Spotify Technology SA (SPOT) 2025 Q4 法說會逐字稿

Good day, and welcome to Spotify's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings call and webcast. (Operator Instructions) As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Bryan Goldberg, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you.

大家好，歡迎參加 Spotify 2025 年第四季財報電話會議和網路直播。（操作員說明）提醒各位，本次電話會議正在錄音。現在我將把電話交給投資人關係主管布萊恩‧戈德堡。謝謝。

Thanks, operator, and welcome to Spotify's fourth-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining us today will be our Founder and Executive Chairman, Daniel Ek; our Co-CEOs, Alex Norstrom and Gustav Soderstrom; and our CFO, Christian Luiga. We'll start with opening comments from the team. And afterwards, we'll be happy to answer your questions. Questions can be submitted by going to slido.com and using the code Spotify Earnings Q4 '25.

謝謝接線員，歡迎參加 Spotify 2025 年第四季財報電話會議。今天與我們一同出席的有：我們的創始人兼執行主席丹尼爾·埃克；我們的聯合首席執行官亞歷克斯·諾斯特羅姆和古斯塔夫·索德斯特羅姆；以及我們的首席財務官克里斯蒂安·路易加。首先，請團隊成員致開幕詞。之後，我們很樂意回答您的問題。您可以透過造訪 slido.com 並使用程式碼 Spotify Earnings Q4 '25 提交問題。

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.

分析師可以直接在 Slido 中提問，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。如果您因為某些原因無法造訪 Slido，您可以發送電子郵件至 ir@spotify.com 聯絡投資者關係部門，我們會將您的問題加入。

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 differ materially because of factors discussed in today's call in our shareholder deck and in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在我們開始之前，讓我先簡單介紹一下安全港灣。在本次電話會議中，我們將做出一些前瞻性陳述，包括對公司未來績效的預測或估計。這些陳述是基於當前的預期和假設，但存在風險和不確定性。實際結果可能與預期有重大差異，因為在今天的股東大會上以及提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中討論了相關因素。

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 financial section of our Investor Relations website and also furnished today on Form 6-K. And with that, I'll turn it over to Daniel.

在本次電話會議中，我們也將提及一些非國際財務報告準則（IFRS）的財務指標。我們的 IFRS 和非 IFRS 財務指標之間的調節表可以在我們的股東資料、投資者關係網站的財務部分找到，今天也以 6-K 表格的形式提供。接下來，我將把麥克風交給丹尼爾。

All right. Hey, everyone, and thanks for joining. As a short accounting exercise has just shown me, this is my 32nd earnings call. And as you know, this was the last one that I did in the role as CEO. Alex Gustav and Christian will give you an overview of the business and cover the quarter, but before I hand it over, I wanted to share a few thoughts.

好的。大家好，感謝各位的參與。正如剛才一個簡單的會計核算結果顯示的那樣，這已經是我的第32次財報電話會議了。如你所知，這是我擔任執行長期間所做的最後一件事。Alex Gustav 和 Christian 將為大家概述業務並介紹本季情況，但在我把內容交給他們之前，我想分享一些想法。

First, I want to say gratitude to the incredible teams at Spotify to the artists, creators and authors we build for, the more than 0.75 billion people listen with us daily. Thank you, and thank you to all of you as well. I can say that I've generally valued these conversations with our investors, with analysts and even the tough questions, getting to build a company like this and to share that journey with people who care about where it's going, it's been a real privilege.

首先，我要感謝 Spotify 的出色團隊，感謝我們為之打造音樂的藝術家、創作者和作者，感謝每天與我們一起收聽音樂的超過 7.5 億人。謝謝，也謝謝在座各位。我可以說，我一直很珍惜與投資人、分析師的這些對話，甚至是那些棘手的問題。能夠打造這樣一家公司，並與關心公司未來發展方向的人分享這段旅程，真是一種榮幸。

From day one, our focus has been simple: build the best experience for listeners, be the best partner for artists and creators and do it in a way that scales globally. And that remains true almost 20 years in and for those participating on the call, I know a huge portion of your role is scoring the companies you cover. So if you want a framework for evaluating Spotify going forward and what to hold us accountable to, I'd point to three key things. And then you must also layer on the culture that makes them possible.

從一開始，我們的目標就很簡單：為聽眾打造最佳體驗，成為藝術家和創作者的最佳合作夥伴，並以全球可擴展的方式實現這一目標。近 20 年過去了，情況依然如此。對於參加電話會議的人來說，我知道你們工作的重要部分是給你們所負責的公司打分數。所以，如果你想要一個評估 Spotify 未來發展方向以及讓我們承擔責任的框架，我會指出以下三點關鍵內容。然後，你也必須加入使之成為可能的文化因素。

First, we saw problems at the intersection of consumers and creators. This is where we focus. If something is good for the consumer and also good for the creator, that's where you'll find us every time. Discovery Weekly, Wrapped, Spotify for Artists, our new mobile free tier. These aren't just features, their proof points. We built tools that help artists reach listeners they never find otherwise and in turn, help listeners discover music, they didn't know they'd love. And we built an ecosystem where artists, listeners, creators, authors and advertisers reinforce each other. That intersection is where we've always won and it's where the next decade gets built.

首先，我們發現消費者和創作者之間有問題。這是我們關注的重點。如果某件事對消費者和創造者都有好處，那麼你總是能在那裡找到我們。Discovery Weekly、Wrapped、Spotify for Artists、我們全新的行動免費方案。這些不僅僅是功能，更是它們的證明點。我們發展了一些工具，幫助藝術家接觸到原本無法接觸的聽眾，反過來，也幫助聽眾發現他們以前不知道自己會喜歡的音樂。我們建構了一個生態系統，在這個系統中，藝術家、聽眾、創作者、作家和廣告商相互促進。那個交會點是我們一直以來取得勝利的地方，也是我們未來十年發展的基礎。

Second, we are, first and foremost, a technology company. We've said for years that we aim to be the R&D arm for the music industry. And if I may say so, nearly 20 years in, I think we've earned that. We drove the shift from downloads to streaming and subscription, and we prove the model could work at scale. But here's what excites me the most. Our capabilities now extend far beyond music. Today, what we built is a technology platform for audio and increasingly for all ways craters connect with audiences. And this identity will matter even more going forward.

其次，我們首先是一家科技公司。多年來，我們一直表示，我們的目標是成為音樂產業的研發部門。恕我直言，經過近 20 年的發展，我認為我們已經贏得了這樣的榮譽。我們推動了從下載到串流媒體和訂閱的轉變，並且我們證明這種模式可以大規模應用。但最令我興奮的是…我們的能力現在遠遠超出了音樂領域。今天，我們打造的是一個音訊技術平台，並且越來越多地用於各種方式與受眾互動。而且，這種身分在未來會變得更加重要。

The next wave of technology shifts, AI, new interfaces, wearables, new ways of interacting with content, these will reshape how people discover and experience audio and media. The hard problems I had in music, in podcasts and books and video in live and in things we haven't even built yet, we're going to keep building the technology to solve them.

下一波技術變革，包括人工智慧、新介面、穿戴式裝置以及與內容互動的新方式，將重塑人們發現和體驗音訊和媒體的方式。我在音樂、播客、書籍、視訊直播以及我們尚未開發的領域中遇到的難題，我們將繼續開發技術來解決它們。

Third, we play the long game. When we went public in 2018, I talked about long-term value creation. While I know many of you focus quarter-to-quarter, that's not how we grade ourselves, and it's never have been. We choose growth over profitability for many years. And I know that was painful for some of you, but in order to scale, it was the right thing for consumers and creators, and ultimately, for the business we're running today.

第三，我們著眼於長遠。2018 年我們上市時，我談到了長期價值創造。雖然我知道你們很多人都以季度為單位來衡量業績，但這不是我們給自己評分的方式，也從來都不是。多年來，我們一直選擇成長而非獲利。我知道這對你們中的一些人來說很痛苦，但為了擴大規模，這對消費者和創作者來說是正確的，最終對我們今天經營的業務來說也是正確的。

We acquired Echo Nest back in 2014 when most people didn't understand why a streaming company needed a machine learning AI company. And that bet gave us personalization, something that's now core to everything we do. We built our Ubiquiti Play, that's called Spotify Connect starting in 2011, right as we launched in the US.

我們在 2014 年收購了 Echo Nest，當時大多數人都不理解為什麼一家串流媒體公司需要一家機器學習人工智慧公司。而正是那次嘗試讓我們實現了個人化，如今已成為我們一切工作的核心。我們從 2011 年開始建立我們的 Ubiquiti Play，也就是現在的 Spotify Connect，當時我們正值在美國推出產品之際。

At the time, every major tech platform was building their own walled garden for audio. The conventional wisdom was pick an ecosystem and live inside it. We bet the other way. We decided Spotify should work everywhere, in your car, your speaker, your TV, your gaming console regardless of whose ecosystem you're in, Apples, Googles, Amazon, Samsungs, Sonos, all of them seamlessly.

當時，每個主流科技平台都在建構自己的音頻封閉生態系統。傳統觀念認為應該選擇一個生態系統，然後再生活在其中。我們賭的是相反的結果。我們決定讓 Spotify 能夠在任何地方運行，無論是在你的車裡、你的音箱裡、你的電視裡、你的遊戲機裡，無論你身處哪個生態系統，蘋果、谷歌、亞馬遜、三星、Sonos，都能無縫運作。

And today, Spotify works across more than 2,000 devices from over 200 brands, and you can start a song on your phone and you can finish it on your TV. That doesn't happen by accident. It happens because we choose ubiquity over control, openness over lock-in, and we stuck with it for over a decade. These weren't obvious calls at the time, but they compound. And that long-term orientation will continue to guide Spotify, which brings me to [talent] because we take a long-term view there too.

如今，Spotify 可在 200 多個品牌的 2000 多種裝置上運行，你可以在手機上開始播放一首歌，然後在電視上聽完。這並非偶然發生。這是因為我們選擇了普及而非控制，選擇了開放而非鎖定，我們堅持了十多年。這些當時並不是顯而易見的判斷，但它們的影響會不斷累積。這種長遠發展方向將繼續指導 Spotify，這也讓我想到了人才，因為我們在這方面也採取了長遠的眼光。

At Spotify, we built a culture that tries to build and reward trust. Trust to take risks, trust to fail and learn, trust to challenge each other and share the thinking behind our decisions. And here's why that matters. Moving fast isn't just about how much you ship. It's about shipping the right things. A culture of trust gives you both. People dare to try, but they also dare to debate to push back to find a better path together. That's how you iterate quickly without losing direction. If there's trust, most processes are easy, allowing you to move very fast.

在 Spotify，我們建立了一種努力建立和獎勵信任的企業文化。信任彼此，敢於冒險；信任彼此，敢於失敗並從中學習；信任彼此，敢於挑戰對方，並分享我們決策背後的想​​法。而這之所以重要，原因如下。快速發展不僅取決於你的出貨量。關鍵在於運送正確的貨物。信任的文化能讓你兩者兼得。人們敢於嘗試，也敢於辯論，共同尋求更好的道路。這樣才能快速迭代而不迷失方向。如果彼此信任，大多數流程都會變得簡單，讓你能夠快速行動。

A culture of trust is hard to replicate and is why we develop leaders from within. And I think Alex and Gustav are great proof of this. They've been at the center of nearly every major shift in this company, mobile, subscription, machine learning, podcast, audiobooks, marketplace, et cetera, et cetera, they didn't inherit Spotify, they really helped building it.

信任的文化很難複製，所以我們從內部培養領導者。我認為亞歷克斯和古斯塔夫就是最好的證明。他們幾乎參與了這家公司的每一次重大變革，包括行動裝置、訂閱服務、機器學習、播客、有聲書、市場等等，他們不是繼承了 Spotify，而是真正幫助創建了它。

And of course, I'm not going anywhere. I'll be here as Executive Chairman, focus on the long term, but this is their moment to lead. And I have deep confidence in them, not because everything will go perfectly. Of course, it won't, but because I've watched them solve problems that looked impossible and then do it again and again. And they're not here to protect what I built, they're here to build what we haven't imagined yet. And their success is our success, and I'm rooting very hard for them.

當然，我哪裡也不去。我將以執行主席的身份留任，並專注於長遠發展，但現在是他們發揮領導作用的時刻。我對他們充滿信心，並不是因為一切都會一帆風順。當然，這不會發生，但我親眼目睹他們解決看似不可能的問題，而且一次又一次地做到。他們來到這裡不是為了保護我所創造的一切，而是為了創造我們尚未想像到的事物。他們的成功就是我們的成功，我真心希望他們能成功。

And with that, I'm going to hand it over to Alex, Gustav and Christian.

接下來，我要把麥克風交給亞歷克斯、古斯塔夫和克里斯蒂安。

Thank you, Daniel. And congratulations on a legendary run. Well, both Gustav and I thank you for the encouraging words and your trust. Now we closed out what we dubbed as the year of accelerated execution with another solid quarter, delivering a strong finish to 2025. In Q4, we met or exceeded guidance across all the key metrics.

謝謝你，丹尼爾。恭喜你取得了傳奇般的成績。我和古斯塔夫都非常感謝你們的鼓勵和信任。現在，我們以另一個穩健的季度結束了我們稱之為「加速執行之年」的一年，為 2025 年畫上了圓滿的句號。第四季度，我們所有關鍵指標均達到或超過預期。

We marked our highest quarter ever for MAU net additions. It's just incredible to think that we now serve over 0.75 billion people around the world.

我們創下了每月活躍用戶淨成長季的最高紀錄。難以置信的是，我們現在為全球超過7.5億人提供服務。

Since going public, I have been touring the importance of our flywheel, and it all starts with MAU growth, which, in turn, fuels the growth of our overall business. A driver of MAU outperformance is Wrapped, which was also a record-breaking this year. While we saw impressive engagement back in 2024, we also got feedback on the user experience.

自從公司上市以來，我一直在宣傳我們飛輪的重要性，而這一切都始於每月活躍用戶數的成長，進而推動了我們整體業務的成長。MAU 表現優異的一個驅動因素是 Wrapped，它今年也創下了紀錄。雖然我們在 2024 年看到了令人印象深刻的參與度，但我們也收到了關於使用者體驗的回饋。

So this year, we turned up the dial and the response was redeeming. At the end of the campaign, more than 300 million users engaged, which was up 20% and we saw more than 630 million shares across social media, which is up 42%. Even more, day one of Wrapped marked the highest single day of subscriber intake in Spotify history. Lots of learnings, and we take our responsibility seriously to deliver on this much anticipated moment every year for our users.

所以今年我們加大了力度，結果令人滿意。活動結束時，超過 3 億用戶參與，成長了 20%；我們在社群媒體上看到了超過 6.3 億次的分享，成長了 42%。更令人驚訝的是，Wrapped 首日新增訂閱用戶數創下了 Spotify 史上單日最高紀錄。我們從中汲取了許多經驗，我們認真對待每年為用戶帶來這一期待已久的時刻的責任。

We're also driving significant business growth for creative industries. And in '25, we paid out more than $11 billion to music rights holders, once again setting a global record for the highest annual payment from a single source. This takes us to nearly $70 billion since our founding.

我們也在推動創意產業實現顯著的業務成長。2025 年，我們向音樂版權所有者支付了超過 110 億美元，再次創下了單一來源年度支付金額最高的全球紀錄。自公司成立以來，我們的總資產已接近700億美元。

In podcasting, video podcast consumption on Spotify has increased by more than 90% of since the launch of the Spotify partner program or what we call SPP. There are now more than 530,000 video podcast shows on our platform. And I hope you all caught the watershed moment at the Golden Globes where Spotify and the ringers good hang with Amy Polar, won the first ever best podcast award. This milestone underscores podcastings impact on culture, and we're proud to have been a key part of it.

在播客領域，自 Spotify 合作夥伴計畫（簡稱 SPP）推出以來，Spotify 上的視訊播客消費量增加了 90% 以上。我們的平台上現在有超過 53 萬個視訊播客節目。我希望大家都看到了金球獎上的那個具有里程碑意義的時刻，Spotify 和 The Ringers 的《Good Hang with Amy Polar》贏得了有史以來第一個最佳播客獎。這個里程碑凸顯了播客對文化的影響，我們很自豪能成為其中的重要參與者。

Now rounding things out with audiobooks, we expanded our books in premium to more markets where we're already finding some of the world's most passionate listeners. As we continue to scale this leading global publishers have credited us with bringing in listeners -- new listeners and driving double-digit growth in audiobooks.

現在，我們推出了有聲讀物，進一步完善了我們的產品線。我們將優質書籍推廣到更多市場，並在這些市場中找到了一些世界上最熱情的聽眾。隨著我們不斷擴大規模，全球領先的出版商都稱讚我們吸引了新聽眾，並推動了有聲書實現兩位數的成長。

And you should expect Gustav and I to continue to optimize for and be relentless about creating value for users because when people spend more days in a month with us across more moments, more devices and more verticals, it proves our product is working. It means our investments into personalization and AI are paying off. It means we're doing a great job sharing the art made by our artists, podcasters and authors. What this ultimately translates into is greater engagement and retention, which unlocks more revenue growth.

你們應該期待我和 Gustav 繼續優化並為用戶創造價值，因為當人們一個月內花更多的時間在更多的時間、更多的設備和更多的垂直領域與我們互動時，就證明我們的產品是有效的。這意味著我們在個人化和人工智慧方面的投資正在取得回報。這意味著我們在分享藝術家、播客主播和作家的作品方面做得非常出色。最終，這將轉化為更高的用戶參與度和留存率，從而釋放更大的收入成長潛力。

And as our revenue grows, we bring back more value back to our partners, artists and creators and with scale comes more opportunity for innovation and margin expansion. Disciplined reinvestment of this pushes growth even further. This is our formula, rinse and repeat.

隨著收入的成長，我們為合作夥伴、藝術家和創作者帶來了更多價值，規模的擴大也帶來了更多創新和利潤成長的機會。有紀律地將這些收益再投資，可以進一步推動成長。這就是我們的秘訣，重複操作即可。

And as we've mentioned before, we have one of the greatest TAMs in the world. That's because everyone has a relationship with music and podcast and audiobooks, it deepens that connection even further. We proudly count 3.5% of the world as subscribers, and there's still lots of room to grow. It's not impossible to imagine us converting 10% or even 15% of the world's population to subscribers.

正如我們之前提到的，我們擁有世界上最優秀的TAM之一。這是因為每個人都與音樂、播客和有聲書有著某種聯繫，而這進一步加深了這種聯繫。我們自豪地擁有全球 3.5% 的訂閱用戶，而且還有很大的成長空間。不難想像，我們將全球 10% 甚至 15% 的人口轉化為訂閱用戶。

With strong performance across all metrics, including user growth, revenue, gross margin, operating income and cash flow, I'm confident about our position. And I'm optimistic about 2026 and beyond. We expect continued healthy MAU and subs growth throughout the year while maintaining our consistently low churn. We will also make further progress on driving top line growth and expanding gross margin.

憑藉著用戶成長、收入、毛利率、營業收入和現金流等各項指標的強勁表現，我對我們的市場地位充滿信心。我對2026年及以後充滿信心。我們預計全年月活躍用戶數和訂閱用戶數將持續健康成長，同時維持較低的用戶流失率。我們將繼續推進營收成長和擴大毛利率。

In closing, you might be wondering about our focus for 2026. We are framing it as the year of raising ambition. We were founded to solve what we felt like the impossible and ambition has been the driving force behind our success from our earliest days. An ambition will be a guiding principle of our next chapter. We are looking forward to telling you more about more about it at our Investor Day in May of this year. Though what I'm certain about is that Gustav will take the opportunity to tease some of that, hopefully, not giving away all of it.

最後，您可能想知道我們 2026 年的重點是什麼。我們將今年定為提升雄心壯誌之年。我們成立的初衷是為了解決我們認為不可能解決的問題，而雄心壯志從公司成立之初就一直是推動我們成功的動力。雄心壯志將是我們下一階段的指導原則。我們期待在今年五月的投資者日上向您詳細介紹相關資訊。但我可以肯定的是，古斯塔夫會藉此機會透露一些訊息，希望他不會全部透露出來。

And with that, I will pass it over to Gustav.

好了，接下來我就把麥克風交給古斯塔夫了。

Thank you, Alex. I will try to contain myself. In 2025, we launched more than 50 new features and innovations, stated prompt the playlist, page match, about the song that all launched very recently actually in the last few weeks. So I think it's fair to say that we more than delivered on our bold ambitions of last year, pushing every boundary and driving engagement even higher. Now I think it's important to zoom out, as I know there's been a lot of commentary around AI over the last few weeks and actually last several months.

謝謝你，亞歷克斯。我會盡量控制自己。2025年，我們推出了50多項新功能和創新，包括播放清單提示、頁面匹配、歌曲介紹等，這些功能實際上都是最近幾週才推出的。所以我覺得可以公平地說，我們超額完成了去年制定的宏偉目標，突破了所有界限，並將參與度提升到了更高的水平。現在我認為有必要跳出固有思維，因為我知道在過去幾週，甚至幾個月裡，圍繞著人工智慧有很多評論。

Like any significant global shift, we know that there will be winners and losers. But there is no question in my mind that we will continue to be one of the big beneficiaries of AI. I'm expecting a lot of questions on AI in the Q&A. So let me share a bit more upfront. My view is that new technology is seldom disruptive on its own.

任何重大的全球性變革都會有贏家和輸家，這是必然的。但我毫不懷疑，我們將繼續成為人工智慧的主要受益者之一。我預計問答環節會有很多關於人工智慧的問題。那麼，讓我先簡單介紹一下情況。我的觀點是，新科技本身很少具有顛覆性。

Significant disruption happens when new technologies enable new asymmetric business models. For example, this is what Spotify did to music downloads, this is what Uber did to taxi service. So the question everyone should be asking is, does this evolution create new business models? Or are we mostly just seeing new technologies.

當新技術催生出新的非對稱商業模式時，就會產生重大變革。例如，Spotify 對音樂下載產業產生了這樣的影響，Uber 對計程車服務業也產生了這樣的影響。因此，每個人都應該問的問題是，這種演變是否會創造新的商業模式？或者我們看到的主要是新技術？

For example, in SaaS, there is currently a lot of fear that the preset business model will be challenged by more outcome-based models, which is reasonable. However, in the consumer space that we are in, we believe the dominant business model will continue to be ads plus subscription. Both places where Spotify excels. This puts Spotify in an outstanding position because we already have the right business model. Our job then just becomes leveraging these new technologies to our benefit, which is something that we've done consistently for the last 18 years.

例如，在 SaaS 領域，目前許多人擔心預設的商業模式會受到更多基於結果的模式的挑戰，這種擔憂是合理的。然而，在我們所處的消費領域，我們認為廣告加訂閱仍將是主流商業模式。Spotify 在這兩方面都表現出色。這使 Spotify 處於非常有利的地位，因為我們已經擁有了正確的商業模式。因此，我們的工作變成了利用這些新技術為我們帶來好處，而這正是我們在過去 18 年裡堅持要做的事。

Another reason that we are in a strong position is that we have been building for this moment for some time. Back in 2021, we saw the potential of AI that would be able to think and speak at the level of human. So we acquired AI voice platform, Symantec in 2022. And this put us on an early path to introduce Agentic experiences to Spotify users.

我們處於強勢地位的另一個原因是，我們已經為這一刻準備了一段時間。早在 2021 年，我們就看到了人工智慧的潛力，它能夠像人類一樣思考和說話。因此，我們在 2022 年收購了人工智慧語音平台賽門鐵克。這讓我們走上了早期向 Spotify 用戶引入 Agentic 體驗的道路。

One example of this is the widely popular interactive DJ, which we introduced in 2023 and have continued to enhance since then. About 90 million subscribers have used IDJ so far, driving over 4 billion hours of time spent on Spotify, and this keeps growing. More recently, we also launched Prompted Playlist, a new tool that has instantly taken off with power users.

其中一個例子就是廣受歡迎的互動式 DJ，我們在 2023 年推出了該功能，並從那時起不斷改進。迄今為止，已有約 9,000 萬訂閱用戶使用 IDJ，為 Spotify 帶來了超過 40 億小時的觀看時長，而且這一數字還在不斷增長。最近，我們也推出了「提示播放清單」這款新工具，它迅速受到了高級用戶的歡迎。

So if interactive DJ is the chat interface to Spotify, where you can talk casually Prompted Playlist is the deep research mode of Spotify. It lets you describe and set rules for your own personalized playlists, literally writing your own algorithm. It taps into your entire Spotify listening history, reflecting not just current obsessions, but the full arc of your music taste and integrates up to the minute culture pulled from the Internet. There is nothing else like it.

如果說互動 DJ 是 Spotify 的聊天介面，你可以隨意聊天，那麼提示播放清單就是 Spotify 的深度研究模式。它允許你描述和設定自己個人化播放清單的規則，實際上是編寫自己的演算法。它會召喚你所有的 Spotify 收聽歷史，不僅反映你當前的喜好，也反映你音樂品味的完整發展軌跡，並整合從網路上取得的最新文化資訊。世上沒有其他東西能與之媲美。

So all of this teases the next evolution of Spotify, delivering the world's most intelligent agentic media platform, one that you can literally talk that fully understands each individual listener and puts them in the driver's seat. It's about moving from a passive experience to an interactive one. This is a stark contrast to most media services today. Innovation like this drives retention and time spent on Spotify, enhancing customer LTVs and monetization potential. And the momentum is undeniable.

這一切都預示著 Spotify 的下一個發展階段，它將打造世界上最聰明的代理媒體平台，一個你可以與之對話、它完全理解每個聽眾並讓他們掌握主動權的平台。這是從被動體驗轉變為互動體驗的過程。這與當今大多數媒體服務形成了鮮明對比。這樣的創新能夠提高用戶留存率和在 Spotify 上花費的時間，從而提升客戶終身價值和獲利潛力。而這股動能是毋庸置疑的。

Looking at the US alone, monthly streaming hours per user have grown more than 20% in the last five years, and we feel well positioned to make continued gains here. Another example of interactivity is this matching success of our new mixing tools. We recently hit a milestone of 50 million mixed playlists, and listeners are now making more than 1 million transitions per day, building yet another unique data set that improves our experience.

僅就美國而言，在過去五年裡，每位用戶的每月串流播放時間增長了 20% 以上，我們感覺自己已經做好充分準備，能夠繼續在這裡取得成長。互動性的另一個例子是我們新混音工具的成功匹配。我們最近達到了 5000 萬個混合播放清單的里程碑，聽眾現在每天進行超過 100 萬次切換，從而構建了另一個獨特的數據集，改善了我們的用戶體驗。

People don't just want to listen. They want to actively participate in the music. They want to shape it. This is now becoming possible in ways that were previously unimaginable. So on that note, there is obviously a lot of conversation around AI and music right now. So let me just share how we think about it. We see two distinct categories emerging. One, artists making original music from scratch; and two, new versions of existing music like covers or remixes.

人們不只是想聽。他們想積極參與音樂活動。他們想要塑造它。現在，這正以以前無法想像的方式成為可能。所以說，現在關於人工智慧和音樂的討論顯然很多。那麼，讓我來分享一下我們的想法。我們看到兩個截然不同的類別正在形成。第一類是藝術家從零開始創作原創音樂；第二類是現有音樂的新版本，例如翻唱或混音。

The first category means a lot of net new music and more content than ever being delivered to Spotify. Importantly, a growing catalog has always been very good for us because it attracts new users, drives engagement and build fandoms. As more artists and corporate AI tools, the lines around making music are blurring.

第一類意味著大量全新音樂和比以往任何時候都多的內容將上線 Spotify。重要的是，不斷增長的產品目錄對我們來說一直非常有利，因為它能夠吸引新用戶、提高用戶參與度並建立粉絲群。隨著越來越多的藝術家和企業人工智慧工具的出現，音樂創作的界線正在變得模糊。

But while the music may be generated on various AI platforms, the point is that regardless of what the music is made, the cultural moment always happens on Spotify. That is where all music charts and finds an audience. This is because Spotify has long been in the place that delivers both the largest reach and monetization opportunities.

雖然音樂可能是在各種人工智慧平台上產生的，但關鍵是，無論音樂是如何創作的，文化盛事總是發生在 Spotify 上。所有音樂作品都在這裡登上排行榜，找到聽眾。這是因為 Spotify 長期以來一直佔據著覆蓋面最廣、獲利機會最大的位置。

The second category is derivatives, new takes on existing music. Everything we see tells us listeners want to interact with their favorite music and many artists want to let them, creating new revenue from their existing catalog. In other media, like movies and TV, existing IP is incredibly valuable. But in music, artists haven't had a real way to monetize existing catalog through AI because the absence of a rights framework has kept AI mostly focused on the first category, net new creation.

第二類是衍生作品，即對現有音樂的全新演繹。我們看到的一切都表明，聽眾希望與他們喜愛的音樂互動，許多藝術家也希望滿足他們的需求，從而從他們現有的音樂作品中創造新的收入。在其他媒體領域，例如電影和電視，現有的智慧財產權非常有價值。但在音樂領域，由於缺乏版權框架，藝術家們一直沒有真正利用人工智慧將現有作品變現的方法，因為人工智慧主要集中在第一類，也就是全新的創作。

We want to work with the industry to fix that. If you're an artist, looking to unlock this potential upside, you'd want to do it on the world's leading music platform. Your fans and the largest royalty pool are already there. We have the technology and capabilities ready to unlock this in a way that is additive for both IP rights holders and Spotify. And as we've said before, we intend to do this in the right way with our support, not around them. In fact, many artists and industry partners see this opportunity, and we are already working with them on realizing it.

我們希望與業界合作解決這個問題。如果你是藝術家，想要挖掘這種潛在的收益，那麼你應該選擇世界領先的音樂平台。你的粉絲和最大的版稅收入池都已經在那裡了。我們擁有相應的技術和能力，可以以一種對智慧財產權持有者和 Spotify 都有利的方式來實現這一點。正如我們之前所說，我們打算以正確的方式，在他們的幫助下，而不是繞過他們，來做這件事。事實上，許多藝術家和產業夥伴都看到了這個機會，我們已經在與他們合作，努力實現這個機會。

With so much out there, you may be wondering if we can keep up this pace in shipping. In fact, we think we not only can, but we think we can increase it. We've been embracing and investing in this technology evolution for some time. and it's allowing us to move with much higher speed.

面對如此多的產品，您可能會想知道我們能否保持這樣的發貨速度。事實上，我們認為我們不僅可以做到，而且還能做得更好。我們一直積極擁抱並投資於這項技術變革，這使我們能夠以更快的速度前進。

As a concrete example, an engineered Spotify on their morning commute from Slack on their cell phone, can tell Claude to fix a bug or add a new feature to the iOS app. And once Claude finishes that work, the engineer then gets a new version of the app pushed to them on Slack on their phone, so that he can then merge it to production all before they even arrived at the office. We call this system internally Honk, and we've been told by key AI partners that our work here is industry-leading.

舉個具體的例子，一位工程師在上班途中，透過手機上的 Slack 告訴 Spotify，他可以修復 iOS 應用程式中的一個錯誤或增加一個新功能。克勞德完成這項工作後，工程師就會在手機上的 Slack 上收到新版本的應用程式推送，這樣他就可以將其合併到生產環境中，而這一切甚至在他到達辦公室之前就已經完成了。我們內部將這個系統稱為 Honk，而且我們從重要的 AI 合作夥伴那裡得知，我們在這方面的工作處於行業領先地位。

As Daniel said in his remarks, we are a tech company and we consider ourselves the R&D department for the music industry. Our job is to understand new technologies quickly and capture their potential, which we've done time and again. The entire industry stands to benefit from this paradigm shift but we believe that those who embrace this change and move fast will benefit the most.

正如丹尼爾在演講中所說，我們是一家科技公司，我們把自己視為音樂產業的研發部門。我們的工作是快速了解新技術並抓住其潛力，而我們已經一次又一次地做到了這一點。整個產業都將從這種範式轉變中受益，但我們相信，那些擁抱這種變化並迅速採取行動的人將受益最大。

And now I'll pass it over to Christian to take you through the numbers.

現在我將把麥克風交給克里斯蒂安，讓他為大家講解這些數字。

Thanks, Gustav, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. I'll cover the quarter four results and provide some perspective on our outlook. Unless otherwise noted, all reference growth metrics are presented on a year-on-year constant currency basis. Overall, we're pleased with our strong quarter four finish. Total revenue grew at an accelerated 13% to EUR4.5 billion.

謝謝古斯塔夫，也謝謝大家的參與。我將介紹第四季業績，並對我們的前景做出一些展望。除非另有說明，否則所有參考成長指標均以年比固定匯率計算。整體而言，我們對第四季強勁的收官表現感到滿意。總營收加速成長 13%，達到 45 億歐元。

Premium revenue rose 14% versus 13% last quarter and was primarily driven by subscriber growth. Our advertising business grew 4%, flat versus flat last quarter. On a like-for-like basis, excluding the effects of our podcast optimization strategies, we had roughly 7% advertising growth. We are encouraged by the progress we're seeing in terms of market adoption of our new advertising tools and continue to expect improved growth in the second half of 2026.

付費用戶營收較上季成長 14%，而上季為 13%，主要得益於用戶數量的成長。我們的廣告業務成長了4%，與上一季持平。如果排除播客優化策略的影響，以同等條件計算，我們的廣告收入成長了約 7%。我們對新廣告工具在市場接受度方面取得的進展感到鼓舞，並繼續期待 2026 年下半年成長會有所改善。

Moving to profitability, gross margin came in at 33.1%, expanding just over 80 basis points year-on-year. Our outperformance here was primarily driven by content cost favorability. Operating income of EUR701 million was EUR81 million above forecast, of which social charges had a positive impact of EUR67 million due to share price movements. The remaining variance to guidance was driven by the gross margin performance.

從獲利能力來看，毛利率為 33.1%，年成長超過 80 個基點。我們此次的優異表現主要得益於內容成本優勢。營業收入為 7.01 億歐元，比預期高出 8,100 萬歐元，其中社會安全金因股價波動而產生了 6,700 萬歐元的正面影響。與預期相比的剩餘偏差主要受毛利率表現的影響。

Finally, free cash flow was EUR834 million in quarter four, and we ended the quarter with EUR9.5 billion in cash and short-term investments. We repurchased $433 million worth of shares in quarter four and we'll continue to optimistically return capital via share buybacks.

最後，第四季自由現金流為 8.34 億歐元，季末我們持有現金和短期投資 95 億歐元。我們在第四季度回購了價值 4.33 億美元的股票，我們將繼續樂觀地透過股票回購來回報資本。

In summary, quarter four capped off another year of healthy growth with profitability and cash flow improvement for us. On a full year basis, 2025, revenue grew 13%, gross profit grew 20% and operating income grew in excess of 50% to deliver a full year margin of 13%, and our free cash flow generation improved by approximately EUR600 million to a record EUR2.9 billion.

總而言之，第四季為我們又一個健康成長的年份畫上了圓滿的句號，獲利能力和現金流均有所改善。2025 年全年來看，營收成長 13%，毛利成長 20%，營業收入成長超過 50%，全年利潤率達到 13%，自由現金流增加約 6 億歐元，達到創紀錄的 29 億歐元。

Looking ahead to quarter one, we are forecasting 759 million MAU, an increase of 8 million from quarter four and 293 million subscribers. In quarter one, which is seasonally our smallest quarter, our subscriber outlook implies net additional 3 million. This is within our historical range for quarter one. Effects of new pricing implementation in quarter one are considered in our forecast. And as Alex mentioned, the churn with respect to these price increases is in line with our expectations. In addition, we remain very encouraged by the early benefits we're seeing to our funnel, thanks to the enhanced free tier that we rolled out in late quarter three.

展望第一季度，我們預測每月活躍用戶數將達到 7.59 億，比第四季增加 800 萬，訂閱用戶數將達到 2.93 億。第一季通常是我們季節性訂閱用戶最少的季度，但我們預計用戶淨增將達到 300 萬。這在我們第一季的歷史波動範圍內。我們的預測考慮了第一季新定價機制實施的影響。正如 Alex 所提到的，這些價格上漲所帶來的波動符合我們的預期。此外，由於我們在第三季末推出了增強型免費套餐，我們對銷售漏斗的早期效益感到非常鼓舞。

We are well positioned for conversion and continued healthy subscriber growth in 2026. We're also forecasting EUR4.5 billion in total quarter one revenue, representing an improved growth rate of approximately 15% versus the 13% we just delivered in quarter four. We're forecasting ARPU growth in the 5% to 6% range. Our revenue outlook also incorporates effects of unfavorable currency movements, which results in an incremental EUR35 million headwind when compared to prior quarter exchange rates.

我們已做好充分準備，迎接 2026 年的轉換率提升和用戶數量的持續健康成長。我們也預測第一季總營收將達到 45 億歐元，成長率約為 15%，而第四季我們剛剛實現了 13% 的成長率。我們預測 ARPU 成長率將在 5% 到 6% 之間。我們的收入展望也考慮了不利的匯率波動的影響，與上一季的匯率相比，這將導致額外 3500 萬歐元的不利影響。

We expect a quarter one gross margin of 32.8% and operating income of EUR660 million. While we do not give full year guidance for gross margin and operating margin, we are expecting both to improve in 2026. For gross margin, we expect our recent pricing adjustments to help drive revenue growth that outpaces the net content cost growth in 2026. That said, the quarterly progression of our margins could again be variable depending on the timing of disciplined investments in our core and monetization activities.

我們預期第一季毛利率為 32.8%，營業收入為 6.6 億歐元。雖然我們不提供全年毛利率和營業利率的指引，但我們預計這兩個指標在 2026 年都會有所改善。就毛利率而言，我們預計最近的價格調整將有助於推動收入成長，使其在 2026 年超過淨成本成長。也就是說，我們利潤率的季度成長可能會再次因我們對核心業務和獲利活動的有紀律投資的時機而有所波動。

Finally, we expect our free cash flow generation to meaningfully exceed what we generated in 2025 while reflecting progression towards a normalized long-term tax rate. In conclusion, we are confident in half into 2026 and will make further progress on driving top line growth, disciplined reinvestments and expect improved margin and cash flow.

最後，我們預期我們的自由現金流產生量將顯著超過 2025 年的水平，同時反映出邁向正常化長期稅率的趨勢。總而言之，我們對2026年上半年充滿信心，並將繼續在推動營收成長、進行有紀律的再投資方面取得進一步進展，預計利潤率和現金流將有所改善。

With that, I hand it back to you, Bryan.

好了，我把東西交還給你，布萊恩。

All right. Thanks, Christian. Again, if you've got any questions, please go to slido.com #SpotifyEarningsQ425. We'll be reading the questions in the order they appear in the queue with respect to how people vote up their preferences.

好的。謝謝你，克里斯蒂安。再次提醒，如果您有任何疑問，請造訪 slido.com #SpotifyEarningsQ425。我們將按照問題在隊列中出現的順序，根據人們投票表達偏好的方式來閱讀這些問題。

And our first question today is going to come from Jessica Reif Ehrlich on AI opportunities. Across all sectors, the market is acutely focused on AI and its impact on current business models. How is Spotify planning to use AI tools and applications for new and evolving product offers? And will this eventually lead to new tiers of service.

今天我們的第一個問題將來自傑西卡·雷夫·埃利希，主題是人工智慧的機會。各行業都高度關注人工智慧及其對現有商業模式的影響。Spotify計劃如何利用人工智慧工具和應用程式來提供新的和不斷發展的產品？這最終是否會導致新的服務層級出現？

Thank you, Jessica. This is Gustav. I'll take this. And this is a big question. I'll try to keep the answer to under 30 minutes, just kidding. I try to answer some of this upfront in my prepared remarks, but I want to say one additional thing. If we just zoom out and look at what is happening right now is the typical example of what is called the macro change, right?

謝謝你，潔西卡。這是古斯塔夫。我要這個。這是一個大問題。我盡量在30分鐘內回答，開玩笑啦。我在準備好的發言稿中盡量提前回答了其中一些問題，但我還想補充一點。如果我們把視角拉遠，看看現在正在發生的事情，這就是所謂的宏觀變化的典型例子，對吧？

Spotify has lived through many macro changes. And I think it's important to know that while many people are scared in times of change, this is when there is the most opportunity. If you look at Spotify, it was born out of a macro change, which was [Ubiquiti's] cheap broadband. That's how we got the scale.

Spotify 經歷了許多宏觀變革。我認為重要的是要明白，雖然很多人在變革時期感到害怕，但這正是機會最多的時候。如果你看看 Spotify，你會發現它誕生於一場宏觀變革，那就是 Ubiquiti 的廉價寬頻。我們就是這樣得到這個秤的。

And then this next huge wave came across as called the smartphone. What happened? Spotify accelerated and started growing faster. And the next macro wave came, which was called personalization, what happened? Spotify embraced it and grew even faster.

然後，下一波巨大的浪潮到來了，那就是智慧型手機。發生了什麼事？Spotify加速發展，成長速度也越來越快。下一波宏觀浪潮到來了，那就是個人化，結果如何呢？Spotify 接受了這種趨勢，並且發展得更快了。

Then the next thing came, which was the connected home. We all forgot about it now, but it was a big deal. What happened? Spotify started growing faster, over 2,000 integrations with hardware partners. The thing about macro change is that if you capture it, it's an opportunity, not a headwind. This is what we're focused on. And we feel very well positioned for this opportunity.

接下來出現了智慧家庭。我們現在都忘了這件事了，但它當時可是件大事。發生了什麼事？Spotify 開始加速成長，與硬體合作夥伴的整合數量超過 2000 家。宏觀變化的特點在於，如果你能把握住它，它就是機遇，而不是阻力。這就是我們關注的重點。我們覺得自己已經為抓住這個機會做好了充分準備。

As I shared in my initial remarks, the first thing to look at is do you even have the right business model. Well, if you look at the AI companies, the business model is subscription and increasing the ads. That's what we excel at. So we have the right business model. And I don't see that changing for the consumer space.

正如我在開場白中提到的，首先要考慮的是，你是否有正確的商業模式。如果你觀察人工智慧公司，你會發現它們的商業模式是訂閱制和增加廣告收入。那是我們最擅長的。所以，我們的商業模式是正確的。我認為消費領域的情況也不會改變。

So we feel very positioned from a structural point of view. On top of that, as I shared, we've been investing towards this opportunity for many years now because while it's happened faster than many people think, it was not impossible to foresee that this would happen. If you just believed in the exponential, we would get here. This is why we are leading in the market with these interactive natural language-based services in terms of media platforms.

因此，從結構角度來看，我們感覺自己處於非常有利的地位。除此之外，正如我之前所說，我們多年來一直在為這個機會進行投資，因為雖然它發生的速度比許多人想像的要快，但預見到這種情況的發生並非不可能。如果你只相信指數成長，我們早就走到今天這一步了。這就是為什麼我們在媒體平台方面憑藉這些基於自然語言的互動式服務處於市場領先地位的原因。

So to be specific about what I'm excited about, I am excited about us being the first truly intelligent agentic media service that you can literally talk to. And this is not just a pipe dream. You can already talk to Spotify through the AI DJ casually, but also to Prompted Playlist in sort of a deep research way. We're going to keep investing in that. What that means structurally for Spotify is that we are building a data set that never existed, which is the data set of language-to-music, language-to-podcast and language to books.

所以具體來說，讓我感到興奮的是，我們成為了第一個真正意義上的智慧代理媒體服務，你可以和它進行真正的對話。這並非癡人說夢。你不僅可以透過 AI DJ 與 Spotify 進行輕鬆的對話，還可以透過類似深度研究的方式與 Prompted Playlist 進行對話。我們將繼續加大對該領域的投資。從結構上看，這意味著 Spotify 正在建立一個從未存在過的資料集，即語言到音樂、語言到播客和語言到書籍的資料集。

We've had the song-to-song data set, but no one had the language-to-song data set. And I want to drive on the point here, which is this is a specific data set. You may think it is a canonical data set, meaning there is a factual answer, for example, what is workout music? There is no factual answer to what workout music.

我們有歌曲到歌曲的資料集，但沒有人有語言到歌曲的資料集。我想重點強調一點，那就是這是一個特定的資料集。你可能會認為這是一個規範的數據集，這意味著存在一個事實性的答案，例如，什麼是健身音樂？關於什麼音樂適合健身，並沒有標準答案。

In fact, it turns out that taste is not a fact. It's an opinion. So if you look at something like workout music, on average, for an American, it's usually hip pop; for European, it's usually EDM; for many Scandinavians, it's something like heavy metal or even death metal. But then again, for a lot of Americans, millions at least, it's also death metal. So there's no canonical answer to what does workout music mean.

事實上，味覺並不是客觀存在的事實。這只是個人觀點。所以，如果你看看健身音樂，平均而言，美國人通常是嘻哈流行樂；歐洲人通常是電子舞曲；而很多斯堪的納維亞人則是重金屬甚至死亡金屬之類的音樂。但話說回來，對許多美國人來說，至少有數百萬人，它也屬於死亡金屬。所以對於「健身音樂的意思」並沒有一個標準答案。

You can't just have an LLM commoditize it as a fact, the way you can commoditize Wikipedia. You actually need to have many, many hundreds of millions of listeners across the world's market, constantly telling you what it means for that specific person. This is the data set that we are building right now that no one else is really building. It doesn't exist at this scale, and we see it improving every time we retrain our models. This is what I'm excited about.

你不能像把維基百科商品化那樣，讓一個法學碩士把它商品化為事實。實際上，你需要在全球市場擁有數億聽眾，他們不斷告訴你這對特定人群意味著什麼。這是我們正在建立的資料集，而其他人都沒有真正建構過。目前這種規模下還不存在，而且我們每次重新訓練模型時都能看到它有所改善。這就是我感到興奮的地方。

I think I'll stop there or I'll take the whole Q&A.

我想我還是就此打住吧，不然我就把整個問答環節都做完。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Doug Anmuth on gross margin. What are the drivers of gross margin expansion in 2026? And do they shift at all from recent years?

好的。下一個問題將來自 Doug Anmuth，關於毛利率。2026年毛利率擴張的驅動因素是什麼？與近年相比，它們是否有所變化？

Hey, Doug, I'll take that. Alex here, and then Christian, you may jump in. I'm confident in our gross margin trajectory in terms of making progress towards our long-term goals that we've talked about before. We intend to do it in a steady and sustainable manner. And the way we're really managing our gross margin is a balance between a couple of different things.

嘿，道格，我要了。我是 Alex，然後 Christian，你可以插話了。我對我們的毛利率走勢充滿信心，相信我們能夠朝著之前討論過的長期目標穩步前進。我們打算以穩定和可持續的方式進行這項工作。我們管理毛利率的方式，實際上是在幾個不同因素之間取得平衡。

One is thoughtful monetization; two, we want to be disciplined with reinvestment and our cost of revenue, and of course, we're going to innovate to create even more differentiation for our platform. And if you think a bit about the last few years and look at our trajectory, I think we've got a pretty good track record in striking this very balanced.

第一，我們要深思熟慮地實現盈利；第二，我們要嚴格控制再投資和收入成本；當然，我們還要不斷創新，為我們的平台創造更大的差異化優勢。如果你回顧過去幾年，看看我們的發展軌跡，我認為我們在實現這種非常平衡方面取得了相當不錯的成績。

Okay. Christian here. I just want to fill in. I mean, to start with, just going back a bit to my own script, we do want to invest and we will invest in future value when we see we have that opportunity. And that is what we're doing and creating long-term value is what we're looking for every day.

好的。我是基督徒。我只是想填寫一下。我的意思是，首先，回到我自己的發言稿，我們確實想要投資，而且當我們看到機會時，我們會投資未來的價值。這就是我們正在做的事情，創造長期價值是我們每天努力的目標。

But looking at the gross margin base here in quarter four going into quarter one and also for next year. And the things that drives that I mean what I said was that the price increases that we have done here is going to outpace the net content cost in 2026.

但看看第四季到第一季的毛利率基數，以及明年的毛利率基數。而造成這種情況的原因，我的意思是，正如我所說，我們在這裡實施的價格上漲速度將在 2026 年超過淨含量成本的成長速度。

Remembering also that we are improving our ads business slowly as we go forward, and we feel that, that will pick up in the second half of 2026. We have a marketplace that added both to gross income and margin in 2025. That is also a good tool for us. And finally, as we expand new verticals within the countries that we are in and also to new countries, that is also a good support for our margin development.

同時，我們也穩定推動廣告業務，我們認為，到 2026 年下半年，廣告業務將會加速發展。我們擁有一個市場，預計到 2025 年，該市場將增加總收入和利潤率。那對我們來說也是一個很好的工具。最後，隨著我們在現有國家以及新國家拓展新的垂直領域，這也對我們的利潤成長提供了良好的支持。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Jessica Reif Ehrlich again this time on advertising. You've spent the last two years building out your ad tech platform. Can you provide a progress report where are you seeing the most progress? And where do you have more work to do? And will there be a step change in advertising growth later this year?

好的。下一個問題將再次由傑西卡·雷夫·埃爾利希提出，這次是關於廣告方面的。過去兩年，你一直在建立你的廣告科技平台。能否提供進度報告，說明您目前在哪些方面取得了最大進展？你還有哪些工作要做？今年晚些時候，廣告成長會出現突變嗎？

Thanks, Jessica. It's now 1.5 years since we decided to reengineer Spotify's ad stack and really move off of a rented stack. And we did this primarily to better match what our clients ask of us the way they would like to buy on Spotify. And frankly, we did is also to meet and exceed the standards of really what is a high-performance self-serve and biddable stack.

謝謝你，潔西卡。距離我們決定重新設計 Spotify 的廣告技術堆疊並真正擺脫租用技術棧已經過去 1.5 年了。我們這樣做主要是為了更好地滿足客戶的需求，讓他們能夠以他們希望在 Spotify 上購買商品的方式進行購買。坦白說，我們所做的也是為了達到甚至超越高效能自助服務和可競價堆疊的標準。

It was a tough call back in the -- in that moment since it meant that I knew it meant that we had to take some pain as this was going to be deep surgery for us. We now have -- I'm happy to say we now have record levels of advertisers on the platform, and that increased density means much better yield and as a result, more revenue growth for us. We are positive on ads. We still have work to do, but we're definitely making good progress and seeing very positive signs.

當時做出這個決定很艱難——因為這意味著我知道我們要承受一些痛苦，因為這對我們來說將是一次深度手術。我很高興地宣布，我們平台上的廣告商數量已創歷史新高，廣告密度的增加意味著更高的收益，為我們帶來更大的收入成長。我們對廣告持正面態度。我們還有很多工作要做，但我們無疑正在取得良好進展，並看到了非常積極的跡象。

Okay. And it looks like one more question from Jessica. This time on capital allocation. Christian, can you provide an update on your views on capital returns given your extremely strong balance sheet?

好的。看來傑西卡還有一個問題。這次是關於資本配置。克里斯蒂安，鑑於貴公司非常強勁的資產負債表，您能否就資本回報問題提供您的最新看法？

Thank you, Jessica. Yeah. Well, it is a relevant question when we have now a good cash flow, and we also have a strong balance sheet mean. We have said that before. Our primary goal is to reinvest in the business. And as we do that, we actually can increase our growth levels. And when we increase our growth levels, we can get more money to invest back and do that flywheel that Alex talked about in the script. And that is the -- that -- you have to always remember that is our first thought every day in this company to grow the company.

謝謝你，潔西卡。是的。嗯，鑑於我們現在現金流良好，而且資產負債表狀況穩健，這的確是一個值得探討的問題。我們之前就說過。我們的首要目標是將資金再投資於企業發展。這樣做實際上可以提高我們的成長水平。當我們提高成長水準時，我們就能獲得更多資金進行再投資，從而實現 Alex 在劇本中提到的飛輪效應。而這一點——這一點——你必須始終牢記，這是我們公司每天發展壯大的第一個念頭。

And as we've said, if we're going to have room for also returning something to the shareholders, we can do that. And in the 2025 duration, we did EUR510 million in buybacks in the market. And that is still an option for us also going forward, especially to cover up for dilution. In addition to that, as you know, we have EUR1.5 billion fallen due or plus in a convertible note now in March, which we will settle in cash.

正如我們所說，如果我們還有餘力向股東返還一些收益，我們就可以這樣做。在 2025 年期間，我們在市場上進行了 5.1 億歐元的股票回購。而且這仍然是我們未來可以採取的選擇，尤其是在掩蓋股權稀釋的情況下。此外，如您所知，我們還有 15 億歐元的可轉換債券將於 3 月到期，我們將以現金結算。

Okay. Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan on AI opportunity. Can you discuss your latest thoughts with respect to AI on one, its role in product and platform evolution for the company; two, its effect to transform your internal processes; and three, the broader audio content creation and distribution landscape.

好的。下一個問題來自 Eric Sheridan，主題是人工智慧帶來的機會。您能否談談您對人工智慧的最新看法？首先，人工智慧在公司產品和平台發展中的作用；其次，人工智慧對公司內部流程的影響；第三，人工智慧在更廣泛的音訊內容創作和分發領域的影響。

Thank you, Eric. This is Gustav. I think I touched on a lot of this in my opening remarks, but I'll summarize it briefly. In terms of its role in product development, as I said, you can actually already see that we spent a lot of last year rebuilding the company for an Agentic Age so that you can launch these services where a user can now ask Spotify a question in English that would have required you to be a senior developer at Spotify to be able to answer before.

謝謝你，埃里克。這是古斯塔夫。我想我在開場白中已經談到了很多這方面的內容，但我還是簡單總結一下。就其在產品開發中的作用而言，正如我所說，您實際上已經可以看到，我們去年花了很多時間重建公司，以適應智能時代，這樣您就可以推出這些服務，用戶現在可以用英語向 Spotify 提問，而以前只有 Spotify 的高級開發人員才能回答這些問題。

A year ago, only a very senior developer, a Spotify could answer the question of what would the first rather listen to on Spotify? Please take the ones they listen to more than 3 times and match them against what was popular at the time. Now anyone can do that, just using English. So we've been spending time rebuilding the company for this age before. It's a little bit late to start now. You should have started about two years ago, which we did.

一年前，只有Spotify的資深開發人員才能回答「第一個用戶在Spotify上更願意聽什麼」這個問題。請將他們收聽超過 3 次的歌曲與當時的流行歌曲進行比對。現在任何人都可以用英語做到這一點。所以，我們之前就一直在花時間為這個時代重建公司。現在開始有點晚了。你們應該在兩年前就開始行動，而我們也確實這麼做了。

And now you're starting to see the products on top of this rollout. And as I teased, we really want to be the world's first truly intelligent media platform. You will hear us talk more about this at the Investor Day. So I won't share many more details now, but stay tuned for that.

現在，您開始看到此次推廣活動中推出的產品了。正如我之前預告的，我們真的想成為世界上第一個真正意義上的智慧媒體平台。在投資者日上，我們會更詳細地討論這個問題。所以現在我就不透露更多細節了，敬請期待。

In terms of transformation of internal processes, I did briefly share in my prepared remarks, this tool called Honk, where you can, using [ColdCode] literally on the bus or the train, just ask Claude to add a feature or a bug to, for example, the iOS code base, it will push the QR code back to you so that you can actually try the app with that feature. If you like it, you can merge it to production without even getting off the bus. This is speeding us up tremendously.

關於內部流程的轉型，我在準備的發言稿中簡要介紹了一個叫做 Honk 的工具。使用 [ColdCode]，你可以在公車或火車上，直接讓 Claude 為 iOS 程式碼庫添加一個功能或修復一個 bug，它會將二維碼推送給你，這樣你就可以實際體驗帶有該功能的應用程式了。如果你喜歡它，你甚至可以不用下車就能把它合併到生產環境中。這大大加快了我們的速度。

Now we foresee this not being the end of the line in terms of AI development, just the beginning. I'm not going to give away more secrets about how we're going to capture it. But you can be sure that we are capturing this. We're retooling the entire company for this age and it's going to be a lot of change. But as I said before, change if you capture it, is opportunity.

現在我們預見到，這不會是人工智慧發展的終點，只是開始。我不會透露更多關於我們如何捕捉它的秘密。但您可以放心，我們正在記錄這一切。我們正在對整個公司進行改造以適應這個時代，這將帶來很多變化。但正如我之前所說，如果你能抓住改變，它就是機會。

Okay. Our next question is going to come from Rich Greenfield on AI music. What percentage of music on Spotify today is AI generated. How much AI-generated content is being uploaded daily? And what is your policy on the uploading of AI music?

好的。下一個問題將來自 Rich Greenfield，主題是人工智慧音樂。如今Spotify上有多少比例的音樂是由人工智慧產生的？每天有多少人工智慧產生的內容被上傳？你們對上傳人工智慧音樂有什麼政策？

Thanks, Rich. This is Gustav again. We don't share a percentage of music uploaded on Spotify that is AI generated, but I'll talk to you about how we think about it. The way we think about it is from a creative point of view, Spotify should not decide what kind of tools you're allowed to use. Are you allowed to use an electric guitar, synthesize or digital audio workstation or AI or a more complicated question, a bit of AI, like 1% AI, 15%, 20%, 100%. We don't think it's our decision to make. What we do think, though, is that consumers would like to know and understand what tools were used in the creation of the music.

謝謝你，里奇。我是古斯塔夫。我們不會透露 Spotify 上傳的音樂中有多少是由人工智慧產生的，但我會和你談談我們對此的看法。我們認為，從創作的角度來看，Spotify 不應該決定你可以使用哪些工具。是否允許使用電吉他、合成器或數位音訊工作站或人工智慧？或是更複雜的問題，使用少量人工智慧，例如 1%、15%、20%、100% 的人工智慧？我們認為這不是我們能決定的。不過，我們認為消費者會想知道並了解在創作音樂過程中使用了哪些工具。

So we've been working with the industry to allow them, creators and labels uploading music to put in the metadata how it was created, so that we can service this to users. And you just recently saw a feature call About The Song that we launched that literally tells you about the song, what the Internet is saying. But as creators start adding this data, we can also tell the consumers how this song was made because we think people want to know.

因此，我們一直在與業界合作，允許音樂創作者和唱片公司上傳音樂時添加音樂的創作元數據，以便我們能夠為用戶提供這項服務。最近，我們也推出了一個名為「關於歌曲」的功能，它會告訴你關於歌曲的一切，以及網路上的評論。但隨著創作者開始加入這些數據，我們也可以告訴消費者這首歌是如何創作出來的，因為我們認為人們想知道。

So that's how we think about it. I also want to mention that one thing that AI can do is to accelerate the amount of spammy tracks. I want to be clear that there's always been people trying to abuse Spotify because it's a big economy using spammy tracks. AI is a tool that could help accelerate that, but because it's been a problem for a long time, we've been investing more than anyone else in the industry to curb this problem. So for us, spammy AI music is not a new problem. It's just more scale on an existing problem that we actually feel we are leading.

我們就是這麼想的。我還想提一下，人工智慧可以做的一件事就是加速垃圾歌曲的生成。我想澄清一點，一直以來都有人試圖濫用 Spotify，因為它是一個龐大的經濟體，充斥著垃圾歌曲。人工智慧是加速這一進程的工具，但由於這是一個由來已久的問題，我們在業界投入的資金比任何人都多，以遏制這個問題。所以對我們來說，垃圾AI音樂並不是一個新問題。這只是在現有問題上擴大規模，而我們實際上感覺自己正在引領這一問題的發展。

In general, as more content gets created with ever more advanced tools, this is a good thing for Spotify. As more content gets created and uploaded, the personalization problem becomes more important because now there's a bigger catalog. You need to understand individual users taste even better. So we see this development and this is nothing new. When Spotify started, I think there were at most tens of millions of tracks, now there are hundreds of millions. So the 10x explosion has already happened over the last 20 years. So this is something that we're used to. That's how we're thinking about it.

總的來說，隨著越來越多的內容使用越來越先進的工具進行創作，這對 Spotify 來說是一件好事。隨著更多內容的創建和上傳，個人化問題變得更加重要，因為現在內容庫更大了。你需要更深入地了解每個用戶的口味。所以我們看到了這種發展趨勢，但這並非什麼新鮮事。Spotify剛起步的時候，我記得最多只有幾千首歌曲，現在已經有數億首了。所以，過去20年裡，10倍的成長已經發生了。所以，這是我們習以為常的事。我們也是這麼想的。

Well, we've got a follow-up and a related question from Rich. Is Spotify playing to win in AI. The bare thesis on Spotify is that Udio, Suno, KLAY and Stability not only enable consumers to create AI music, but also become DSPs that take share from Spotify with Spotify taking a more cautious approach. Any comments on that?

好的，Rich 還有一個後續問題和一個相關問題。Spotify 是否正試圖在人工智慧領域取得成功？關於 Spotify 的基本論點是，Udio、Suno、KLAY 和 Stability 不僅讓消費者能夠創作 AI 音樂，而且還會成為從 Spotify 手中奪取市場份額的數位音樂服務商 (DSP)，而 Spotify 則採取了更為謹慎的態度。對此有何評論？

Hey, Rich, Alex here. It's good to hear from you. So I spend a lot of time with the industry, the music industry and with artists. And there isn't any doubt that everyone is optimistic about the future and that AI is an important moment for all of us. And as Spotify, we provide service to rights holders and artists and songwriters a service to distribute and monetize their art.

嘿，里奇，我是亞歷克斯。很高興收到你的來信。所以我花了很多時間和音樂產業人士以及藝術家們在一起。毫無疑問，每個人都對未來充滿樂觀，人工智慧對我們所有人來說都是一個重要的時刻。作為 Spotify，我們為版權所有者、藝術家和詞曲作者提供服務，幫助他們分發作品並從中獲利。

And the key point here is this is a scaled service with a working business model. This is where you go to put your new songs, whichever technology or instrument or tool you use to create it. And I've done the rounds and no rights holders against our vision.

關鍵在於，這是一項規模化的服務，並且擁有行之有效的商業模式。無論你使用什麼技術、樂器或工具來創作新歌，都可以把這些歌放在這裡。我已經四處詢問過了，沒有版權所有者反對我們的構想。

We pretty much have the whole industry line up behind us. And like Gustav mentioned before, we want to do it in a controlled way, respecting artists and the community, and we will not do deals that isn't -- that aren't good for artists and ultimately is Spotify.

我們幾乎得到了整個產業的支持。正如 Gustav 之前提到的，我們希望以一種可控的方式進行，尊重藝術家和社區，我們不會進行對藝術家不利、最終對 Spotify 不利的交易。

All right. Question from Justin Patterson also related to AI music. If you could expand a bit more on Spotify's role in AI music, do you need to invest in content creation tools and how are you helping human creators build audiences and income streams in this environment?

好的。賈斯汀·帕特森提出的問題也與人工智慧音樂有關。如果您能再詳細談談Spotify在人工智慧音樂領域的作用，您是否需要投資內容創作工具，以及您如何幫助人類創作者在這種環境下建立受眾群體和收入來源？

Justin, my friend. You've heard Gustav talk about how more catalog and interactivity is good for users and also good for the industry. So we sort of partially answered your question already, but I'll talk to you about how AI really enhances the value of our platform.

我的朋友賈斯汀。你一定聽古斯塔夫說過，更多的產品目錄和互動性對使用者有好處，對產業也有好處。所以我們已經部分回答了你的問題，但我會和你談談人工智慧是如何真正提升我們平台價值的。

So we have in the past, including Daniel, has talked about optimizing the lifetime value for our subscribers. And that is ultimately when you accumulate all of that, what builds enterprise value for Spotify. And so the question is how does AI do that? Well, one powerful way to drive lifetime values to increase retention. And the best way to increase retention is to increase engagement.

所以，包括丹尼爾在內，我們過去一直在討論如何優化訂閱用戶的終身價值。最終，當你累積所有這些因素時，就能為 Spotify 創造企業價值。那麼問題來了，人工智慧是如何做到這一點的呢？這是提高客戶終身價值、提升顧客留存率的有效方法之一。提高用戶留存率的最佳方法是提高用戶參與度。

And the number one reason to engage more with Spotify and it happens also to be something that drives willingness to pay is personalization. And AI, whether it's general recommendations or reinforcement learning system, it just takes personalization to a whole new level.

用戶更願意使用 Spotify 的首要原因，也是促使他們付費的因素，就是個人化。人工智慧，無論是通用推薦還是強化學習系統，都將個人化提升到了一個全新的境界。

And thus, you have a domino sequence of how really, we enhance the value of our platform as we continue to invest in AI. AI leads to better personalization, better personalization leads to more engagement, more engagement leads to more attention, more attention leads to lifetime value and boom, more lifetime value leads to more enterprise value.

因此，隨著我們不斷投資人工智慧，我們平台的價值也隨之提升，這就像骨牌效應一樣，環環相扣。人工智慧帶來更好的個人化，更好的個人化帶來更高的參與度，更高的參與度帶來更高的關注度，更高的關注度帶來終身價值，而更高的終身價值帶來更高的企業價值。

And I would just add to this. To your question of do we need to invest in content creation tools. We have all the technology and capabilities that we need since a long time. This is a tech company. So we are working with the industry to enable these opportunities.

我還要補充一點。關於您提出的「我們是否需要投資內容創作工具」這個問題。我們早就擁有了所需的所有技術和能力。這是一家科技公司。因此，我們正在與業界合作，以實現這些機會。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Batya Levi on premium pricing. Following the recent US price increases, how do you see the price to value relationship of the service relative to your competitors? And how do you expect churn to play out versus prior rounds of price increases?

好的。下一個問題將來自 Batya Levi，主題是高端定價。鑑於近期美國物價上漲，您如何看待貴公司服務相對於競爭對手的性價比？您預計此次價格上漲後，客戶流失狀況將如何改變？與之前的幾輪價格上漲相比又會如何？

Thank you, Batya. One of my favorite topics. I'm really happy with the price increases we implemented back in January of this year. There have been really no surprises at all. Churn is low and came in according to our expectations. And just as a reminder, this $1 increase is the same magnitude as the US price increase that we implemented back in, I think it was June of 2024.

謝謝你，巴蒂亞。我最喜歡的話題之一。我對我們今年一月實施的價格上漲非常滿意。一切都在意料之中。客戶流失率很低，符合我們的預期。再次提醒大家，這次 1 美元的漲幅與我們上次在美國實施的價格上漲幅度相同，我記得那次是在 2024 年 6 月。

The one important thing to point out, though, is that price increases, as you know, is one of several levers we pull for growth. And when we adjust price, we do it from a position of strength. And you know this already, but I'll say it anyway, we evaluate pricing on a market-by-market basis, and we optimize for the long-term value of our platform.

不過，需要指出的一點是，如你所知，價格上漲是我們促進成長的幾種手段之一。當我們調整價格時，我們是在自身實力優勢的基礎上進行的。您已經知道這一點，但我還是要說，我們會根據每個市場的具體情況來評估定價，並優化我們平台的長期價值。

And you've seen it in the last few years, we do not apply a one-size-fits-all approach to this. And to your question, ultimately, what we strive to do is to always create more value than price. And that happens while we're adjusting the price points as we go. This is the kind of value to price ratio we believe in.

過去幾年你們也看到了，我們並沒有採取一刀切的方法。至於你的問題，歸根究底，我們努力的目標是始終創造比價格更高的價值。而這一切都發生在我們不斷調整價格的過程中。這就是我們所重視的性價比。

We've got another question from Rich Greenfield this time on Spotify culture. Curious, what's changed at Spotify in the early days following Daniel stepping back from the CEO role?

Rich Greenfield 又問了一個關於 Spotify 文化的問題。很好奇，自從丹尼爾卸任CEO一職後，Spotify在早期階段發生了哪些變化？

Well, this is Gustav. I'll take a stab at this. From one point of view, not that much has changed because we've kept growing market share and leading. But structurally, some things have changed because first and foremost, Alex and I are two people. So we had two direct reporting teams, and we thought long and hard about how we're going to do that.

這位是古斯塔夫。我來試著解答一下。從某個角度來看，變化並不大，因為我們一直在擴大市場份額並保持領先地位。但從結構上看，有些事情發生了變化，因為首先，我和亞歷克斯是兩個人。所以我們有兩個直接報告團隊，我們認真思考了很久該如何做到這一點。

Where we're going to sort of split the thing down the middle, manage our own teams, have our own meetings. We decided not to. We decided to run this as a single direct reporting group, something that we run weekly for 3 hours called [e-team] So that changed. We focused even more on synchronization than I think Daniel did and so we have the entire decision layer of Spotify, sort of the [VPS VP] layer in this room 3 hours every week deciding and running and unblocking the entire company.

我們將把事情一分為二，各自管理自己的團隊，召開自己的會議。我們決定不這麼做。我們決定將其作為一個單一的直接匯報小組來運作，我們每週都會進行 3 小時的會議，稱為 [e-team]。所以情況發生了變化。我們比 Daniel 更注重同步，所以我們 Spotify 的整個決策層，也就是 [VPS VP] 層，每週在這個房間裡花 3 個小時來決定、運行和解決整個公司的難題。

So there has been a shift in how we operate, and we focus even more on synchronization and planning. And I want to touch on this because in this age of AI think many companies are making a mistake. Maybe I shouldn't reveal this, but I will anyway. People feel like when you have AI, you don't need to plan anymore. I think it's actually going to be the opposite.

因此，我們的運作方式發生了轉變，我們更加重視同步和規劃。我想談談這一點，因為在人工智慧時代，我認為很多公司都在犯錯。或許我不該透露這件事，但我還是要說。人們覺得有了人工智慧，就不需要再做計劃了。我認為結果恰恰相反。

When you have productivity on tap, what you need to have are very good plans so that these agents are highly utilized and stay busy. So being a company that can plan well and know what you want to do is actually going to become more important, not less important.

當你擁有充足的生產力時，你需要製定非常好的計劃，以便充分利用這些員工並讓他們保持忙碌。因此，對於一家公司而言，能夠做好規劃並知道自己想要做什麼，實際上會變得越來越重要，而不是越來越不重要。

So I think I'll lay into that a little bit. I think this shift really began more than two years ago. It was carefully planned. And to Gustav's point, we now not only synchronize across the company with all of the different teams and their leaders, but we also set targets and we land planes that are important. We are very deliberate about how we target and manage the outcome that we want for the company and our P&L and balance sheet.

所以我想我會稍微深入探討這個問題。我認為這種轉變其實始於兩年多前。這是經過精心策劃的。正如 Gustav 所說，我們現在不僅與公司內所有不同的團隊及其領導者進行同步，而且還設定目標並落實重要的計畫。我們對如何設定目標並管理我們希望公司、損益表和資產負債表達的結果，都經過了非常周密的考量。

And if you look at the past three years, you've seen us compound revenue growth at 17% FX-neutral. We have grown gross profit by 20% on a compounded basis for three years. And what's more is that we have added 18 percentage points of operating margin and we're now generating almost EUR3 billion for 2025 in free cash flow, which is a 17% cash margin. So all of us are super happy about this run, and we are definitely in a very strong position as a team to continue to invest and grow the future for Spotify.

如果你回顧過去三年，你會發現我們的複合收入成長率（按匯率不變）達到了 17%。三年來，我們的毛利複合成長率達到了20%。更重要的是，我們的營業利潤率提高了 18 個百分點，預計到 2025 年將產生近 30 億歐元的自由現金流，現金利潤率達到 17%。所以我們所有人都對這次的成績感到非常高興，作為一個團隊，我們絕對處於非常有利的地位，可以繼續投資並發展 Spotify 的未來。

All right. And another one on Rich Greenfield this time about books. Can you help us understand why you want to be in the physical book selling market?

好的。還有一篇關於里奇·格林菲爾德的文章，這次是關於書籍的。您能否幫助我們了解一下您為什麼想進入實體書銷售市場？

Thanks, Rich. This is Gustav. The reason that we are in the -- first of all, I want to say that we're not holding inventory or anything like that in this business. The reason we want to be in the physical book market is because we think that is not a separate market. It is the same book market.

謝謝你，里奇。這是古斯塔夫。我們之所以處於這種狀態——首先，我想說的是，我們這個行業不持有庫存或類似的東西。我們之所以想進入實體書市場，是因為我們認為這不是一個獨立的市場。這是同一個圖書市場。

So one of the most common feedbacks we heard when we talk about audiobooks, was people saying that, yeah, I like it, but it's not enough. I really like reading at night or in the morning. I don't want to lie and listen to my audiobook in bed because if I fall sleep, I miss it, et cetera.

所以，當我們談論有聲書時，我們聽到的最常見的回饋之一就是人們說，是的，我喜歡它，但這還不夠。我非常喜歡在晚上或早上閱讀。我不想躺在床上聽有聲讀物，因為如果我睡著了，就會錯過內容等等。

So we realize that while it technically and financially looks like a different market, we tend to focus on the consumer. And from the consumer, it's the same book, whether it's a physical book, it's on their Kindle or their audiobook. So this is what drove us to -- it was really the consumer that drove us to enabling this as well. So that's how we think about it. We want to do books and that requires being in physical books as well.

因此我們意識到，雖然從技術和財務角度來看，它看起來像是一個不同的市場，但我們往往更關心消費者。對消費者而言，無論是實體書、Kindle電子書或有聲書，內容都是一樣的。所以正是這一點促使我們——其實也是消費者促使我們實現了這一點。我們就是這麼想的。我們想出版書籍，而這需要有實體書籍的形式。

It doesn't really matter if the consumer bought the book themselves and then sink to the audiobook. But we want to make it super easy. If you find the book on Spotify to not say that, well, I'm not going to listen to this book because I also want to read it. If that's the case, we're right there. You just click buy, it arrives in your home and then you can sink it back and forth. So this is really a consumer-led innovation.

消費者自己購買紙本書後再去聽有聲書，其實並不重要。但我們希望讓它變得超級簡單。如果你在 Spotify 上找到這本書，卻沒聽到這樣的評價，那我就不聽這本書了，因為我也想讀這本書。如果真是那樣，我們就在那裡。你只需點擊購買，它就會送到你家，然後你就可以來回玩耍了。所以這確實是一項由消費者主導的創新。

We're so bullish on audiobooks. There's so much upside there. You saw us launch audiobooks in premium in -- recently in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Iceland and Monaco. And it's still very early days, but the publishers' reactions to our entrance into the market in the audience, we attract and engage have been just super positive. You heard Gustav talk about Audiobook Recaps, Page Match just now and the partnership with Book shop. In just two years, which is a very short order, we've more than tripled our catalog to over 0.5 million titles and expanded into 14 global markets, and there are so many more markets to go from here.

我們非常看好有聲書。那裡蘊藏著巨大的潛能。您最近在瑞典、丹麥、芬蘭、冰島和摩納哥等地看到了我們推出的高級有聲書服務。雖然現在還處於非常早期的階段，但出版商對我們進入市場、吸引和互動的受眾的反應都非常積極。你剛才聽到古斯塔夫談到有聲書回顧、頁面匹配以及與書店的合作時，他已經發言了。短短兩年時間，我們的圖書目錄就成長了三倍多，達到 50 多萬種圖書，業務拓展到 14 個全球市場，未來還有更多市場值得開拓。

And I just want to say that we talked about raising our ambition. Now Alex and I want to do something different. We want to build something that never existed before rather than trying to copy something that exist. And I think books is a good example of this. We're looking at a consumer problem that no one else really looked at and said this needs solving. We really want Spotify to be your media partner. If that requires us sinking to your physical book or your Kindle e-book, then let's just solve that.

我只想說，我們討論過提高我們的目標。現在我和亞歷克斯想做點不一樣的事。我們想創造前所未有的事物，而不是試圖複製現有的事物。我認為書籍就是一個很好的例子。我們正在研究一個其他人都沒有真正關注過並認為需要解決的消費者問題。我們真心希望 Spotify 成為您的媒體合作夥伴。如果這意味著我們需要翻閱你的紙本書或 Kindle 電子書，那就讓我們來解決這個問題。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Steven Cahall on AI opportunity and priorities. With the stock down approximately a third over the last three months, the market appears to be implying Spotify will be negatively impacted from AI. What do you think the market is missing from how Spotify can benefit from AI? And what are your top priorities so you don't fall behind within this new industry landscape?

好的。下一個問題將由 Steven Cahall 提出，主題是人工智慧的機會和優先事項。過去三個月，Spotify 的股價下跌了約三分之一，市場似乎暗示人工智慧將對 Spotify 產生負面影響。你認為Spotify在利用人工智慧方面，市場還缺少什麼？為了不在這個全新的產業格局中落後，您的首要任務是什麼？

Hi, Steven, Christian here. Let me start and then hand over to Gustav, but I think it's been notable listening to today's discussion and also seeing the last quarter. Of course, that AI has been something that has been hard to grasp for many people. We don't comment on our share price when it changes like in this short term and so on, and we will not do that going forward. But it's obvious from the recent months, but also from the discussion today, I would say, in all the questions we get, that AI is something that is interesting and will have an impact.

你好，史蒂文，我是克里斯蒂安。讓我先開始，然後把麥克風交給古斯塔夫。但我認為，聽聽今天的討論以及觀看上一季的比賽，都令人印象深刻。當然，人工智慧對許多人來說一直是個難以理解的概念。我們不會對股價的短期波動等情況發表評論，將來也不會這樣做。但從最近幾個月的情況，以及今天的討論來看，我認為，在我們收到的所有問題中，人工智慧顯然是一件很有趣的事情，並且會產生影響。

And I think, hopefully, we have discussed and explain why this is a great opportunity for us. And as Gustav said before, we didn't start now. We started many years ago. And if you haven't, you probably will have a tougher time, and that's why we think this is a great opportunity. I hand it over to you, Gustav.

我希望我們已經討論並解釋了為什麼這對我們來說是一個絕佳的機會。正如古斯塔夫之前所說，我們現在還沒有開始。我們很多年前就開始了。如果你還沒有這樣做，你可能會遇到更大的困難，所以我們認為這是一個絕佳的機會。我把它交給你了，古斯塔夫。

I won't say that much more, but Alex here told me that the Chinese sign for Macro Wind is opportunity. So we're going to try to capture that opportunity. I want to be clear -- so we're going to invest, but we're going to invest with discipline when we see clear opportunities and returns.

我不多說了，不過亞歷克斯告訴我，「宏觀風」的中文寫法是「機會」。所以我們要努力把握這個機會。我想明確一點——我們會進行投資，但我們會根據具體情況，在看到明確的機會和回報時進行有紀律的投資。

All right. We've got a question now from Doug Anmuth on our new free tier. When should Spotify see easing headwinds to subscriber conversions from the recent free tier announcements with a shift towards increasing conversions and subscribers. How does this impact the trajectory of both 2026 MAU and premium subs?

好的。現在我們收到 Doug Anmuth 關於我們新推出的免費套餐的問題。Spotify 何時才能看到近期免費方案推出帶來的訂閱用戶轉換率下降趨勢有所緩解，並開始轉向提高轉換率和訂閱用戶數量？這將對 2026 年月活躍用戶數和付費用戶數的走勢產生怎樣的影響？

Doug, we just came off of a really good quarter when it comes to both MAU and premium subs. So I'm very, very encouraged about the 2026 growth of these two metrics. We are seeing strong engagement uplift, not just in our new enhanced retail around the world, but also generally for Spotify. And this was one of the major contributors to us adding 38 million users in Q4. When you fix the -- it's sort of like a leaky bucket when you start plugging the holes the level of the water will rise faster.

道格，我們剛結束了一個季度，無論是每月活躍用戶數還是高級訂閱用戶數都表現非常出色。因此，我對這兩項指標在 2026 年的成長感到非常非常鼓舞。我們看到用戶參與度顯著提升，不僅在我們全球範圍內新推出的增強型零售通路中如此，而且 Spotify 的整體用戶參與度也得到了顯著提升。這也是我們在第四季新增 3,800 萬用戶的主要原因之一。當你修復它時——這有點像一個漏水的水桶，當你開始堵住漏洞時，水位就會上升得更快。

And this is perhaps the most important leading indicator to growth that Spotify it's been so in the past 15, 16 years that I've been here. If engagement goes up, it means user growth will increase and ultimately, this has downstream impact on the overall sport business, including subscribers and other monetization.

這或許是Spotify成長最重要的領先指標，在這裡的這15、16年裡，情況一直如此。如果用戶參與度上升，就意味著用戶成長會增加，最終會對整個運動產業產生下游影響，包括訂閱用戶和其他獲利方式。

Right. Thanks, Doug. Another question from Justin Patterson for Gustav on AI. How is agentic coding changing product velocity. What do you believe Gen AI could mean for engineered productivity and R&D investment needs?

正確的。謝謝你，道格。賈斯汀·帕特森向古斯塔夫提出了另一個關於人工智慧的問題。智能體編碼如何改變產品迭代速度？您認為人工智慧世代（Gen AI）對工程生產力和研發投資需求意味著什麼？

Thanks for the question, Justin. Well, I would say that -- I think it's obvious to everyone, but over Christmas, Christmas this year was an event, a singular event in terms of AI productivity. Certainly, I spent my entire vacation coding rather than being on holiday. And I think most people in tech did. A lot of things happened in December, including Opus 4.5 coming out to Claude Code. And we crossed the threshold with things just started working. So a lot has actually changed very recently.

謝謝你的提問，賈斯汀。嗯，我想說的是——我認為這對每個人來說都很明顯，但今年的聖誕節，就人工智慧生產力而言，是一個獨特的事件。當然，我整個假期都在寫程式碼，而不是度假。我認為大多數科技從業者都這麼認為。12 月發生了很多事情，包括 Opus 4.5 發行給 Claude Code。我們跨過了那道門檻，事情開始步上正軌。所以最近很多事情都改變了。

And when I speak to my most senior engineers, the best developers we had, they actually say that they haven't written a single line of code since December. They actually only generate code and supervise it. So it is a big change. It is real, and it's happening fast. Now as I said, we've discussed for the last at least 1.5 years, not if this should happen, but when it should happen. And we've started building systems like Honk that I explained for this type of world. So I feel very well positioned to capture this.

當我與我資歷最深的工程師，也就是我們公司最優秀的開發人員交談時，他們竟然說自去年 12 月以來，他們一行程式碼都沒寫過。他們實際上只負責產生程式碼和監督程式碼運行。所以這是一個很大的改變。這是真的，而且發生得很快。正如我剛才所說，在過去至少一年半的時間裡，我們討論的不是這件事是否應該發生，而是它何時發生。我們已經開始建立像我之前解釋過的Honk這樣的系統，以適應這種類型的世界。所以我覺得我處於非常有利的位置來捕捉這一幕。

But I want to be clear, this is the beginning of the change. There's going to have to be a lot of change in these tech companies if you want to stay competitive. And we are absolutely hell bent on leading that change. But it will be painful for many companies because I think engineering practices, product practices and design practices will change. And the tricky thing right now is that if this was the end of the change, you could say this is what happened. Now let's retool for this.

但我要明確指出，這只是改變的開始。如果這些科技公司想要保持競爭力，就必須做出許多改變。我們決心引領這項變革。但我認為這對許多公司來說將是痛苦的，因為工程實踐、產品實踐和設計實踐都將改變。而現在棘手的是，如果這就是改變的終點，你可以說這就是發生的事情。現在讓我們為此重新調整策略。

The tricky thing is that we're in the middle of the change. So you also have to be very agile. The things you build now may be useless in a month because it may be provided by one of the big engines, et cetera. On the other hand, it's getting so cheap the right code, so you should probably do it anyway. So I think what it's going to mean at the end of the day is that software companies will start producing enormously more amount of software, right?

棘手的是，我們正處於變革之中。所以你也必須非常靈活。你現在建造的東西一個月後可能就沒用了，因為可能被某個大型引擎提供了，等等。另一方面，現在正確的代碼價格非常便宜，所以你無論如何都應該去做。所以我覺得最終這意味著軟體公司將開始生產數量大幅增加的軟體，對吧？

If you go back to -- there is this fear that software companies are not going to exist anymore, everyone rolls their own product. I certainly don't think that's going to be true for consumer products. I think what will happen is something more like what happened with the Internet.

如果你回顧一下——人們擔心軟體公司將不復存在，每個人都會開發自己的產品。我當然不認為這種情況會適用於消費品。我認為接下來發生的事情更像是網路的發展歷程。

When the Internet came along, everyone thought that we would all have our own web pages. What actually happened was that ended up being very few web pages. In times of lower friction, things actually tend to aggregate, not disaggregate. That's the opportunity we see in front of us. I think companies such as us are simply going to produce massively more software up until our limiting factor is actually the amount of change that consumers are comfortable with.

當網路出現時，大家都以為我們每個人都會擁有自己的網頁。實際情況是，最終只出現了極少數的網頁。在摩擦較小的時期，事物往往會聚集在一起，而不是分散開來。這就是我們面前的機會。我認為像我們這樣的公司將會不斷生產更多的軟體，直到我們的限制變成消費者能夠接受的變化量為止。

All right. We've got time for just a few more questions. We're going to go now to Steven Cahall on gross margin. With premium ARPU set to accelerate for much of 2026, how should we think about premium and total margin expansion? Your Q1 margin guide already implies improvement versus the typical seasonality. So can we expect a stronger year for margin expansion than we saw in 2025?

好的。我們還有時間再回答幾個問題。接下來我們將請 Steven Cahall 談談毛利率。鑑於 2026 年大部分時間高額 ARPU 將會加速成長，我們該如何看待高利潤和總利潤的成長？您的第一季利潤率預期已經表明，與典型的季節性波動相比，情況有所改善。那麼，我們能否期待利潤率擴張的勢頭比 2025 年更加強勁？

So thank you, Stephen. As you know, which I've said already, we don't give full year guidance on our gross margin. But you're right. I mean we move into quarter one with an ARPU growth of 5%, 6%. That's a bit faster than we have reported in quarter four. And it incorporates recently announced price increases in the market like US. And that will flow through our P&L for a portion of the quarter and will improve a bit.

所以，謝謝你，史蒂芬。如您所知，我也已經說過，我們不提供全年的毛利率預期。但你說得對。我的意思是，當我們進入第一季時，ARPU 成長了 5% 到 6%。這比我們第四季報告的速度要快一些。而且它還包含了近期市場上（例如美國）宣布的價格上漲。這將反映在我們本季的部分損益表中，並會略有改善。

But that said also, we have said it repeatedly, and I will say it again, which is very important, except for that we're not guiding on full year gross margin is that we actually do invest when we see an opportunity for long-term value. And that said, then the quarterly progression of our margins could again be variable depending on the timing of disciplined investments in our core and the monetization activities that I just mentioned. So keep that in mind. And as we say, we do believe that gross margin and operating margin will improve in 2026.

但話雖如此，我們也曾多次說過，而且我還要再說一遍，這一點非常重要，除了我們不提供全年毛利率指引之外，那就是當我們看到長期價值的機會時，我們確實會進行投資。也就是說，我們利潤率的季度變化可能會再次取決於我們對核心業務進行有紀律的投資的時機以及我剛才提到的貨幣化活動。所以要記住這一點。正如我們所說，我們相信毛利率和營業利潤率將在 2026 年有所提高。

All right. Our last question is going to come from Batya Levi, also related to AI opportunity. Back in October, you had announced partnership with the major labels to develop artist-first AI products. with all the hype about competition and disruption, can you talk about how you plan to differentiate with these products? And is there an urgency to launch them?

好的。最後一個問題來自 Batya Levi，也與人工智慧的機會有關。早在去年十月，你們就宣布與各大唱片公司合作，開發以藝人為中心的AI產品。如今競爭和顛覆性創新層出不窮，你們能否談談這些產品將如何實現差異化？是否有必要立即推出這些項目？

This is Gustav. I'll start and maybe Alex wants to jump in. No, we're not going to ship ideas. We're not going to ship what we're going to do in the future. That wouldn't be very good for all of you shareholders. But what I will tell you is that, as I said in my prepared remarks, we think of it in two ways, net new music and derivatives. In terms of net new music, there are tons of companies that allow you to create music using AI.

這是古斯塔夫。我先開始，也許亞歷克斯也想加入。不，我們不會出售創意。我們不會提前公佈未來計劃。這對各位股東來說可不是好事。但我可以告訴你們的是，正如我在準備好的演講稿中所說，我們從兩個方面來看音樂：全新的音樂和衍生作品。就全新音樂而言，有許多公司允許你使用人工智慧來創作音樂。

But that's not where the music breaks. That music if it breaks, breaks on Spotify. That's where it charts, that's where the culture moment is. So we feel very comfortable about that position. A growing catalog has always been good for Spotify.

但音樂並沒有在這裡戛然而止。如果那首歌出了問題，那也是Spotify上的問題。這就是它的發展方向，這就是文化趨勢的所在。所以我們對這個立場感到非常滿意。不斷增長的曲庫對Spotify來說一直都是好事。

Now in terms of the derivatives, as I said, we think this is an untapped opportunity for artists to make money off of their existing IP. We have the technology and capabilities that we need, and we're very excited about it. And we are ready for the for the partners that are hungry to seize this opportunity. We think the ones that move first will benefit the most. So we're hungry and excited. We're not particularly stressed about it, but we're there for people who want to make money.

至於衍生性商品方面，正如我所說，我們認為這是藝術家利用現有智慧財產權賺錢的一個尚未開發的機會。我們擁有所需的技術和能力，對此我們感到非常興奮。我們已做好準備，迎接那些渴望抓住這項機會的合作夥伴。我們認為率先行動的人將獲益最多。所以我們既餓又興奮。我們對此並不特別焦慮，但我們是為那些想賺錢的人服務的。

All right. Thanks, Gustav, and thanks, Batya. That concludes our Q&A session. I'm going to turn the call over now to Alex for some concluding remarks.

好的。謝謝古斯塔夫，也謝謝巴蒂亞。我們的問答環節到此結束。現在我將把電話交給亞歷克斯，請他做總結發言。

Thank you, Bryan. So from any vantage point at Spotify, there is a lot to look forward to. In March, we'll kick off our 20th anniversary at South by Southwest, and we are excited to share more about our year of raising ambition and a longer-term vision at our Investor Day on May 21 of this year in New York. So please hold the date. Gustav, Christian and I are looking forward to seeing you there.

謝謝你，布萊恩。因此，無論從哪個角度來看，Spotify 都有很多值得期待的地方。今年三月，我們將在西南偏南音樂節上拉開公司成立 20 週年的序幕。我們很高興能在今年 5 月 21 日於紐約舉行的投資者日上，與大家分享我們過去一年來提升雄心壯志和製定更長遠願景的更多內容。所以請預留這個日期。古斯塔夫，克里斯蒂安和我期待在那裡見到你。

Right. 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.

正確的。今天的電話會議到此結束。本次電話會議的重播將在我們的網站上提供，也可以在 Spotify 應用程式的「Spotify Earnings Call Replays」版塊中找到。謝謝大家的參與。