Spotify Technology SA (SPOT) 2024 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Hello and welcome to the Spotify Q2 '24 earnings call. All lines have been placed on on mute to prevent any background noise.

大家好，歡迎參加 Spotify Q2 '24 財報電話會議。所有線路均已靜音，以防止任何背景噪音。

I would now like to turn the conference over to Bryan Goldberg, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

我現在想將會議交給投資者關係主管 Bryan Goldberg。你可以開始了。

Thanks, operator, and welcome to Spotify's second-quarter 2024 earnings conference call. Joining us today will be Daniel Ek, our CEO; and Ben Kung, our Interim CFO and VP of Financial Planning and Analysis. We'll start with opening comments from Daniel and Ben, and afterwards, we'll be happy to answer your questions.

感謝營運商，歡迎參加 Spotify 2024 年第二季財報電話會議。今天加入我們的是我們的執行長 Daniel Ek；以及我們的臨時財務長兼財務規劃與分析副總裁 Ben Kung。我們將從 Daniel 和 Ben 的開場評論開始，然後我們將很樂意回答您的問題。

Questions can be submitted by going to slido.com and using the code #SpotifyEarningsQ224. Analysts can ask questions directly into Slido, and all participants can then vote on the questions they find the most relevant. If for some reason, you don't have access to Slido, you can e-mail Investor Relations at ir@spotify.com, and we'll add in your question.

可以造訪 slido.com 並使用程式碼#SpotifyEarningsQ224 提交問題。分析師可以直接向 Slido 提問，然後所有參與者都可以對他們認為最相關的問題進行投票。如果您因某種原因無法造訪 Slido，您可以向投資者關係部發送電子郵件至 ir@spotify.com，我們將添加您的問題。

Before we begin, let me quickly cover the Safe Harbor. 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 shareholder deck and in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在我們開始之前，讓我快速介紹一下安全港。在這次電話會議中，我們將做出某些前瞻性陳述，包括對公司未來表現的預測或估計。這些陳述基於當前的預期和假設，存在風險和不確定性。由於今天的股東大會和向美國證券交易委員會提交的文件中討論的因素，實際結果可能會存在重大差異。

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 shareholder deck in the Financials section of our Investor Relations website and also furnished today on Form 6-K.

在本次電話會議中，我們也將提及某些非 IFRS 財務指標。我們的 IFRS 和非 IFRS 財務指標之間的調節可以在我們投資者關係網站財務部分的股東資料中找到，並且今天也在表格 6-K 中提供。

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. Thanks, Bryan, and hello, everyone. I want to start by saying it was a very strong quarter across most of our key metrics. As you will recall a few quarters ago, I said that while many believe that Spotify has a great product, we needed to prove that we could also be a great business. I think we're really starting to show this now.

好的。謝謝布萊恩，大家好。首先我想說，就我們大多數的關鍵指標而言，這是一個非常強勁的季度。您可能還記得幾個季度前，我說過，雖然許多人認為 Spotify 擁有出色的產品，但我們需要證明我們也可以成為一家出色的企業。我想我們現在真的開始展示這一點了。

Thanks to the hard work of our teams, we beat on subs, we also expanded gross margin, and had our highest free cash flow quarter ever. This quarter also marks three consecutive quarters of profitability as we continue to execute on what you've heard me describe as a year focused on monetization. So how have we done this?

由於我們團隊的辛勤工作，我們擊敗了潛艇，我們還擴大了毛利率，並實現了有史以來最高的自由現金流季度。本季也標誌著連續三個季度實現盈利，因為我們繼續執行您所聽到的我所描述的專注於貨幣化的一年。那我們是如何做到這一點的呢？

Well, we have expanded our subscription offerings to consumers who might be looking for different types of contents. By introducing new subscription plans, we are successfully giving subscribers even more listening choices with options like the audio books access and basic tiers that also builds on our own already robust list of premium plans around the world including individual, duo, student, family, and mini passes.

好吧，我們已經將訂閱服務擴展到可能正在尋找不同類型內容的消費者。透過推出新的訂閱計劃，我們成功地為訂閱者提供了更多的收聽選擇，包括有聲讀物訪問和基本級別等選項，這些選項也建立在我們自己已經強大的全球高級計劃列表上，包括個人、雙人、學生、家庭和迷你通行證。

In addition to this expansion, we also implemented a price increase in several key markets, including in the US, which we're rolling out now with great success. In fact, we're seeing less churn in this round of increases than we did in our prior one, which was already very low by any measure. I attribute this to the tremendous value we've added to our service over the last several years. Our subscribers now get access to 250,000 audiobooks, more than 6 million podcasts, and, of course, pretty much the world's entire music catalog in one experience.

除了此次擴張之外，我們還在幾個主要市場實施了價格上漲，其中包括美國，我們現在推出的價格上漲取得了巨大成功。事實上，我們在這一輪成長中看到的流失率比上一輪少，無論以任何標準衡量，上一輪成長都已經非常低了。我將此歸因於過去幾年我們為服務增加的巨大價值。我們的訂閱者現在可以一次存取 25 萬本有聲書、超過 600 萬個播客，當然還有幾乎全世界的整個音樂目錄。

In the US today, access to all of this content would cost a user approximately $26, significantly more than a Spotify subscription. Spotify remains a pretty outstanding deal. But there's one exception to our overall outperformance this quarter, and that's in our MAU. So I do want to get into that.

在當今的美國，用戶訪問所有這些內容的費用約為 26 美元，遠高於 Spotify 的訂閱費用。 Spotify 仍然是一筆相當出色的交易。但本季我們的整體表現有一個例外，那就是我們的每月活躍用戶數。所以我確實想參與其中。

As a reminder, the easiest way to understand Spotify's business is through the lens of our free and paid segments. Our paid subscription business is primarily anchored in developed markets where growth today is driven by net subscriber additions and strategic pricing. On the other hand, the growth of our free, ad-supported segment is focused today on developing markets where we see potential to convert these users into subscribers but on a much longer time horizon. So looking at where we are today, the changing market dynamics play a role in how we think about our user acquisition strategy.

提醒一下，了解 Spotify 業務最簡單的方法是透過我們的免費和付費部分的鏡頭。我們的付費訂閱業務主要立足於已開發市場，目前這些市場的成長是由淨用戶增加和策略定價所推動的。另一方面，我們免費、廣告支援的細分市場的成長目前主要集中在發展中市場，我們認為這些市場有潛力將這些用戶轉化為訂閱者，但需要更長的時間。因此，看看我們今天的處境，不斷變化的市場動態在我們如何思考用戶獲取策略方面發揮著重要作用。

And while we talked about the importance of reinvesting in marketing to attract new users to Spotify, we're only going to spend money to attract listeners if it meets our ROI expectations. And while our developed markets see high ROI from our marketing spend, we already have strong penetration and broad awareness in these markets. So it's really about carefully targeting our acquisition resources here. In these markets, paid subscriptions aren't showing signs of slowing down even from historically high levels.

雖然我們談到了行銷再投資以吸引 Spotify 新用戶的重要性，但只有在滿足我們的投資報酬率預期的情況下，我們才會花錢來吸引聽眾。雖然我們的已開發市場從我們的行銷支出中獲得了很高的投資報酬率，但我們在這些市場中已經擁有強大的滲透力​​和廣泛的認知度。因此，這實際上是要仔細瞄準我們的收購資源。在這些市場中，即使從歷史高點來看，付費訂閱也沒有顯示出放緩的跡象。

On the flip side, we have significant potential to attract a large number of new users in developing markets. However, these users can be a little bit more inconsistent. Engagement looks different in these markets as do the channels to acquire them and conversion to paid can be a bit slower. This makes it difficult to get the same level of ROI effectiveness from our marketing spend.

另一方面，我們擁有在發展中市場吸引大量新用戶的巨大潛力。然而，這些用戶可能有點不一致。這些市場的參與度看起來有所不同，獲取這些市場的管道也有所不同，而且付費轉換可能會慢一些。這使得我們很難從行銷支出中獲得同等程度的投資報酬率。

So to tackle our MAU challenge, we're doing two things. First, we are intensifying our efforts to improve the impact of our marketing, and we believe there are a number of levers to pull over the upcoming quarters. Second, we are prioritizing enhancements in our free product pipeline that, based on existing performance in certain markets, should boost engagement and retention especially in our developing markets. Further additional improvements will be integrated into our free experience in the coming months.

因此，為了應對每月活躍用戶挑戰，我們正在做兩件事。首先，我們正在加緊努力，提高行銷的影響力，我們相信在接下來的幾季裡有很多手段可以發揮作用。其次，我們正在優先考慮增強我們的免費產品管道，這些產品基於某些市場的現有表現，應該會提高參與度和保留率，尤其是在我們的發展中市場。未來幾個月，進一步的改進將融入我們的免費體驗中。

While I am disappointed with our MAU miss, I see the reversal as more of a when rather than an if. The reason I feel so confident is that, overall, we're seeing healthy MAU engagement trends year over year. So the users we are now acquiring, we're also retaining which is a great leading indicator for value and future monetizations. I know the impact of MAU on our subscriber growth will be top of mind for some of you, so I want to discuss what I think this means in the short to midterm.

雖然我對 MAU 的失誤感到失望，但我認為這種逆轉更多的是「何時」而不是「如果」。我如此自信的原因是，總體而言，我們看到逐年健康的每月活躍用戶參與度趨勢。因此，我們現在獲得的用戶，我們也保留著，這是價值和未來貨幣化的一個很好的領先指標。我知道每月活躍用戶數對我們的用戶成長的影響將是你們中的一些人最關心的問題，所以我想討論一下我認為這在中短期意味著什麼。

Historically, our conversion funnel was quite straightforward. A listener would come in as a free user and over time convert to our standard premium tier. This process has evolved given the bifurcation between developed and developing markets and the increased number of subscription offers we now offer. This means the relationship from free to paid is no longer a one size fits all scenario, and we're less dependent on new free users to fuel our revenue growth in the short to midterm.

從歷史上看，我們的轉換管道非常簡單。聽眾將以免費用戶的身份加入，並隨著時間的推移轉換為我們的標準高級用戶。鑑於已開發市場和發展中市場之間的分歧以及我們現在提供的訂閱服務數量的增加，這一過程已經發生了演變。這意味著從免費到付費的關係不再是一刀切的情況，我們也不再那麼依賴新的免費用戶來推動中短期收入成長。

Take for example our developed markets. With both the widespread awareness of our offerings and the strong affinity for Spotify products, we see many users subscribing directly to our paid tiers without any trial period. Additionally, the high engagement in these markets gives us tremendous confidence in our ability to raise prices, allowing for strong revenue growth even as those markets continue to mature.

以我們已開發市場為例。憑藉我們的產品的廣泛知名度以及對 Spotify 產品的強烈喜愛，我們看到許多用戶直接訂閱我們的付費套餐，無需任何試用期。此外，這些市場的高度參與使我們對提高價格的能力充滿信心，即使這些市場不斷成熟，收入也能實現強勁成長。

To close, I want to go back to our open. We set out very ambitious goals to transform our business, and there are many ways to grow Spotify today. It's not a linear path dependent on any one metric. We have more options than ever. But to also be very clear, I have no doubt that we will also capture the top of funnel growth over time while we continue to focus on monetization.

最後，我想回到我們的公開賽。我們制定了非常雄心勃勃的業務轉型目標，如今有許多方法可以發展 Spotify。它不是依賴任何一項指標的線性路徑。我們比以往有更多的選擇。但也要非常明確的是，我毫不懷疑，隨著時間的推移，我們也將佔領漏斗成長的頂部，同時我們繼續專注於貨幣化。

I'll now turn it over to Ben to provide more detail, and then Bryan will open it up for Q&A.

我現在將其交給 Ben 提供更多詳細信息，然後 Bryan 將打開它進行問答。

Thanks, Daniel, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. I'd like to add a bit more color on the quarter and then touch upon the broader performance of the business and our outlook. Q2 marked another strong quarter for the business led by robust subscriber trends, improving monetization, and record strength across all of our profitability metrics. Although MAU variability was again greater than expected, our funnel continue to expand at a healthy double-digit rate of year-over-year growth. And our rate of subscriber conversion, particularly in developed markets where we've recently taken price, continues to be strong.

謝謝丹尼爾，也謝謝大家加入我們。我想為該季度增添更多色彩，然後談談更廣泛的業務表現和我們的前景。第二季度標誌著該業務又一個強勁的季度，這得益於強勁的用戶趨勢、盈利能力的提高以及我們所有盈利指標的創紀錄實力。儘管每月活躍用戶的變化再次大於預期，但我們的管道繼續以健康的兩位數同比增長速度擴大。我們的訂戶轉換率，特別是在我們最近定價的已開發市場，仍然保持強勁。

We added 7 million net new subscribers in the quarter, which was 1 million better than forecast. Total revenue grew 21% year on year on a constant currency basis to EUR3.8 billion. Our recent price increases and improving product mix shift accelerated premium ARPU growth by 300 basis points to 10% year on year on a currency-neutral basis, while our advertising business saw currency-neutral growth of 12% year on year. Our outperformance was a bit slower relative to Q1, as marketers' spend on upper funnel brand-related campaigns continue to be volatile.

本季我們淨增加了 700 萬新用戶，比預測多出 100 萬。以固定匯率計算，總營收年增 21%，達到 38 億歐元。我們最近的價格上漲和產品組合的改善使保費 ARPU 在貨幣中性的基礎上同比增長了 300 個基點，達到 10%，而我們的廣告業務在貨幣中性的基礎上同比增長了 12%。與第一季相比，我們的表現稍慢，因為行銷人員在漏斗上層品牌相關活動上的支出持續波動。

Moving to profitability, the business continues to inflect nicely towards the targets we laid out for you at our 2022 Investor Day. Gross margin came in at a Q2 record of 29.2%, surpassing guidance by 110 basis points. As you're well aware, there are many components that can move our gross margin, and Q2's outperformance was driven primarily by music content cost favorability in marketplace. Operating income of EUR266 million also set a new record, aided by gross profit strength and lower operating expenses.

在實現盈利方面，該業務繼續良好地實現我們在 2022 年投資者日為您設定的目標。第二季毛利率達 29.2%，創歷史新高，超出指引值 110 個基點。如您所知，有許多因素可以提高我們的毛利率，而第二季的優異表現主要是由市場上的音樂內容成本優惠所推動的。由於毛利強勁和營運費用下降，2.66 億歐元的營運收入也創下了新紀錄。

Operating income was impacted by EUR59 million in non-cash social-charged accruals which were EUR46 million higher than our forecast driven by share price appreciation during the quarter. As a reminder, we don't forecast share price movements in our outlook for the business since they are outside of our control. Finally, free cash flow was a record EUR490 million in the quarter. Performance here was largely driven by our improving operating income profile net of non-cash items as well as fairly typical net working capital favorability.

營業收入受到 5,900 萬歐元非現金社會費用應計費用的影響，該應計費用比我們因本季股價上漲而做出的預測高出 4,600 萬歐元。提醒一下，我們不會在業務前景中預測股價變動，因為它們超出了我們的控制範圍。最後，本季自由現金流達到創紀錄的 4.9 億歐元。這裡的業績很大程度上是由我們不斷改善的扣除非現金項目的營業收入狀況以及相當典型的淨營運資本優惠所推動的。

Looking ahead to third-quarter guidance, we are forecasting 639 million MAU, an increase of 13 million from Q2, and 251 million subscribers, an increase of 5 million over Q2. We are also forecasting a currency-neutral revenue growth rate that is sequentially consistent with Q2, pointing to EUR4 billion in total revenue. We also anticipate a gross margin of 30.2% and operating income of EUR405 million, setting the stage for another record quarter of free cash flow generation.

展望第三季指引，我們預計每月活躍用戶數將達到 6.39 億，比第二季增加 1,300 萬，訂閱用戶數將達到 2.51 億，比第二季增加 500 萬。我們也預測，貨幣中立的營收成長率與第二季持平，總營收為 40 億歐元。我們也預期毛利率將達到 30.2%，營業收入將達到 4.05 億歐元，為自由現金流創造再創紀錄的季度奠定基礎。

In terms of our MAU growth outlook, as Daniel mentioned, we are continuing to make adjustments to our marketing activities and also exploring potential product enhancements, both of which we anticipate will contribute to improving MAU net add levels as we progress through the back half of the year. With respect to price increases and subscriber growth in Q3, our data continues to show that historical price increases have had minimal impacts on growth. However, much like Q3 of last year, we are baking in some modest levels of churn into our Q3 outlook.

就我們的MAU 成長前景而言，正如Daniel 所提到的，我們正在繼續調整我們的行銷活動，並探索潛在的產品增強功能，我們預計這兩者都將有助於提高MAU 淨增加水平，因為我們在下半年取得了進展。關於第三季的價格上漲和用戶成長，我們的數據繼續顯示歷史價格上漲對成長的影響很小。然而，就像去年第三季一樣，我們對第三季的前景進行了一定程度的調整。

Additionally, we anticipate another quarter of sequential improvement in year-on-year ARPU growth on a currency-neutral basis in Q3, likely in the 100- to 200-basis-point range. This is a slight moderation compare to what we saw in Q2 as we start to lap last year's price increases. From a profitability standpoint, we continue to expect the sequential ramp in gross margin through the balance of 2024 as well as improvements in operating income and operating margin.

此外，我們預計第三季在貨幣中性的基礎上，ARPU 年比成長將再出現一個季度的環比改善，可能在 100 至 200 個基點範圍內。與我們在第二季度看到的情況相比，這略有放緩，因為我們開始追隨去年的價格上漲。從獲利能力的角度來看，我們繼續預期 2024 年毛利率將持續上升，營業收入和營業利益率也會有所改善。

With that, I'll hand things back to Bryan for Q&A.

這樣，我會將事情交還給布萊恩問答。

All right. Thanks, Ben. Again, if you've got any questions, please go to slido.com, #SpotifyEarningsQ224. We'll be reading the questions in the order they appear in the queue with respect to how people vote up their preference for questions. And our first question today is going to come from Justin Patterson on monthly active users.

好的。謝謝，本。再次強調，如果您有任何疑問，請造訪 slido.com，#SpotifyEarningsQ224。我們將按照問題在隊列中出現的順序閱讀問題，以了解人們如何投票選出他們對問題的偏好。今天我們的第一個問題將來自賈斯汀·帕特森（Justin Patterson）關於每月活躍用戶的問題。

As you evaluate the factors weighing on MAU growth, do you believe it's more a byproduct of expense reductions or simply being more penetrated in your end markets? What actions you're taking to drive more MAU growth?

當您評估影響月活躍用戶成長的因素時，您認為這更多的是費用削減的副產品，還是只是在終端市場的滲透率更高？您正在採取哪些行動來推動每月活躍用戶數的成長？

Yeah, I'll take this one and maybe you can chime in, Ben, if you want to. Yeah, I think the easy answer is it's definitely not an impact on TAM. We still believe that there's plenty of room left to grow. With that said, a lot of that future growth will, of course, come from, as I noted in my introductory remarks, developing markets. And developing markets are trickier to get ROI positive because behavior looks very different in that relative to some of the developed markets. So channels are little bit different, engagement profiles looks a little bit different, and, of course, ARPU looks different, too.

是的，我會接受這個，也許你可以插話，本，如果你願意的話。是的，我認為簡單的答案是這絕對不會對 TAM 產生影響。我們仍然相信還有很大的成長空間。話雖如此，正如我在介紹性發言中指出的那樣，未來的成長當然有很大一部分將來自發展中市場。發展中市場要獲得正的投資報酬率更加困難，因為相對於某些已開發市場，其行為看起來非常不同。因此，管道有點不同，參與度概況看起來有點不同，當然，ARPU 看起來也有所不同。

And so the key constraint here is, we're not just going to add back marketing for marketing sake, we will do so only when it works on an ROI basis. And that will take some time to get the mix correct. So the actions we're taking is in three buckets. One of the buckets is around improvements on the marketing channels that we're using. So partnerships will probably play a bigger role in these developing markets than than in other markets, so we are doing more types of partnerships, which we believe will help.

因此，這裡的關鍵限制是，我們不會只是為了行銷而增加行銷，只有當它在投資報酬率的基礎上發揮作用時，我們才會這樣做。這需要一些時間才能正確混合。因此，我們正在採取的行動分為三個部分。其中之一是改進我們正在使用的行銷管道。因此，與其他市場相比，合作夥伴關係在這些發展中市場可能會發揮更大的作用，因此我們正在進行更多類型的合作夥伴關係，我們相信這會有所幫助。

Second is further improvements in the acquisition in developing markets. That is kind of optimizing how we do marketing in those territories and some of that we'll be adding back some spend to. And then third bucket is around the product side, which you heard me talk about there, too. So we have things that are rolled out in certain markets already that has much better engagement profiles, and we believe that when we do roll those things out over the coming months, again, you'll see higher engagement. And then if we have higher engagement, then the LTV increases which then allows us to spend a little bit more on marketing to still get those ROI positive.

其次是發展中市場收購的進一步改善。這在某種程度上優化了我們在這些地區的行銷方式，我們將在其中一些地區增加一些支出。第三個方面是產品方面，你也聽到我在那裡談論過。因此，我們已經在某些市場推出了具有更好參與度的產品，我們相信，當我們在未來幾個月推出這些產品時，您會再次看到更高的參與度。如果我們有更高的參與度，生命週期價值就會增加，這使得我們可以在行銷上花費更多一點，以獲得積極的投資報酬率。

So it's really a bucket of many different things. And needless to say, I'm not happy about the miss in the quarter, and we're working really hard to fix it. But I am confident that this is more of a question when rather than if. And it is something that if you go back to even our history as a public company, we've been in this situation many times, and we come back from it each and every time. And that gives me a lot of assurance this will be the case this time, too.

所以它其實是很多不同東西的桶子。不用說，我對本季的失誤並不滿意，我們正在努力解決這個問題。但我相信，這更多的是一個「何時」而不是「是否」的問題。如果你回顧我們作為一家上市公司的歷史，你會發現我們已經多次陷入這種境地，而且每次都能從中恢復過來。這給了我很大的保證，這次也會如此。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Doug Anmuth on gross margin. Can you talk about the drivers of improved music and podcast profitability leading to better gross margin? And how should we think about royalty savings related to bundling dropping down to the bottom line versus being invested in other areas?

好的。我們的下一個問題將來自 Doug Anmuth 關於毛利率的問題。您能談談音樂和播客獲利能力提高、毛利率提高的驅動因素嗎？我們該如何考慮與捆綁銷售相關的特許權使用費節省下降到底線與投資於其他領域？

Thanks, Doug. This is a great series of questions. As you know, there are a number of factors that go into what move our gross margins up and down each quarter. You're right to call out that the sequential improvement path has been fueled by improvements in music including marketplace growth, and podcast profitability has certainly played a part in the year-over-year story as well as what we said in past quarters about margin gains to other areas like our cloud and streaming delivery spend.

謝謝，道格。這是一系列很棒的問題。如您所知，有許多因素會導致我們每季的毛利率上下波動。您正確地指出，音樂的進步（包括市場成長）推動了連續的改進路徑，而播客盈利能力無疑在同比故事以及我們在過去幾個季度所說的利潤率方面發揮了作用其他領域的收益，例如我們的雲端和串流媒體交付支出。

In terms of the outperformance compared to our guidance, as I said in my remarks, this quarter was primarily about music content cost favorability in marketplace, although there are always moving parts within the contribution mix.

就與我們的指導相比的表現而言，正如我在評論中所說，本季度主要是關於市場上的音樂內容成本優惠，儘管貢獻組合中總是存在變化的部分。

In terms of your question about sort of bundling, look, what I'll say here is that many platforms take bundle treatments, so we're not unique in that regard. We won't be commenting on the specifics of the mechanics of our deals, but all we can say is that we're very confident in our position in the path that we're on at this point.

關於您關於捆綁類型的問題，我要說的是，許多平台都採取捆綁處理，所以我們在這方面並不是獨一無二的。我們不會對交易機制的具體細節發表評論，但我們只能說，我們對目前所走道路上的立場非常有信心。

Next question from Justin Patterson on podcasting. Now that major podcasters are largely non-exclusive, how has podcast engagement changed on Spotify? As more of the industry shifts to video podcast, how do you attract more creators and grow engagement versus a platform like YouTube?

賈斯汀·帕特森提出了關於播客的下一個問題。既然主要播客基本上都是非排他性的，那麼 Spotify 上的播客參與度發生了怎樣的變化？隨著越來越多的行業轉向視訊播客，與 YouTube 這樣的平台相比，您如何吸引更多創作者並提高參與度？

Yeah. I think, first and foremost, we are seeing very healthy engagements on podcast. That has not changed. And we see where we do have video, podcast engagement is even higher than what we have seen when it's audio only, which is really sort of positive testament. And I think this is also what organically creates a bit of a word of mouth with creators, so we're seeing more and more creators now uploading video content, too.

是的。我認為，首先也是最重要的是，我們在播客上看到了非常健康的互動。這一點沒有改變。我們看到，在有視訊的地方，播客的參與度甚至比我們在純音訊時看到的還要高，這確實是一種正面的證明。我認為這也有機地創造了創作者的口碑，所以我們看到越來越多的創作者現在也上傳影片內容。

It's growing really nicely. We have about a quarter million already as it is. And I think, long term, the way I think about this -- I don't know where this will end, but I think consumers of today don't really care too much about formats. They're actually moving in between audio, video, and even reading things sort of very effortlessly, especially younger consumers. And so creators will obviously respond to that and should make their content available in as many formats as possible.

它長得真好。我們已經有大約25萬了。我認為，從長遠來看，我對此的思考方式 - 我不知道這將在哪裡結束，但我認為當今的消費者並不太關心格式。他們實際上可以輕鬆地在音訊、視訊甚至閱讀之間切換，尤其是年輕的消費者。因此，創作者顯然會對此做出回應，並應該以盡可能多的格式提供他們的內容。

And I think that's the way we attract more creators is a bucket of three things. So I think that the first bucket is things that are native to the Spotify platform. So things like podcasters already, like musicians, those are sort of a prime bucket to convert and add more because they'll see higher engagement and thereby higher monetization.

我認為這就是我們吸引更多創作者的方式，包括三件事。所以我認為第一個桶子是 Spotify 平台原生的東西。因此，像播客這樣的人，就像音樂家一樣，這些都是轉換和增加更多內容的主要來源，因為他們會看到更高的參與度，從而獲得更高的貨幣化。

Then I think there's a second bucket which is, if you're already uploading videos to other platforms today, you've taken most of your cost already, so it makes a lot of sense for you to try to amortize that cost against as many platforms as possible. And you see this already where a lot of people on the short side are uploading not just to one platform but are uploading to many platforms. And we're starting to see some of that behavior happening on Spotify, too.

然後我認為還有第二個方面，如果您今天已經將影片上傳到其他平台，那麼您已經花費了大部分成本，因此嘗試將成本攤銷到盡可能多的平台上是很有意義的盡可能的平台。您已經看到了這一點，許多做空方不僅上傳到一個平台，還上傳到多個平台。我們也開始在 Spotify 上看到類似的行為。

And then I think lastly, there's things that will perform a lot better on the Spotify platform than perhaps on other platforms. For instance, what we do see is longer form content tends to do really well on Spotify on the video side because people go back and forth between backgrounding and foregrounding. And that is something that works really well on Spotify because, of course, our lean back history lesson as a platform goes. So overall, it's looking very nicely and with lots of improvement, of course, and more and more creators are coming to the platform for each and every day.

最後，我認為，有些東西在 Spotify 平台上的表現可能會比在其他平台上好得多。例如，我們確實看到，較長的內容往往在 Spotify 的影片方面表現出色，因為人們會在背景和前景之間來回切換。這在 Spotify 上非常有效，因為我們作為一個平台的歷史教訓是這樣的。總的來說，它看起來非常漂亮，並且有很多改進，當然，每天都有越來越多的創作者來到這個平台。

All right. Our next question is from Rich Greenfield on advertising. Advertising growth is decelerating. Given the large base of MAUs and increasing engagement, why is advertising not growing dramatically faster? How does it ever get to the 20% of revenues as Daniel had hoped?

好的。我們的下一個問題來自里奇·格林菲爾德（Rich Greenfield）關於廣告的問題。廣告成長正在放緩。鑑於每月活躍用戶數量龐大且參與度不斷提高，為何廣告成長速度沒有顯著加快？它如何才能達到丹尼爾所希望的 20% 的收入？

Yeah, why don't I begin, and then, Ben, you can sort of chime in a little bit more on the macro story of what's going on. But maybe to start, Rich, I think an important part here as well is our subscription business is probably doing a little bit better than we expected it to do. And as a net consequence, one of the things that are happening is we're taking some of our best customers on best highest engaged users and turning them into paid subscriber, which, of course, diminishes some of that potential that we have on the advertising side, too. So a part of this is also that the mix is improving in favor on the subscription side.

是的，我為什麼不開始呢，然後，本，你可以對正在發生的宏觀故事進行更多的插話。但也許首先，里奇，我認為這裡的一個重要部分是我們的訂閱業務可能比我們預期的要好一點。最終的結果是，正在發生的事情之一是，我們正在將一些最好的客戶吸引到參與度最高的用戶身上，並將他們轉變為付費訂閱者，這當然會削弱我們在該領域的一些潛力。因此，其中的一部分原因是，訂閱方面的組合正在改善。

And then the second thing I would say is that overall on the platform side, we have been making a lot of investments over the past few years. It is still a pretty much on a heavy lift that we have been doing. And that's, of course, to enable more programmatic. It's not something that we're still doing to the extent that we I would like to do, so you should definitely expect us to keep investing in that and bring more and more programmatic and automated buying onto the platform.

我要說的第二件事是，總體而言，在平台方面，我們在過去幾年中進行了大量投資。這仍然是我們一直在做的一項艱鉅的任務。當然，這是為了實現更多的程式化。這不是我們仍在做的事情，所以你絕對應該期望我們繼續投資，並將越來越多的程式化和自動化購買帶到平台上。

Yeah. And just to add onto that. As you all know, our ads business is direct sales, enterprise heavy at its current state. And on top of that, we are, in our current state, an upper funnel kind of brand-focused platform. And it's exactly that quadrant that we're seeing choppiness and volatility in the market. But as Daniel said here, I think that also highlights really what is a tremendous opportunity for us to basically diversify away from that and create agility for ourselves.

是的。只是為了補充這一點。大家知道，我們的廣告業務是直銷，目前企業規模較大。最重要的是，在目前的狀態下，我們是一個以品牌為中心的上漏斗平台。正是在這個象限中，我們看到了市場的波動和波動。但正如丹尼爾在這裡所說的那樣，我認為這也真正凸顯了我們從根本上實現多元化並為自己創造敏捷性的巨大機會。

I think it just emphasizes everything Daniel said around programmatic, tapping into new demand pools. And I think, in particular, being able to access kind of the spend in the market that's presented by small and medium-sized businesses as well. I think these are all forward-looking opportunities that we're excited about.

我認為它只是強調了丹尼爾關於程序化所說的一切，挖掘新的需求池。我認為，特別是能夠獲得中小型企業所提供的市場支出。我認為這些都是我們感到興奮的前瞻性機會。

Okay. Our next question is going to come from Batya Levi on the music industry. Can you provide an update on your relationship with the labels against the backdrop of legal action taken by the MLC? Can you also clarify accounting for the lowered CRB rates?

好的。我們的下一個問題將來自 Batya Levi 關於音樂產業的問題。在 MLC 採取法律行動的背景下，您能否介紹一下您與唱片公司的關係的最新情況？您能否澄清 CRB 利率降低的原因？

Why don't I start and then, Ben, maybe you can chime on. I can't really comment anything about any sort of ongoing legal processes, but I will comment on something I've talked about quite a lot before, which is sort of nature of our relationship with the labels. And I think a lot of people want to make this sort of a zero sum game where we have to win in order for them to lose or they have to win and then we sort of lose. It is not fundamentally how we view this at all. We look at it much more of a win-win.

為什麼我不開始，然後，本，也許你可以插話。我無法對任何正在進行的法律程序發表任何評論，但我會對我之前多次談論過的事情發表評論，這就是我們與唱片公司關係的本質。我認為很多人都想製造這種零和遊戲，我們必須贏才能讓他們輸，或者他們必須贏然後我們就輸了。這根本不是我們看待這個問題的根本方式。我們更多地將其視為雙贏。

So overall, whether on the publishing side or the label side, when I look at our numbers, we keep increasing our payouts year over year. So last year on the publishing side, we had record payouts in 2023. This year, 2024, we will beat those numbers and have even more payouts going on. And the same will, of course, be true on the label side. So it is not as much of a zero sum game as people make it out to believe.

因此，總的來說，無論是在出版方面還是在唱片公司方面，當我查看我們的數據時，我們的支出都在逐年增加。因此，去年在出版方面，我們在 2023 年獲得了創紀錄的支出。當然，標籤方面也是如此。因此，這並不像人們想像的那樣是一場零和遊戲。

That's not to say that we don't quibble around various things and various points. That is the nature of all sort of supplier and distributor relationships. But overall, I would say we have had healthy relationships with the music industry for the better part of now 18 years as I've been here at the company. There's always things that we're arguing about for sure. But overall, the music industry is growing.

這並不是說我們不會在各種事情和各種觀點上爭論不休。這就是各種供應商和經銷商關係的本質。但總的來說，我想說，自從我在公司工作 18 年以來，我們與音樂產業一直保持著健康的關係。總是有一些事情我們會爭論。但總體而言，音樂產業正在成長。

We are spending a lot of time and effort in making sure that it keeps growing. That is our primary thing that we're doing as a company and something we deeply care about as the core mission of this company. And I think that is recognized across the entirety of the music industry as well. And we feel good about that.

我們花費了大量的時間和精力來確保它不斷成長。這是我們作為一家公司正在做的首要事情，也是我們作為公司核心使命而深切關注的事情。我認為整個音樂產業也都認可這一點。我們對此感覺良好。

You will always see us over time get into these arguments about various things over time. But that said, the music industry is growing, and we're all as an industry focused on keeping that healthy growth keep growing.

隨著時間的推移，你總是會看到我們對各種事情進行爭論。但話雖如此，音樂產業正在成長，我們整個產業都致力於保持健康成長並持續成長。

Yeah. And just to add to that, I think to clarify, I think obviously we're talking about two different sides of the the rights holder coin here. There's obviously the side with the labels and what you're asking about with respect to MLC and CRB, that obviously pertains to the publishers. Look, all I'll say here is that it's quite a complex matter that we spent a lot of time scrutinizing and where we met out has been and continues to be that we're confident in our position.

是的。除此之外，我想澄清一下，我認為顯然我們在這裡討論的是權利持有者硬幣的兩個不同方面。顯然，標籤方面以及您所詢問的有關 MLC 和 CRB 的問題，顯然與發行商有關。聽著，我在這裡要說的是，這是一個相當複雜的問題，我們花了很多時間仔細研究，我們的結論是，我們對自己的立場充滿信心，而且仍然如此。

We never get into the specifics of how we're accounting for specific licensing matters. So I won't be able to do that here today, and I'll leave it at that.

我們從未詳細了解如何處理特定許可事宜。所以我今天不能在這裡這樣做，我就到此為止。

Okay. Another question from Doug Anmuth on pricing. While it's still early in rolling out, can you talk about initial consumer reaction/churn related to the recent US price increase, the second in a year? How do you think about the cadence of price increases going forward? And should we expect more raises across international markets this year?

好的。 Doug Anmuth 提出了另一個關於定價的問題。雖然它還處於推出初期，但您能談談與最近美國一年內第二次漲價有關的最初消費者反應/流失嗎？您如何看待未來漲價的節奏？我們是否應該期待今年國際市場上更多的加薪？

Yeah. Great series of questions here. Look, as sort of a general principle, we don't ever talk about our forward-looking plans. I think what we'd like to say and what we can say here is that we're very encouraged by what we're seeing in the three major markets where we've taken price now. That's basically about two times in the last 12 months. So I think we see that as a great data point for what might be possible in the rest of our territories.

是的。這裡有一系列很棒的問題。聽著，作為一般原則，我們從不談論我們的前瞻性計劃。我認為我們想說的是，我們在這裡可以說的是，我們對我們現在定價的三個主要市場所看到的情況感到非常鼓舞。這基本上是過去 12 個月內的兩次。所以我認為我們認為這是一個很好的數據點，可以說明我們其他地區可能發生的事情。

But for now, it's obviously still early days. We've only just taken this action. And so we're obviously monitoring this quite closely, but we're encouraged by all the right signals that one would expect to see here, which is cancellation rates basically being better than expected. And I think that's what we're going to continue monitoring as time goes on here.

但就目前而言，顯然還為時過早。我們剛剛採取了這項行動。因此，我們顯然正在密切關注這一情況，但我們對人們期望在這裡看到的所有正確訊號感到鼓舞，即取消率基本上好於預期。我認為隨著時間的推移，這就是我們將繼續監測的內容。

Okay. We've got another question from Justin Patterson, this time on future growth opportunities. Daniel, you outlined back at the 2022 Investor Day how Spotify is focused on lifetime value. As gross margin expands and lifetime value increases, how does this influence where you invest for future growth in both the core music business and emerging areas like audio books and education?

好的。賈斯汀·帕特森向我們提出了另一個問題，這次是關於未來的成長機會。 Daniel，您在 2022 年投資者日概述了 Spotify 如何專注於終身價值。隨著毛利率的擴大和終身價值的增加，這對您在核心音樂業務和有聲讀物和教育等新興領域的未來成長投資方向有何影響？

Yeah, you're right that LTV or lifetime value is the North Star metric that we keep optimizing for, and why we're so obsessed about it and why we like it so much is the fact that it is an all-encompassing thing where it measures everything from, of course, retention. It measures everything from ARPU across a bunch of different other things, too, in a pretty a nice way when you're operating a business like Spotify.

是的，你說得對，LTV 或生命週期價值是我們不斷優化的北極星指標，為什麼我們如此著迷它，為什麼我們如此喜歡它，因為它是一個包羅萬象的東西，當然，它衡量的是一切，包括保留率。當您經營 Spotify 這樣的業務時，它還可以以非常好的方式衡量 ARPU 和其他許多不同事物的所有內容。

So overall, the most impactful thing I can probably state around where we're focused on is we're focused on solving problems in the intersection between creators and consumers. If you want to understand what makes it onto our priority list, the easiest way is to look for things that are win-win. So the highest thing on our priority list is when we look at a group of creators and we look at what would be a win for them, and then we'll look for something where our existing base of consumers where adding that thing to them would be a win-win for them too.

因此，總的來說，我可以說的最有影響力的事情是我們專注於解決創作者和消費者之間的交叉問題。如果你想了解是什麼使它進入我們的優先列表，最簡單的方法就是尋找雙贏的東西。因此，我們優先列表中最高的事情是，當我們關註一群創作者時，我們會考慮什麼對他們來說是勝利，然後我們會尋找一些東西，我們現有的消費者基礎將這個東西添加到他們中會對他們來說也是雙贏的。

So great example of this point would probably be the work we're doing right now on concerts. So it's very early days for that side. But on the music side, concerts and live shows is a very big revenue source for a lot of artist. Meanwhile, we also know that consumers love going to concerts. But one of the big consumer problems is they don't always know what to go to and when.

關於這一點的一個很好的例子可能是我們現在在音樂會上所做的工作。所以對於那一方來說現在還為時過早。但在音樂方面，音樂會和現場表演對許多藝術家來說是一個非常大的收入來源。同時，我們也知道消費者喜歡去音樂會。但消費者面臨的一大問題是他們並不總是知道該去什麼地方以及什麼時候去。

And so because of us having this base of loyal fans listening to that artists, we thought very early on that we could probably make an effort where we could have the artist promote their concerts on their artist pages and across the different services at Spotify and thereby also create great opportunities for their real fans to go to shows. And this is something that we've been expanding that program that we call fans first quite widely across the base on Spotify. And we're seeing great artist support, and we're seeing great consumer support of that. So that gives you an idea of something that then creates value.

因此，由於我們擁有忠實的粉絲基礎，聆聽這些藝術家的音樂，我們很早就認為我們可以努力讓藝術家在他們的藝術家頁面以及 Spotify 的不同服務上宣傳他們的音樂會，從而也為他們的真正粉絲創造了去看表演的絕佳機會。這就是我們一直在 Spotify 上廣泛擴展的「粉絲至上」計劃。我們看到了藝術家的大力支持，也看到了消費者的大力支持。這樣你就可以了解一些可以創造價值的東西。

But overall, the way we believe we create higher LTV is by creating win-wins. We want to both do things for the existing creators. We have in more new ways like concerts. And potentially, when we see things we've already invested in and other groups of creators, finding value in that will expand into other verticals as well, where, of course, audiobooks and education are great examples of that.

但總的來說，我們相信創造更高生命週期價值的方式是創造雙贏。我們都希望為現有的創作者做些事。我們有更多新的方式，例如音樂會。潛在地，當我們看到我們已經投資的東西和其他創作者群體時，從中發現價值也將擴展到其他垂直領域，當然，有聲書和教育就是很好的例子。

The next question is going to come from Doug Anmuth on ARPU. There are many moving pieces across bundling price increases and plan or tier optimizations. How will this impact currency-neutral ARPU growth through the second half of the year and into 2025? What is the right balance of volume and pricing to achieve a 20%-plus revenue growth rate over the next one to three years as laid out as a goal at the Investor Day?

下一個問題將來自 Doug Anmuth 關於 ARPU 的問題。捆綁價格上漲和計劃或層級優化有許多變化。這將如何影響下半年至 2025 年的貨幣中性 ARPU 成長？銷售量與定價之間的正確平衡是什麼，才能在未來一到三年內達到 20% 以上的營收成長率（如投資人日所訂定的目標）？

Thanks, Doug. Look, I think you've highlighted a bunch of variables here that I think are all the right kind of inputs one should think about in terms of revenue equation. But what I might actually also highlight and not called out kind of in this list here is actually perhaps the most important factor of all, which is, are we seeing continued growth in engagement on our premium and plan? Because I think -- on our subscription offerings really because I think that that's like the real leading indicator that leads to basically the flexibility across all the other levers that you're seeing here.

謝謝，道格。聽著，我認為你在這裡強調了一堆變量，我認為這些變量都是人們應該在收入方程式方面考慮的正確輸入類型。但我實際上可能還強調但在此列表中未提及的實際上可能是最重要的因素，即我們是否看到我們的保費和計劃的參與度持續增長？因為我認為——在我們的訂閱產品上，真的是因為我認為這就像真正的領先指標，基本上可以帶來您在這裡看到的所有其他槓桿的靈活性。

I'm not necessarily going to say that there's a magic formula across these things that are going to necessarily pave the way for the next three years. But I think it's going to be leaning into different parts of this equation at different points in time. I think the important part is that we're now talking about a portfolio and a portfolio gives us sort of flexibility and optionality here.

我不一定會說這些事情有一個神奇的公式，一定會為未來三年鋪路。但我認為它會在不同的時間點傾向於這個方程式的不同部分。我認為重要的是我們現在正在談論投資組合，而投資組合在這裡為我們提供了一定的靈活性和選擇性。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Rich Greenfield on premium add-ons. There has been increasing noise that an ultra premium tier is coming that would cost an additional $5 or more above your current premium tier. Can you help us understand what the consumer would be getting and how you determine what features should be in this new offering?

好的。我們的下一個問題將來自 Rich Greenfield 關於高級附加組件的問題。越來越多的聲音稱，超高級等級即將推出，其價格將比您當前的高級等級多花費 5 美元或更多。您能否幫助我們了解消費者將獲得什麼以及您如何確定新產品應包含哪些功能？

Yeah, sure, Rich. So first off, I think it's worth noting now that we're at 246 million paid subscribers. So we're one of the largest subscription services on the planet. And interestingly enough, a huge part of that success were really driven by a very simple proposition of one size fits all proposition. But part of why I believe the subscription business in the last year or two has been doing better is because we've moved from that one size fits all to a much more tailored proposition where consumers now have everything from the basic tiers to duo to family plans to student plans. There's just many more options for you to subscribe to Spotify.

是的，當然，里奇。首先，我認為值得注意的是，我們的付費訂閱用戶數量已達 2.46 億。所以我們是地球上最大的訂閱服務之一。有趣的是，這種成功的很大一部分實際上是由一個非常簡單的一刀切的主張所推動的。但我相信訂閱業務在過去一兩年表現更好的部分原因是我們已經從一刀切轉向更加量身定制的主張，消費者現在擁有從基本級別到雙人到家庭的一切計劃到學生計劃。您還有更多訂閱 Spotify 的選擇。

And what we do see is that there's a good subset of that group now of 246 million subscribers that want a much better version of Spotify. And those are huge music lovers who are primarily looking for even more flexibility in how they use Spotify and the music capabilities that exist on Spotify. And so I've talked about that sort of relationship to the music industry and our commitment to growing the entirety of the music ecosystem. And so I think this is a great way where I think we can create a win-win both for the creative ecosystem but also for consumers as well.

我們確實看到，現在有 2.46 億訂閱用戶中的很大一部分想要更好的 Spotify 版本。這些都是巨大的音樂愛好者，他們主要尋求在如何使用 Spotify 以及 Spotify 上現有的音樂功能方面獲得更大的靈活性。因此，我談到了與音樂產業的這種關係以及我們對發展整個音樂生態系統的承諾。所以我認為這是一個很好的方式，我認為我們可以為創意生態系統和消費者創造雙贏。

So the plan here is to offer a much better version of Spotify, so think something that could be something like $5 above the current premium tier like you include. So it's probably around $17 or $18 price point but sort of a deluxe version of Spotify that has all of the benefits that the normal Spotify version has but a lot more control, a lot higher quality across the board, and some other things that I'm not ready to talk about just yet.

因此，這裡的計劃是提供一個更好的 Spotify 版本，因此請考慮比您所包含的當前高級版本高出 5 美元左右的版本。所以它的價格可能在 17 美元或 18 美元左右，但有點像 Spotify 的豪華版本，它具有普通 Spotify 版本的所有優點，但控制能力更強，全面提高質量，以及我認為的其他一些東西。沒準備好談論這個話題。

But the reason why we're doing it is where I began which is, we think it's something consumers really are asking us to do, and we believe there's now a very large subset of that, too, 246 million subscribers that want it, but also that it will be a net positive for the entirety of music industry and will further enhance the growth that the music industry is seeing. So we're quite excited about it, but it's early days.

但我們這樣做的原因正是我開始的地方，即我們認為這是消費者真正要求我們做的事情，我們相信現在也有很大一部分，2.46 億訂戶想要它，但是此外，這將對整個音樂產業產生正面的影響，並將進一步促進音樂產業的成長。所以我們對此感到非常興奮，但現在還為時過早。

All right. We've got time for a couple more questions. Our next one is going to come from Benjamin Black on gross margin goals. So no good deed goes unpunished. You hit the gross margin targets you gave us at the Investor Day in 2022 well ahead of plan. If we were to do a postmortem, what specifically broke your way? And now that this milestone was hit, how should we think about gross margins going forward?

好的。我們還有時間再問幾個問題。我們的下一篇將來自本傑明·布萊克（Benjamin Black）關於毛利率目標的內容。所以，善行無不受到懲罰。您提前實現了 2022 年投資者日向我們設定的毛利率目標。如果我們要進行事後剖析，具體是什麼阻礙了你？既然已經達到了這個里程碑，我們該如何考慮未來的毛利率？

Yeah, I'll take it. And maybe you, Ben, can chime in. I love how you guys are straight away when we have accomplished something move onto the next thing. It keeps us honest. Joke aside, what happened, if I do sort of postmortem, I think the primary the primary thing is we really focused as a business. It's -- you heard me say this, but this has been a year of monetization on our side, so we've stepped up our ability and our efforts on monetization.

是的，我會接受的。也許你，本，可以插話一下。它讓我們保持誠實。拋開玩笑不談，發生了什麼，如果我進行事後分析，我認為最重要的是我們真正專注於一家企業。你聽到我這麼說了，但今年對我們來說是貨幣化的一年，所以我們加強了我們在貨幣化方面的能力和努力。

But on the bottom line, of course, also we've done a lot of things to become more resourceful as a company. So it's really a function of those two things at the same time and with the intensity that have exceeded even our own expectations on how fast we've transformed the business to one that's not just focused on growth at all cost but really growth with profitability in mind to it. And I think the better way to think about gross margins probably to go back actually to what we said at Investor Day as well.

但從根本上來說，當然，我們也做了很多事情來讓公司變得更加足智多謀。因此，這實際上是這兩件事同時作用的結果，其強度甚至超出了我們自己的預期，即我們將業務轉型為一個不僅專注於不惜一切代價實現增長，而且真正實現盈利增長的業務。它。我認為考慮毛利率的更好方法可能實際上也回到了我們在投資者日所說的內容。

I don't have any new targets, but you hear us talking about first getting to that 30%. And then long term, of course, that the ability is a little higher than that as well. So I would just encourage you to go back to what we said at Investor Day. That is still very much top of mind for myself and the team.

我沒有任何新目標，但你聽到我們談論首先達到 30%。當然，從長遠來看，能力也會比這高一點。因此，我鼓勵您回顧我們在投資者日所說的內容。對我自己和團隊來說，這仍然是最重要的。

And to add on to Daniel's point about sort of focus, right, it has truly been a full court press from every corner of our company, I'd say. And what that's resulted in is actually the ability to find multiple engines here for gross margin expansion. I probably sound like a broken record at this point but talking about improvements in music with marketplace growth. It's the podcast profitability path, it's efficiency and things like cloud and streaming delivery.

補充一下丹尼爾關於某種焦點的觀點，對吧，我想說，這確實是我們公司各個角落的全場壓力。其結果實際上是能夠在這裡找到多個引擎來擴大毛利率。在這一點上，我聽起來可能像是一張破唱片，但我談論的是隨著市場成長而帶來的音樂改進。這是播客的獲利路徑、效率以及雲端和串流媒體交付等。

There are even smaller areas like how we're optimizing our payment fees and traffic with our payment service partners. All these different things sort of ladder up to a gross margin story that we are very proud of. And I think going forward, it's going to be that same mindset where it's going to take (inaudible) to contribute and continue laddering up to our long-term goals.

還有更小的領域，例如我們如何與支付服務合作夥伴優化支付費用和流量。所有這些不同的事情都在某種程度上推動了我們感到非常自豪的毛利率故事。我認為展望未來，我們將採取同樣的心態（聽不清楚）做出貢獻並繼續逐步實現我們的長期目標。

Our next question is from Michael Morris on our recent pricing adjustments. How have subscribers responded to the premium plan price increases? Can you share detail on how many have churned and how many have opted for the basic plan relative to how many have retained premium service? Have you seen any difference by market?

我們的下一個問題是邁克爾莫里斯關於我們最近的定價調整的問題。訂戶對高級計畫價格上漲有何反應？您能否詳細說明有多少人流失了，有多少人選擇了基本計劃，以及有多少人保留了高級服務？您發現市場有什麼不同嗎？

Yeah. Thanks, Michael. As I said before with respect to pricing, I think all this is still such early days, again, highlighting the uniqueness of all this, right? Again, it's three major markets for us, the second time we've raised price in 12 months. And so we're watching all metrics like a hawk here. But early days suggests that signals are encouraging.

是的。謝謝，麥可。正如我之前關於定價所說的那樣，我認為這一切還處於早期階段，再次強調了這一切的獨特性，對吧？再說一次，這對我們來說是三個主要市場，這是我們 12 個月內第二次提高價格。因此，我們像鷹一樣關注所有指標。但早期跡象表明，信號令人鼓舞。

We're seeing better than expected cancellation rates despite the fact that it's a successive moment that we've taken price here. And obviously having basic in the portfolio now gives us a new pathway to mitigate churn. We don't have specific numbers to share on this call right here, but we are very encouraged by all the signals that we have.

儘管我們已經連續在這裡定價，但我們看到的取消率比預期好。顯然，在投資組合中加入基礎知識現在為我們提供了減少客戶流失的新途徑。我們沒有在此電話會議上分享具體數字，但我們對所掌握的所有訊號感到非常鼓舞。

All right. And our last question today is going to come up with a follow-up from Michael Morris on audiobooks. How does the audiobooks business impact your cost structure? What is the basis for cost recognition? What is the current gross margin on audiobook revenue look like relative to your Investor Day goal of 40%? And is that still the right margin, and what's the timeframe to reach that target?

好的。今天我們的最後一個問題是邁克爾莫里斯關於有聲讀物的後續內容。有聲書業務如何影響您的成本結構？成本確認的依據是什麼？相對於投資人日 40% 的目標，目前有聲書收入的毛利率是多少？這仍然是正確的幅度嗎？

Yeah. Great question here. I'll share two things. I think, first, let's talk about audiobooks in general following a variable consumption-based cost structure. I think that's important thing to continuously keep in mind here as you think about that business. And second, again, in the scheme of Spotify, it's really early days still. And getting into this new content vertical and establishing ourselves will always start with investment before we focused on margins and profits.

是的。很好的問題。我將分享兩件事。我認為，首先，我們來談談基於可變消費的成本結構的有聲書。我認為，當你思考這項業務時，要不斷牢記這一點，這一點很重要。其次，在 Spotify 的計畫中，現在還處於早期階段。進入這個新的垂直內容領域並建立自己的地位總是從投資開始，然後再專注於利潤和利潤。

We're still learning how to optimize, but we don't have further details to share out on that today. In terms of the mechanics of the timelines, we feel very good about what we laid out for you on Investor Day with respect to the margin goals longer term for that business. What I would continue to encourage you all to think about is how we think about this internally. The most important thing in the near term is just making sure that audiobooks are driving incremental engagement for the platform, and we're seeing this happening in a way that makes us feel good about the path that we're on here. It's central to how we think about audiobooks or really any other content vertical being a contributor to the health of our business as more engagement paves the way for accretive monetization.

我們仍在學習如何優化，但今天我們沒有更多細節可以分享。就時間表的機製而言，我們對在投資者日為您制定的有關該業務長期利潤目標的安排感到非常滿意。我會繼續鼓勵大家思考我們內部如何看待這個問題。短期內最重要的事情就是確保有聲書正在推動平台的增量參與，我們看到這種情況的發生讓我們對我們所處的道路感到滿意。這是我們如何看待有聲書或任何其他垂直內容對我們業務健康做出貢獻的核心，因為更多的參與度為增值鋪平了道路。

Yeah. And my only addition is the primary thing here that we're focused on is adding more and more value constantly. So audiobooks is just another testament to that. And I think when you look at Spotify today relative to where it is two years ago, we can see in pretty much every metric, whether it be engagement, whether it's the number of items or content we have on our platforms, the diversity of content and how people are consuming, the people are responding really well to the Spotify offering. And if those metrics are true, long term, we will also build a really great business.

是的。我唯一補充的是，我們關注的首要事情是不斷增加越來越多的價值。有聲書只是另一個證明。我認為，當你看看今天的 Spotify 相對於兩年前的情況時，我們幾乎可以看到每一個指標，無論是參與度，無論是我們平台上的項目或內容數量，還是內容的多樣性。以及人們的消費方式，人們對Spotify 產品的反應都非常好。如果這些指標是真實的，從長遠來看，我們也將建立一個真正偉大的業務。

All right. Great. That's going to conclude our Q&A session. I'll hand the mike back to Daniel for some closing remarks.

好的。偉大的。我們的問答環節到此結束。我會將麥克風交還給丹尼爾，讓他做一些結束語。

All right. Well, thanks, Bryan. It's really an exciting time at Spotify. We keep on innovating and showing that we aren't just a great product but increasingly also a great business, and we're doing so on a timeline that has exceeded even our own expectations. I think this all bodes very well for the future. The primary objective for the team now is to continue delivering against these goals while increasing our innovation to the benefit of consumers and creators all over the world.

好的。嗯，謝謝，布萊恩。對於 Spotify 來說，這確實是一個令人興奮的時刻。我們不斷創新，並表明我們不僅是一個偉大的產品，而且越來越成為一個偉大的企業，我們這樣做的時間表甚至超出了我們自己的預期。我認為這對未來來說是個好兆頭。團隊現在的主要目標是繼續實現這些目標，同時增加我們的創新，以造福世界各地的消費者和創作者。

If we can do this, even more great things are in store for Spotify. Thanks again for joining.

如果我們能做到這一點，Spotify 將會迎來更多偉大的事情。再次感謝您的加入。

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 again for everyone for joining.

好的。今天的電話會議到此結束。我們的網站以及 Spotify 應用程式上的 Spotify 收益電話會議重播將提供重播。再次感謝大家的加入。

This concludes today's conference call. We thank you for joining. You may now disconnect your lines.

今天的電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的加入。現在您可以斷開線路。