們正在為我們的客戶提供很多價值。

Okay. Another question from Rich Greenfield on advertising. You've talked about advertising revenue scaling to be 20% of your overall revenue. While it's growing faster than subscription revenue, the mix hasn't moved a lot. How should we think about the timing of getting to 20%, let alone 30% of your revenues?

好的。 Rich Greenfield 關於廣告的另一個問題。您談到廣告收入將佔總收入的 20%。雖然它的增長速度快於訂閱收入，但這種組合併沒有太大變化。我們應該如何考慮達到 20% 的時間，更不用說達到 30% 的收入了？

Yes, Rich, I think we still feel really good about the ability for advertising to grow and be a larger part of Spotify's revenue mix. Right now, there's one part of what we can control and one part we can't control. So the part we can control is to continue to build out the tools, the services, the measurement, the attribution, all of the things that we think we're doing to bring an even better advertising product to Spotify and that continues on, and we feel really good about the advancements we've made there.

是的，里奇，我認為我們仍然對廣告增長的能力以及在 Spotify 收入組合中佔據更大份額的能力感到非常滿意。現在，有一部分我們可以控制，另一部分我們無法控制。因此，我們可以控制的部分是繼續構建工具、服務、測量、歸因，所有我們認為我們正在做的事情，以便為 Spotify 帶來更好的廣告產品，並繼續下去，和我們對我們在那裡取得的進步感到非常滿意。

Obviously, in the last quarter or 2, we've been somewhat impacted by macro. Again, we feel like we're growing nicely and outperforming the market and our peer group overall, but the macro has probably slowed us down. So I don't really think that a couple of quarters of macro uncertainty is going to change our long-term view of how we get to 20% or even beyond that. And for us, it's really just heads down, making sure that the product and innovation is there. So that when the macro does come back, where you can benefit as much as we possibly can.

顯然，在上一季度或第二季度，我們在一定程度上受到了宏觀經濟的影響。同樣，我們覺得我們的增長很好，整體表現優於市場和同行，但宏觀經濟可能讓我們放慢了腳步。所以我真的不認為幾個季度的宏觀不確定性會改變我們對如何達到 20% 甚至更高的長期看法。對我們來說，它真的只是埋頭苦幹，確保產品和創新就在那裡。這樣當宏指令確實回來時，您就可以盡可能多地受益。

Okay. A question from Doug Anmuth on AI DJ. Could you give us your thoughts on how AI DJ plays out given your launch of the beta version at Stream On and subsequent copyright pushback from some of the major labels?

好的。 Doug Anmuth 關於 AI DJ 的一個問題。考慮到您在 Stream On 上推出測試版以及隨後一些主要唱片公司的版權抵制，您能否告訴我們您對 AI DJ 如何發揮作用的看法？

Yes. I do think it's important to kind of separate AI DJ from the sort of AI conversation. So AI DJ, in and on itself, I think we've had nothing but positive reactions from across the industry. I think the AI pushback from the copyright industry or labels and media companies. And it's really around -- really important topics and issues like name and likeness, what is an actual copyright, who owns the right to something where you upload something and claim it to be Drake, it's really not and so on.

是的。我確實認為將 AI DJ 與 AI 對話區分開來很重要。所以 AI DJ，就其本身而言，我認為我們在整個行業都得到了積極的反應。我認為版權行業或標籤和媒體公司對 AI 的抵制。它確實圍繞著——非常重要的話題和問題，比如姓名和肖像，什麼是實際版權，誰擁有你上傳的東西並聲稱它是德雷克的東西的權利，它真的不是等等。

And those are legitimate concerns. And obviously, those are things that we're working with our partners on in trying to establish a position where we both allow innovation, but at the same time, protect all of the creators that we have on our platform.

這些都是合理的擔憂。顯然，這些是我們正在與我們的合作夥伴合作，試圖建立一個我們都允許創新的位置，但同時保護我們平台上的所有創作者。

Okay. Next question from Michael Morris on subscription pricing. Do you plan to raise price on any of your current plans during 2023? And what are the current considerations to changing pricing?

好的。邁克爾莫里斯關於訂閱定價的下一個問題。您是否計劃在 2023 年期間提高任何當前計劃的價格？目前改變定價的考慮因素是什麼？

I can start and then maybe Paul can chime in. So I think it's important perhaps to just add as a context here. As I mentioned in my prior response, we raised prices in 46 places last year. I would like and hope for us to do that in 2023 as well, but we're in discussion with our partners around that. So that's a really negotiation thing.

我可以開始，然後也許 Paul 可以插話。所以我認為重要的是在這裡添加上下文。正如我在之前的回復中提到的，我們去年在 46 個地方提高了價格。我希望並希望我們也能在 2023 年做到這一點，但我們正在與我們的合作夥伴就此進行討論。所以這是一個真正的談判的事情。

But I think maybe to up-level it, what we're trying to do is we're just really trying to focus on how can we optimize for growth and there are many ways to achieve growth. You can grow top line users that then subsequently will turn into conversion to Premium subscribers that then subsequently would turn into revenue. Or you can increase ARPU on a lower set of base and you can still achieve that top line growth.

但我認為也許要提高它的水平，我們正在努力做的是我們真的只是在努力專注於我們如何優化增長並且有很多方法可以實現增長。您可以增加收入最高的用戶，這些用戶隨後會轉化為高級訂閱者，這些用戶隨後會轉化為收入。或者你可以在較低的基礎上增加 ARPU，你仍然可以實現頂線增長。

So we have many tools at our disposal as we're thinking about how to increase growth. And the industry realizes that and our label partners realizes that as well. So that's the constant dialogue that we're in. But yes, we would like to raise prices in 2023, but it's really a discussion with our partners.

因此，在我們考慮如何促進增長時，我們有很多工具可供使用。整個行業都意識到了這一點，我們的標籤合作夥伴也意識到了這一點。這就是我們正在進行的持續對話。但是，是的，我們希望在 2023 年提高價格，但這實際上是與我們的合作夥伴進行的討論。

Okay. Another question from Doug Anmuth on Marketplace. How should we think about the outlook for marketplace growth this year following approximately 40% growth in 2022?

好的。 Doug Anmuth 在 Marketplace 上提出的另一個問題。在 2022 年增長約 40% 之後，我們應該如何看待今年的市場增長前景？

Yes. I think we're still very optimistic about marketplace. It had a really strong Q1. It continues to be a driving force for engagement with the creator community. They're loving the tools and services. So we haven't given a target out for 2023. But Q1 was very strong, and we're optimistic that we'll continue to sort of be able to advance all the offerings we have in Marketplace.

是的。我認為我們對市場仍然非常樂觀。它有一個非常強大的 Q1。它繼續成為與創作者社區互動的推動力。他們喜歡這些工具和服務。所以我們還沒有給出 2023 年的目標。但是第一季度非常強勁，我們樂觀地認為我們將能夠繼續推進我們在 Marketplace 中的所有產品。

Okay. Next question from Deepak on podcasting. Can you provide some color on recent engagement trends on the podcast side? Revenue growth is healthy, even as you optimize the content portfolio. We're curious on the recent engagement trends within podcasts?

好的。 Deepak 關於播客的下一個問題。你能提供一些關於播客方面最近參與趨勢的顏色嗎？收入增長是健康的，即使您優化了內容組合。我們對播客中最近的參與趨勢感到好奇？

Yes. So overall, Q1 has been a phenomenal quarter when it comes to engagement. So engagement is up more than predicted on pretty much every front. So retention is higher, the DAU over MAU is higher than before, and the actual engagement is higher. And that's across music, but it's certainly true on podcasting as well. And we've seen a healthy trend sort of up to the right on podcasting for now many, many, many quarters, and we're seeing how both podcast and music is acting in great symbiosis together to drive an overall healthier user funnel on Spotify.

是的。因此，總的來說，第一季度在參與度方面是一個非凡的季度。因此，幾乎所有方面的參與度都高於預期。所以留存率更高，DAU 超過 MAU 比以前更高，實際參與度更高。這不僅適用於音樂，也適用於播客。現在很多很多季度，我們已經看到了一種健康的播客趨勢，而且我們看到播客和音樂如何以良好的共生關係共同推動 Spotify 上整體更健康的用戶漏斗.

So I feel really good about the mix. And obviously, that's a testament to the great catalog and content portfolio we have on both music and podcasts.

所以我對這種組合感覺非常好。顯然，這證明了我們在音樂和播客方面擁有出色的目錄和內容組合。

Yes. I would just add, the one other metric, listening hours for MAU was really strong in the quarter, both across music and podcasting. So to Daniel's point, on the engagement side, we're seeing a number of our engagement metrics, really uptick in Q1.

是的。我只想補充一點，另一個指標是本季度 MAU 的收聽時間在音樂和播客方面都非常強勁。因此，就丹尼爾的觀點而言，在參與方面，我們看到了我們的許多參與指標，在第一季度確實有所上升。

Okay. Another question from Doug Anmuth on users. Given the first quarter upside and the first half outlook, how do you think about overall net adds and growth for MAUs and Premium subscribers in 2023 relative to the 83 million and 25 million added, respectively, in 2022.?

好的。 Doug Anmuth 關於用戶的另一個問題。鑑於第一季度和上半年的前景，相對於 2022 年分別增加的 8300 萬和 2500 萬，您如何看待 2023 年 MAU 和 Premium 用戶的總體淨增加和增長？

Yes. We don't obviously give full year guidance anymore, but implied in the question is sort of where we already are. So if you think about between Q1 and our outlook for Q2, we're just over 40 million net additions on the MAU side. So we'd be halfway to last year through half of this year, and the same thing on the sub side. So about -- if we hit our guidance for Q2, that's about 12 million sub additions.

是的。我們顯然不再提供全年指導，但問題中暗示我們已經達到了某種程度。因此，如果您考慮第一季度和我們對第二季度的展望，我們的 MAU 淨增加量剛剛超過 4000 萬。所以我們將在今年的一半到去年的一半，而在副方面也是如此。那麼——如果我們達到了第二季度的指導，那就是大約 1200 萬次添加。

So again, about halfway to next year. So nothing really to add other than we feel really good about the trends and the trajectory we've seen on both the user side and the subside for the -- for Q1 and our expectations for Q2.

再說一遍，大約是明年的一半。因此，除了我們對我們在用戶方面看到的趨勢和軌跡以及第一季度的消退和我們對第二季度的預期之外，沒有什麼可以補充的。

Okay. Next question is from Deepak on AI. Daniel, can you discuss your thoughts on what opportunities and risks there are from generative AI, specifically on music creation? Do you think these developments have potential to materially shift economics towards distribution platforms like Spotify over time?

好的。下一個問題來自 Deepak 關於 AI 的問題。 Daniel，你能談談你對生成式 AI 帶來哪些機遇和風險的看法，特別是在音樂創作方面？您認為隨著時間的推移，這些發展有可能將經濟實質性地轉向 Spotify 等分發平台嗎？

Yes. Well, so again, to caution everyone, this is very early days, and it's an incredibly fast developing space. As I mentioned before, I don't think I've ever seen anything like it in technology, how fast innovation and progress is happening in all the really both cool and scary things that people are doing with AI at the moment.

是的。好吧，再次提醒大家，現在還處於早期階段，這是一個發展速度非常快的領域。正如我之前提到的，我認為我從未在技術領域看到過這樣的事情，人們目前正在使用 AI 做的所有真正既酷又可怕的事情的創新和進步發生得如此之快。

But I think it's important. I guess on the risk side would be not just for Spotify, but I think for the entire creative ecosystem is obviously the question around copyrights and who owns what copyrights and what the fairway would be to attribute value when you're doing things in name and likeness situations or inspired by a certain artist, et cetera.

但我認為這很重要。我想風險方面不僅僅是 Spotify，但我認為對於整個創意生態系統來說，顯然是圍繞版權的問題，誰擁有什麼版權，以及當你名義上做事時，分配價值的途徑是什麼，相似的情況或受某位藝術家的啟發，等等。

I think the whole industry is trying to figure that out and trying to figure out training, and I would definitely put that on the risk account because there's a lot of uncertainty, I think, for the entire ecosystem. But on the positive side, to flip on that for a moment because I don't think that's been as highlighted as part of the story.

我認為整個行業都在試圖弄清楚這一點並試圖弄清楚培訓，我肯定會把它放在風險賬戶上，因為我認為整個生態系統存在很多不確定性。但從積極的方面來說，暫時談談這一點，因為我認為這並沒有像故事的一部分那樣被強調。

One, I think this could be potentially huge for creativity on the positive side. I go in and talk a little bit more in detail about this on our For the Record podcasts. So that's a little bit of a plug for you guys to listen to that if you're interested in understanding more.

第一，我認為從積極的方面來說，這對於創造力來說可能是巨大的。我在我們的 For the Record 播客中更詳細地討論了這一點。所以如果你們有興趣了解更多的話，這對你們來說是一個小插曲。

But the short of it would be, if you really think about it, with now these conversational interfaces, it will allow people that perhaps don't know anything about how to play a music or even know these complex softwares -- music production software tools to now create just using their voice, instruct the AI to make something to sound a little bit more upbeat, make something sound a little bit more like add some congas into the mix when you're creating a drum pattern or something like it.

但簡而言之，如果你真的仔細想想，現在有了這些對話界面，它會讓那些可能對如何播放音樂一無所知，甚至不知道這些複雜軟件——音樂製作軟件工具的人現在只使用他們的聲音進行創作，指示 AI 讓某些東西聽起來更樂觀一些，讓某些東西聽起來更像是在創建鼓模式或類似的東西時在混音中添加一些康茄鼓。

And that has the chance, I think, to meaningfully augment that creative journey that many artists to do. And you could even imagine someone just humming something and then the AI helping you out by creating a backdrop that you then can add it and alter into your existing DAW, which is the music sort of software environment that many producers and music creators are doing.

我認為，這有機會有意義地增加許多藝術家所做的創造性旅程。你甚至可以想像有人只是哼著什麼，然後人工智能通過創建一個背景來幫助你，然後你可以將它添加到你現有的 DAW 中，這是許多製作人和音樂創作者正在做的音樂軟件環境。

And that should lead to more music. And that more music, obviously, we think it's great culturally, but it also benefits Spotify because the more creators we have on our service, the better it is and the more opportunity we have to growing the engagement and growing the revenue. So that would be on the upside, which a lot of people aren't talking about.

這應該會帶來更多的音樂。顯然，更多的音樂，我們認為它在文化上很棒，但它也有利於 Spotify，因為我們服務的創作者越多，它就越好，我們就有更多的機會來提高參與度和增加收入。所以這將是有利的，很多人都沒有談論這一點。

And then, of course, there's entirely new potential products that perhaps can happen where you can have users creating their own music and perhaps Spotify could be a conduit of that, but I think it's way too early to speculate on those types of things at present moment.

然後，當然，可能會出現全新的潛在產品，您可以讓用戶創作自己的音樂，也許 Spotify 可以成為這方面的渠道，但我認為目前推測這些類型的事情還為時過早片刻。

Okay. Another question from Rich Greenfield. At the Investor Day last year, you talked about introducing 3 new verticals looking beyond music, podcast and audio books. When should we expect to hear more?

好的。 Rich Greenfield 的另一個問題。在去年的投資者日，您談到了引入 3 個超越音樂、播客和有聲讀物的新垂直領域。我們什麼時候應該期望聽到更多？

Yes. So obviously, I don't have anything to announce at this moment. But in the pipeline, there's 2 that's progressing very nicely out of the 3. And then there's a few candidates of the 1/3 that's in a little bit of an earlier stage than that. So again, this is just me kind of more hinting at that we have things in the work.

是的。所以很明顯，我現在沒有什麼要宣布的。但在管道中，有 2 個在 3 個中進展得非常好。然後有 1/3 的一些候選者處於比這更早的階段。再說一次，這只是我在暗示我們在工作中有一些事情。

I mentioned this prior in my opening remarks, many of these things that we are working on is not the product of something that we started 3 months ago or 6 months ago, but we have projects that's been -- being worked at Spotify by teams for sometimes 2, 3, even 4 years before we are ready to announce them for the world.

我之前在開場白中提到了這一點，我們正在做的許多事情並不是我們 3 個月或 6 個月前開始的事情的產物，但我們有一些項目 - 由團隊在 Spotify 工作有時 2、3、甚至 4 年我們才准備好向全世界宣布它們。

So we have a very good sense of what those are, those 3. 2 of them are right now progressing very nicely, not ready yet to announce them. So we'll see when they're ready for prime time.

所以我們非常清楚這些是什麼，其中 3. 2 個現在進展非常順利，尚未準備好宣布它們。所以我們會看到他們什麼時候準備好迎接黃金時段。

Okay. Question coming from Benjamin Black on advertising. Could you give us an update on the advertising backdrop? How have ad sales trended so far in April? Shouldn't you benefit from easing year-on-year comparisons as the year progresses?

好的。 Benjamin Black 關於廣告的問題。你能給我們介紹一下廣告背景的最新情況嗎？到目前為止，4 月份的廣告銷售趨勢如何？隨著時間的推移，您不應該從放寬同比比較中受益嗎？

So on the second part of the question, yes, the comps do get easier throughout the year, which will definitely benefit us. And in terms of April, we feel like we had some momentum coming out of March and April, so that's positive. That being said, I think we felt that there was some momentum in Q1 and ended up being pretty choppy as well.

所以關於問題的第二部分，是的，全年的比賽確實變得更容易，這肯定會讓我們受益。就 4 月而言，我們覺得 3 月和 4 月出現了一些勢頭，所以這是積極的。話雖這麼說，我認為我們覺得第一季度有一些勢頭，但最終也非常不穩定。

So I think we're optimistic but also cautious -- maybe cautiously optimistic would be the right word. Because I think we feel like there's some momentum there. I think we feel good about where we're positioned on an advertising standpoint. But just given the macro uncertainty, I think we'll caveat it as cautiously optimistic.

所以我認為我們既樂觀又謹慎——也許謹慎樂觀是正確的詞。因為我認為我們覺得那裡有一些動力。我認為我們對自己在廣告方面的定位感到滿意。但鑑於宏觀不確定性，我認為我們會謹慎樂觀地告誡它。

Okay. Another question from Doug Anmuth on podcasting. Can we get an updated view on timing for podcasting profitability? And when should we expect to see a meaningful inflection in ad-supported gross margins?

好的。 Doug Anmuth 關於播客的另一個問題。我們能否獲得有關播客盈利時機的最新觀點？我們應該在什麼時候看到廣告支持的毛利率出現有意義的變化？

Yes. So no change to what we said. Look, we think we continue to see the loss -- the podcasting loss continue to get better throughout the year and the targets we gave at the Investor Day with respect to podcasting breakeven and then profitability have not changed. So we still feel good about that. And then the ad-supported gross margins, I mean, there's really 2 factors that are impacting that, which we've talked about.

是的。所以我們所說的沒有改變。看，我們認為我們繼續看到虧損——播客虧損在全年繼續好轉，我們在投資者日給出的關於播客盈虧平衡和盈利能力的目標沒有改變。所以我們對此仍然感覺良好。然後是廣告支持的毛利率，我的意思是，確實有兩個因素在影響它，我們已經討論過了。

Podcasting is a big part of that. So as the podcasting loss turns to breakeven and then profitability, that will obviously help the ad-supported gross margins a lot. And then we do have some markets in regions where our ads gross margins are quite where they are in some of our more established and developed advertising markets.

播客是其中的重要組成部分。因此，隨著播客虧損轉為收支平衡，然後盈利，這顯然會對廣告支持的毛利率有很大幫助。然後我們在一些地區確實有一些市場，我們的廣告毛利率與我們一些更成熟和發達的廣告市場的毛利率相當。

And so we're still working on getting some of those markets kind of at parity with our more developed ad market. So it's a combination of the 2, but obviously, the transition from the podcasting business from being a drag to a breakeven and profitability will be a big help.

因此，我們仍在努力讓其中一些市場與我們更發達的廣告市場保持一致。所以這是兩者的結合，但顯然，播客業務從拖累到盈虧平衡和盈利能力的轉變將是一個很大的幫助。

All right. We've got time for a couple more questions. And it looks like Doug Anmuth has a follow-up on operating expenses. You had 36% growth year-on-year in OpEx in the first quarter with roughly half of that driven by social charge movements and severance. How should we expect that to improve throughout 2023? And what are the key areas of leverage?

好的。我們還有時間再問幾個問題。看起來 Doug Anmuth 對運營費用進行了跟進。第一季度運營支出同比增長 36%，其中大約一半是由社會費用變動和遣散費推動的。我們應該如何期望整個 2023 年情況會有所改善？槓桿的關鍵領域是什麼？

Yes, it's a great question. And so -- and thanks for bringing it up. Of the 36% growth, about 1/3 of that was social charges and then another 600 basis points or so from severance. So to your point, yes, it was about a big chunk of the OpEx expense growth came from that. I think you'll see a couple of things. One, if you look at our head count from a year-over-year basis, we're still up as we go throughout the year, assuming no changes to headcount is in guidance -- I'm just using this as sort of an illustrative example -- assuming no changes in headcount, those comps just get easier throughout the year as we start to lap the reduction we had a few months ago.

是的，這是一個很好的問題。所以——謝謝你提出來。在 36% 的增長中，大約 1/3 是社會費用，另外 600 個基點左右來自遣散費。所以就你的觀點而言，是的，運營支出增長的很大一部分來自於此。我想你會看到一些事情。第一，如果你從同比的角度來看我們的員工人數，我們仍然在全年增長，假設員工人數沒有變化是在指導中——我只是把它當作一種說明性的例子——假設員工人數沒有變化，隨著我們開始減少幾個月前的裁員，這些補償在全年都會變得更容易。

And again, Q1 year-over-year is pretty tough, and it gets easier. So that will help on the leverage side. And then you saw in Q1, we definitely had some leverage on the marketing side where we spent a little bit less than expected, and we're still able to grow users and subs pretty phenomenally. And as Daniel said, we're not reading into that too much after 1 quarter. But it's obviously something we're monitoring to see how that goes for the rest of the year.

再一次，第一季度與去年同期相比相當艱難，但它變得更容易了。所以這將有助於槓桿方面。然後你在第一季度看到，我們在營銷方面肯定有一些影響力，我們的支出比預期少了一點，但我們仍然能夠非常顯著地增加用戶和訂閱者。正如丹尼爾所說，我們在 1 個季度後並沒有過多地解讀這一點。但這顯然是我們正在監測的事情，以了解今年餘下時間的情況。

Okay. We've got a question from Jed Kelly. We're seeing the stock price benefit from strong MAU growth and improving gross margins. If this continues, does this place Spotify in a favorable position to negotiate a "win-win" outcome with the labels on any incremental price increases?

好的。傑德·凱利 (Jed Kelly) 提出了一個問題。我們看到股價受益於強勁的 MAU 增長和毛利率的提高。如果這種情況持續下去，這是否會使 Spotify 處於有利地位，可以與唱片公司就任何增量提價達成“雙贏”結果？

Yes. I don't know that I think the stock price impacts our negotiations with our content partners. So I don't think that has any real impact. As I tried to describe before, usually, when we're negotiating outcomes, it's very rare that it's a single issue. We are negotiating with them. It's usually -- it's a package of different things that we tend to agree on.

是的。我不知道我認為股價會影響我們與內容合作夥伴的談判。所以我認為這沒有任何實際影響。正如我之前試圖描述的那樣，通常，當我們談判結果時，很少會出現單一問題。我們正在與他們談判。通常 - 它是我們傾向於同意的不同事物的組合。

So one can almost think of them as bilateral treaties, so you kind of have to negotiate them for a while, and there's a lot of puts and calls into those things. So it's a whole sort of set of discussions, and there's a number of different variables that go into them. And again, I think we're ready to raise prices. I think we have the ability to do that, but it really comes down to those negotiations.

所以人們幾乎可以將它們視為雙邊條約，所以你必須對它們進行一段時間的談判，並且有很多關於這些事情的投入和調用。所以這是一整套討論，其中包含許多不同的變量。再一次，我認為我們已經準備好提高價格。我認為我們有能力做到這一點，但這實際上取決於那些談判。

All right. And our last question today is going to come from Maria Ripps on advertising. Could you discuss and/or rank order what you consider to be the biggest drivers of advertising in 2023? How much of the growth will be a function of an improving macro backdrop, increased advertiser engagement with the emerging formats, greater inventory availability, given recent investments or anything else?

好的。我們今天的最後一個問題將來自 Maria Ripps 關於廣告的問題。您能否討論和/或排列您認為是 2023 年廣告最大驅動力的因素？鑑於最近的投資或其他因素，增長中有多少將是宏觀背景改善、廣告商對新興格式的參與度增加、庫存可用性增加的函數？

Yes, I think there's a lot in that question. Look, I think there's a lot to our advertising growth, and so let's kind of unpack it. So some of it has been as we talked about, we've invested in regionally and growing some of our sales capabilities in Europe and Rest of World. We saw some of the benefit of that in Q1 and there's sort of an expense ahead of the benefit there.

是的，我認為這個問題有很多。看，我認為我們的廣告增長有很多，所以讓我們把它拆開。因此，正如我們所談到的，其中一些已經在區域投資，並在歐洲和世界其他地區提高了我們的一些銷售能力。我們在第一季度看到了其中的一些好處，並且在好處之前有一些支出。

And I think we talked about that throughout 2022. So that's one, getting some more leverage on some of the investments we made last year just on the people side. Two would be, as we keep talking about, we're really going to lead with technology innovation here, better measurement, better attribution, better targeting. And those are improvements that we expect to see throughout 2023 and beyond.

而且我認為我們在整個 2022 年都在討論這個問題。這就是一個，對我們去年在人員方面進行的一些投資進行更多的槓桿作用。兩個是，正如我們一直在談論的那樣，我們真的要在這裡引領技術創新，更好的衡量，更好的歸因，更好的定位。這些是我們期望在整個 2023 年及以後看到的改進。

So there will be some benefits from that as well. And then as you said, the macro is the big wild card. And so it's hard to predict it. We think that we continue to build out a platform that will be really strong and will benefit when the macro gets better and something that can still outperform even when the macro remains uncertain.

因此，這也會帶來一些好處。然後正如您所說，宏是一個大的百搭牌。因此很難預測。我們認為我們將繼續建立一個真正強大的平台，當宏觀經濟好轉時將從中受益，即使宏觀經濟仍然不確定，它仍然可以跑贏大盤。

All right. And that concludes our Q&A session for today. And now I'm going to turn it back over to Daniel for some closing remarks.

好的。今天的問答環節到此結束。現在我要把它轉回給 Daniel 做一些結束語。

All right. Well, thanks, Bryan. In closing, this was a phenomenal quarter with significant outperformance, and I continue to feel really good about what we're accomplishing. We closed out 2022 on a high note, and this quarter continued that momentum. But more importantly, we are consistently seeing that our long-term approach to innovation is working.

好的。好吧，謝謝，布萊恩。最後，這是一個非凡的季度，表現出色，我仍然對我們所取得的成就感到非常滿意。我們以高調結束了 2022 年，本季度延續了這一勢頭。但更重要的是，我們始終看到我們的長期創新方法正在奏效。

And as we move forward with an increased focus on efficiency, we are even better positioned to translate these efforts into a better business performance. So thank you again for joining us. And as usual, feel free to check out our For the Record podcast dropping later today.

隨著我們更加關注效率，我們將更有能力將這些努力轉化為更好的業務績效。再次感謝您加入我們。和往常一樣，請隨時查看我們今天晚些時候發布的 For the Record 播客。

Okay. And that concludes today's call. A replay will be available on our website and also on the Spotify app under Spotify earnings call replays. Thanks, everyone, for joining.

好的。今天的電話會議到此結束。重播將在我們的網站和 Spotify 收益電話重播下的 Spotify 應用程序上提供。謝謝大家的加入。