Spotify Technology S.A. (SPOT) 2026 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Hello and welcome to the Spotify Q2 2026 earnings call. (Operator Instructions)

大家好，歡迎參加 Spotify 2026 年第二季財報電話會議。(接線員指示)

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

現在我想把會議交給 Spotify 投資人關係主管 Bryan Goldberg。您可以開始了。

Great. Thanks, operator, and welcome to Spotify's first (sic – second) quarter 2026 earnings conference call. Joining us today will be our co-CEOs, Alex Norström and Gustav Söderström; and our CFO, Christian Luiga. We'll start with opening comments from the team. And afterwards, we'll be happy to answer your questions.

太好了。謝謝，接線員，也歡迎各位參加 Spotify 2026 年第一（原文如此——第二）季財報電話會議。今天與會的有我們的共同執行長 Alex Norström 與 Gustav Söderström，以及我們的財務長 Christian Luiga。我們將先由團隊發表開場評論。之後，我們很樂意回答各位的問題。

Questions can be submitted by going to slido.com, S-L-I-D-O.com, and using the code #SpotifyEarningsQ226. 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.

問題可透過前往 slido.com（S-L-I-D-O.com）並使用代碼 #SpotifyEarningsQ226 提交。分析師可直接在 Slido 提問，所有與會者也都可以對他們認為最相關的問題投票。若因故無法使用 Slido，您可以寄電子郵件至投資人關係 ir@spotify.com，我們會代為加入您的問題。

Before I 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 on today's call, in our shareholder deck, and in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

在我開始之前，先快速說明「安全港」聲明。在本次電話會議中，我們將做出若干前瞻性陳述，包括對公司未來表現的預測或估計。這些陳述係基於目前的預期與假設，並可能受到風險與不確定性影響。由於今日電話會議、我們的股東簡報，以及向美國證券交易委員會提交之文件中所討論的因素，實際結果可能出現重大差異。

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 financial section of our Investor Relations website, and also furnished today on Form 6-K.

在本次電話會議中，我們也會提及若干非 IFRS 財務衡量指標。我們的 IFRS 與非 IFRS 財務衡量指標之間的調節表，可在投資人關係網站的股東簡報財務章節中找到，並且也已於今日以 Form 6-K 提供。

And with that, I'll turn the call over to Alex.

接下來，我把電話交給 Alex。

Thank you, Bryan. Hey, everyone, thank you for joining us. I hope you're having a great summer. Today, we'll pick up where we left off at our Investor Day in May, updating you on what we said, what we've shipped since then, and also what the early signals are telling us.

謝謝你，Bryan。各位好，感謝大家加入我們。希望大家夏天過得愉快。今天，我們將延續 5 月投資人日所談的內容，向各位更新我們當時說了什麼、此後我們已推出了什麼，以及早期訊號告訴我們什麼。

So Q2 was another quarter of healthy broad-based growth. Revenue grew 15% year over year on a constant currency basis, accelerating from 14% in Q1. Gross margin hit a record of 33.4% and free cash flow continued to strengthen. And we beat our subscriber guidance, crossing 300 million subs for the first time, all while continuing to grow engagement with the number of active days for global subs increasing.

因此，第二季再次呈現健康且廣泛的成長。以固定匯率計，營收年增 15%，較第一季的 14% 進一步加速。毛利率創下 33.4% 的新高，自由現金流也持續走強。同時，我們的訂閱用戶數首次突破 3 億，優於我們的訂戶指引；而且在全球訂戶活躍天數增加的帶動下，互動度也持續提升。

What pleases me the most is the shape of the quarter. More people are choosing Spotify, they're engaging more deeply, and they're converting. We've been working on turning our outperformance in MAU into revenue growth. So to capitalize on this opportunity, we are adjusting elements like product optimization and ad load, among other things, in select emerging markets.

最令我滿意的是本季的「成長結構」。更多人選擇 Spotify、互動更深入，並且完成轉換。我們一直在努力把 MAU 的超預期表現轉化為營收成長。因此，為了把握這個機會，我們正在部分新興市場調整一些要素，例如產品最佳化與廣告負載等。

Now, this strategy carefully increases friction in our free service with a goal of driving higher user conversion and revenue growth down the line. Yes, this will show itself in our Q3 MAU, but we believe it's well worth it. And as we've shared previously, the free to paid conversion cycle in emerging markets grows differently than our established markets.

這項策略會審慎地提高免費服務的摩擦，目標是在未來推動更高的用戶轉換率與營收成長。是的，這會反映在我們第三季的 MAU 上，但我們認為非常值得。而且如同我們先前分享的，新興市場的免費轉付費轉換週期，與成熟市場的成長方式不同。

So while a move like this one will take time to play out, the opportunity is vast. This will be additive to our potential over time. And as you will hear soon from Christian, we do not expect it to come at the expense of our subscriber growth.

因此，像這樣的調整需要時間才能完全發酵，但機會非常龐大。長期來看，這將為我們的潛力帶來增量。而且正如你們稍後將從 Christian 那裡聽到的，我們不預期這會以犧牲訂閱用戶成長為代價。

Now we've talked before about rebuilding our ads business, and the results are really starting to show. On the supply side, our audience of very attractive global users keep expanding our inventory. And on the demand side, the enhanced technology we've deployed is making it much easier for advertisers to reach these engaged users. Just one example. Our automated channels represent nearly 40% of ad-supported revenue in Q2, up from over -- just over 30% in Q1.

我們之前談過重建廣告業務，而成果現在真的開始顯現。在供給端，我們極具吸引力的全球用戶受眾持續擴大，進而擴充了我們的廣告庫存。在需求端，我們部署的強化技術讓廣告主更容易觸及這些高度互動的用戶。舉一個例子。第二季，我們的自動化渠道約占廣告支援營收的近 40%，高於第一季的 30% 出頭。

And active advertisers grew 60% year-over-year. We're now set up in a way we weren't a year ago, and we will keep building from here.

而活躍廣告主年增 60%。我們現在的布局已不同於一年前，接下來也會在此基礎上持續建設。

Another development from the quarter worth calling out are launch of Reserved. At Investor Day, we called it one of the most wonderful improvements to premium in our history, and the early signs really back that up. So since launching in the U.S. in June with Live Nation, Reserved has supported multiple tours, nearly 100,000 tickets reserved through Spotify. For some tours, we sold through 100% of our allocations.

本季另一項值得特別指出的進展，是 Reserved 的推出。在投資人日，我們稱它為我們史上對 Premium 最精彩的改進之一，而早期訊號確實支持這個說法。自 6 月在美國與 Live Nation 一起上線以來，Reserved 已支援多個巡演，透過 Spotify 預留的票券接近 10 萬張。對於部分巡演，我們的配額售罄率達到 100%。

And Live Nation upsized the mid-run. The biggest fans get first access, artist get their most dedicated audience in the room, and every seat we fill makes a Spotify subscription just more valuable.

而 Live Nation 也在巡演進行期間提高了配額。最忠實的粉絲能優先取得入場機會，藝人能讓最投入的受眾坐在現場，而我們每多坐滿一個座位，都讓 Spotify 訂閱變得更有價值。

I'd like to use the remainder of my time on something that Gustav and I think about a lot, Spotify's position. And these are unique times. Business history has produced just a handful of companies with hundreds of millions of recurring paying customers worldwide. And Spotify is proud to be one of them. And like many of the others, we built that scale on a single product.

我想用剩下的時間談一件我和 Gustav 經常思考的事：Spotify 的定位。而現在是非常特殊的時刻。商業史上，全球擁有數億名持續付費訂閱客戶的公司屈指可數。Spotify 很自豪能成為其中之一。而且和其他許多公司一樣，我們是靠著單一產品建立起這樣的規模。

That is unique territory to be in.

這是一個非常獨特的領域。

I'm a student of Charlie Munger, who once said that the one structural advantage that matters disproportionately is scale. If you're choosing a music streaming for the first -- music streaming service for the first time, it matters that one brand comes with several hundred million passionate ambassadors. And perhaps most consequentially, the scale and the cash generation we now have lets us innovate and invest in building a much better product, adding more value for every subscriber around the world in the most cost efficient and competitive way.

我一直研讀 Charlie Munger 的觀點；他曾說過，唯一會以不成比例方式產生影響的結構性優勢，就是規模。如果你是第一次選擇音樂串流——第一次選擇音樂串流服務，那麼某個品牌背後擁有數億名熱情的擁護者，這件事很重要。而且或許最關鍵的是，我們如今具備的規模與現金創造能力，使我們能以最具成本效率且最具競爭力的方式創新與投資，打造更好的產品，為全球每一位訂閱者增加更多價值。

The point is scale matters. In the past 5 years, we've added more than 25 million net subscribers every year, growing in developed and emerging markets alike. So with over 300 million subscribers and 777 million users, we have achieved consequential scale. Our financial picture tells the same story. Since our last Investor Day in 2022, revenue has compounded at 18% a year, reaching EUR17 billion in 2025.

重點是：規模很重要。過去 5 年，我們每年新增的淨訂閱用戶都超過 2,500 萬，無論在成熟市場或新興市場都持續成長。因此，憑藉超過 3 億訂閱用戶與 7.77 億用戶，我們已達到具關鍵意義的規模。我們的財務表現也傳達相同訊息。自 2022 年上一次投資人日以來，營收以每年 18% 的複合成長率成長，並在 2025 年達到 170 億歐元。

Gross margin went from 25% to over 33% this quarter. We became more disciplined with OpEx, which has turned into a growing positive operating margin. And last year, Spotify generated EUR2.9 billion of free cash flow, and we expect that growth to continue.

毛利率從 25% 提升到本季超過 33%。我們在營運費用（OpEx）上變得更有紀律，並轉化為持續擴大的正向營業利益率。而去年，Spotify 產生了 29 億歐元的自由現金流，我們預期這項成長將會延續。

That strength is why we set the 2030 targets we did in May, a mid-teens revenue CAGR, gross margin of 35% to 40%, operating margin above 20% and strong growth in free cash flow. Gustav and I believe there are opportunities only Spotify is positioned to invest in because of our scale, the health of our business and our focus. So we rigorously explore new premium offerings and new verticals with our customers. We covered these at length at Investor Day, but there are a few that's worth repeating.

正是這份實力，讓我們在 5 月設定了 2030 年的目標：營收年複合成長率（CAGR）達到十幾個百分點、毛利率 35% 至 40%、營業利益率高於 20%，以及自由現金流的強勁成長。Gustav 和我相信，憑藉我們的規模、業務的健康度以及專注力，只有 Spotify 才具備投資某些機會的有利位置。因此，我們會與客戶一起嚴謹地探索新的高級（Premium）方案與新的垂直領域。我們在投資人日已詳細說明，但其中有幾點值得再重申。

The first is AI. Many investors ask about our large taste model, which learns from the 3.4 trillion events our users generate on the platform every day. But the reality is we've been investing in AI-driven personalization for more than 7 years. Today, AI-powered experiences like DJ are used by roughly 1/4 of our active users, and Prompted Playlists, our newest addition, gives users direct control over the algorithm. Around 14 million of the first 100 million users we've rolled it out to are already using it, and the early retention improvements look promising.

第一個是 AI。許多投資人會問到我們的大型品味模型（large taste model），它會從使用者每天在平台上產生的 3.4 兆次事件中學習。但事實是，我們在 AI 驅動的個人化方面已投資超過 7 年。如今，像 DJ 這類 AI 驅動的體驗約有四分之一的活躍使用者在使用；而我們最新推出的 Prompted Playlists，則讓使用者能直接掌控演算法。在我們已推送的首批 1 億名使用者中，約有 1,400 萬人已在使用，且早期的留存改善看起來相當有希望。

The second big idea is the power law. As we've grown, we've observed that the usage of our products, features and content follows the power law. At the head of that curve are many millions of people who simply want more, and they're willing to pay for it. Audiobooks proved it first in just a handful of initial markets. We see that overall Audiobooks penetration among premium listeners has more than doubled this year, and Audiobooks+, the add-on has passed $100 million in annual recurring revenue. It is subscriptions on top of subscriptions with more on the way. So combined, these two just make for something powerful.

第二個大構想是冪次法則（power law）。隨著我們成長，我們觀察到產品、功能與內容的使用情形遵循冪次法則。在那條曲線的前端，有數以百萬計的人就是想要更多，而且願意為此付費。有聲書在少數幾個初始市場率先證明了這一點。我們看到，今年高級（Premium）聽眾中的有聲書滲透率已超過翻倍，而加購方案 Audiobooks+ 的年度經常性收入（ARR）已突破 1 億美元。這是在訂閱之上再加訂閱，而且後續還會有更多。因此，綜合來看，這兩者結合會形成非常強大的力量。

Inference-driven products carry a marginal cost per use, so they need a compatible way to monetize. And that is exactly the muscle we've built over 20 years of freemium. Feature gated, usage-driven products optimized for the best value to price ratio. Now, we will price and optimize these features and content just as we have successfully done with our premium product.

以推理（inference）驅動的產品，每次使用都會帶來邊際成本，因此需要相容的變現方式。而這正是我們在 20 年 freemium（免費增值）模式中鍛鍊出的能力。以功能門檻（feature gated）、使用量驅動的產品，並以最佳「價值／價格」比來最佳化。現在，我們將像過去成功經營 Premium 產品一樣，為這些功能與內容定價並進行最佳化。

So in conclusion, we have a scale that few companies in history have reached, a business that is healthy and compounding and opportunities only we are positioned to pursue. Spotify lives across your whole day, the commute, the workout, studying, gaming, the dinner table and sleep. At our scale, that is rare. Most products own one or two contexts. Our position gives us an opportunity space as wide as our users want it to be. And at the Investor Day, we told you where Spotify is going, and this quarter, we're building momentum behind that.

總結來說，我們擁有歷史上少數公司才能達到的規模、健康且持續複利成長的業務，以及只有我們具備條件去追求的機會。Spotify 貫穿你的一整天：通勤、運動、讀書、遊戲、餐桌時光以及睡眠。以我們的規模而言，這非常罕見。多數產品只占據一到兩個情境。我們的定位讓我們擁有的機會空間，能寬到使用者希望它有多寬就有多寬。在投資人日，我們告訴各位 Spotify 將前往何處；而在本季，我們正為此建立更強的動能。

With that, let me hand it over to Gustav.

接下來，我把時間交給 Gustav。

Thanks, Alex. So I want to use my time on two things: how we're building and what we're building. And both matter for the durability of our business over the next several years. So a couple of quarters ago, I mentioned our internal tool, Honk, which enables our engineers to go on Slack from their phone and ask an AI agent to fix a bug or add a feature, and then they get a testable build back before they even reach the office. That way of working is now ubiquitous and it's unlocking a compounding advantage.

謝謝，Alex。我想用我的時間談兩件事：我們如何打造，以及我們在打造什麼。這兩者都關係到未來幾年我們業務的持久性。幾個季度前，我提到我們的內部工具 Honk，它讓工程師可以用手機在 Slack 上請 AI 代理修復 bug 或新增功能，甚至在到達辦公室之前就能拿到可測試的版本。這種工作方式如今已無所不在，並正在釋放出可複利的優勢。

So Honk is our coding agent, but there's something new that we call Chirp, which is the engine that we've built underneath it. And you can think of Chirp as something that you use instead of using Claude code or coders directly that sits in front of it. So Chirp lets our engineers switch models mid task and run every job to the best available price performance, including Open Source models that we host ourselves. So we are never locked in.

Honk 是我們的程式碼代理（coding agent），但我們還有一個新東西叫 Chirp，也就是我們在其底層打造的引擎。你可以把 Chirp 想成是一個位於前端的層，你用它來取代直接使用 Claude code 或直接找工程師。Chirp 讓工程師能在同一個任務進行到一半時切換模型，並讓每一項工作都以最佳的「價格／效能」來執行，包括我們自行託管的開源模型。因此，我們永遠不會被綁定。

It also shares the context across not just different models and different developers, but across the company. So we don't pay for the same reasoning twice, and we don't lose our own data. And it also shows us our inference spend down to the individual developers. There is plenty of industry debate about AI investment and costs. But our view is that being an AI beneficiary means winning on the cost side, too.

它也能共享脈絡（context），不僅跨不同模型與不同開發者，還能跨整個公司。因此，我們不會為同樣的推理付費兩次，也不會遺失我們自己的資料。同時，它也能把推理（inference）支出細分到每一位開發者。業界對 AI 投資與成本有很多討論。但我們的看法是：要成為 AI 的受益者，也必須在成本端取勝。

We hold a high bar for every investment that we make in this area. And we invest only where it generates real advantage and sets us up well to drive growth and improve margins over time. If something works, we double down. If it doesn't work, we eventually move on.

我們對在這個領域的每一項投資都設有很高的門檻。我們只在能帶來真正優勢、並能讓我們在時間推移中推動成長與改善利潤率的地方投資。如果有效，我們就加碼。如果無效，我們最終就會轉向。

Over the last 3 years, we have not increased headcount, while revenue per employee is on track to double. So as you can see, the operating expense growth is now coming from people. It's coming from compute and marketing. Both of these are variable and entirely in our control. And we will continue to invest in AI on our terms.

過去 3 年，我們沒有增加人員編制（headcount），但每位員工的營收正朝著翻倍的方向前進。因此你可以看到，營業費用的成長現在不是來自人力。而是來自運算（compute）與行銷。這兩者都是可變動的，而且完全在我們掌控之中。我們也將持續以我們的條件投資 AI。

We're vendor agnostic. We have controls over our usage, and we always undertake these investments relative to the returns that they can support. The inference we give users is also under control -- under our control, which means that the cost curve is also under our control.

我們不偏好特定供應商（vendor agnostic）。我們對使用量有控管，並且始終以其可支撐的報酬來衡量這些投資。我們提供給使用者的推理（inference）也在控管之下——在我們的控管之下，這意味著成本曲線也在我們的掌控之中。

At Investor Day, we laid out 4 big ideas about where Spotify is heading. One quarter later, we've shipped against all 4. We said the world is moving from recommendation to generation with users in control. Today, Talk to Spotify, Personal podcast and Studio by Spotify all in users' hands. And in the coming weeks, we'll be rolling out Prompted Playlists for Audiobooks, our best-in-class books experience.

在投資人日，我們提出了 Spotify 未來走向的 4 個大構想。一個季度之後，我們已針對這 4 項全部交付上線。我們說世界正從「推薦」走向「生成」，而且由使用者掌控。今天，Talk to Spotify、Personal podcast 與 Studio by Spotify 都已交到使用者手上。在接下來幾週，我們也將為有聲書推出 Prompted Playlists，帶來我們同級最佳（best-in-class）的書籍體驗。

And Alex mentioned our large taste model, which is a big investment for us. Let me tell you what it's doing so far. In the first 2 months, since we deployed our new Autoplay recommendation system powered by the taste model, active days have increased, which is very hard to do at our already high engagement levels. Autoplay minutes and track sales have both grown significantly, and Autoplay drop-off has declined. And in our chat experiences, the large taste model is doing the same.

Alex 提到了我們的大型品味模型，這對我們而言是一項重大投資。我來說明它目前帶來的成果。在我們部署由品味模型驅動的新 Autoplay 推薦系統後的前 2 個月，活躍天數增加了——在我們已經很高的互動水準下，這非常難做到。Autoplay 收聽分鐘數與曲目銷售都顯著成長，而 Autoplay 的流失（drop-off）也下降了。在我們的聊天體驗中，大型品味模型也帶來同樣的效果。

Minutes are up double digits, more active days and more sales into libraries and playlists. These are powerful inputs to our customer retention rates and lifetime value and among the most challenging metrics to move for us.

收聽分鐘數呈現兩位數成長、活躍天數更多，並且帶動更多內容被加入音樂庫與播放清單的銷售。這些都是影響我們客戶留存率與終身價值（LTV）的強力投入因子，也是對我們而言最難推動的指標之一。

Now the industry -- watch this scaling curve and the scaling loss play out with general LLMs. And when we think about it is that now we are watching it play out with our taste LLM on a model that no competitor can buy. We said that engagement follows a power law, and we launched our first onetime credit add-ons to serve the head of that demand curve. From DJ to daylist, we know these investments take time to scale, and they pay off over time. These add-ons are capped by design.

現在整個產業——正在看著一般型 LLM 的擴展曲線與擴展損失（scaling loss）如何演進。而我們的看法是：我們現在正看著它在我們的品味 LLM 上演，而且這個模型是任何競爭對手都買不到的。我們說互動遵循冪次法則，因此我們推出了第一批一次性點數（credit）加購項目，以服務那條需求曲線的前端。從 DJ 到 daylist，我們知道這些投資需要時間才能擴大規模，並且會隨時間推移帶來回報。這些加購項目在設計上有上限。

Every credit purchase carries a defined amount of inference behind it. So usage, cost and monetization stay connected.

每一筆點數購買背後都帶有一定程度的推論資訊。因此，使用情況、成本與變現會保持連動。

We also said that Spotify is moving from single player to multiplayer. And this quarter, that stopped being a road map and became behavior. Messages is live, and people now react to tracks, reply and share music directly inside Spotify. Listening activity shows you what your friends are playing right now. And listening stats is becoming something you share and compare, not just a private report for you.

我們也提到 Spotify 正在從單人模式走向多人模式。而在本季，這不再只是路線圖，而是成為實際行為。訊息功能已上線，使用者現在可以在 Spotify 內直接對歌曲做出反應、回覆並分享音樂。收聽動態會顯示你的朋友此刻正在播放什麼。而收聽統計也正逐漸成為你會分享與比較的內容，而不只是你個人的私密報告。

Almost 50 million people are already using Jam every month to listen together in real time. You're no longer alone on Spotify, you deal with your friends, your real-life friends.

每月已有將近 5,000 萬人使用 Jam 來即時一起收聽。你在 Spotify 上不再是孤單一人，你會和朋友互動，和你現實生活中的朋友互動。

And we said we would keep optimizing for time well spent and increasing the value of premium. One example that I'm personally very passionate about here is fitness. And last week, we began rolling out running mode. You tell Spotify in plain language to build a running playlist for an 8-minute mile or an interval session, it understands not only your taste and BPM, it serves you your favorite tracks to your exact cadence, mixing them together seamlessly so that you can literally run to the beat. It adds optional audio coaching right in your ear and it stays fresh every week.

我們也說過會持續優化「時間花得值得」的體驗，並提升 Premium 的價值。其中一個我個人非常投入的例子是健身。上週我們開始逐步推出跑步模式。你用白話告訴 Spotify 要為 8 分鐘一英里配速或間歇訓練建立跑步歌單，它不僅理解你的喜好與 BPM，還會把你最愛的歌曲精準配到你的步頻，無縫混音串接，讓你真的可以跟著節拍跑。它也會在你耳邊加入可選的語音教練指導，而且每週都能保持新鮮感。

This is an experience that only Spotify can deliver because of the investments we've made.

這是一種只有 Spotify 才能提供的體驗，因為這得益於我們所做的投資。

Looking beyond running mode, I'm excited to share that Song DNAhas now been used by more than 100 million subscribers, making it one of the fastest-adopted features that we've ever shipped.

放眼跑步模式之外，我很高興分享：Song DNA 目前已被超過 1 億名訂閱者使用，成為我們推出過採用速度最快的功能之一。

Finally, our music agreements capability. We're excited about the product experience and what it will unlock between artists and fans. Our model is one where artists choose which songs they want to make available for remixing, with consent, credit and compensation to sign in from the start. That model is winning over the industry. Following our agreement with UMG in May.

最後是我們的音樂協議能力。我們對產品體驗以及它將在藝人與粉絲之間解鎖的可能性感到興奮。我們的模式是：藝人可選擇哪些歌曲要開放供他人重混；並且從一開始就以同意、署名與報酬機制作為前提。這個模式正在贏得產業的認同。繼我們在 5 月與 UMG 達成協議之後。

Today, we're announcing a deal with Merlin, the digital licensing partner for the world's leading independent labels and distributors. The agreement gives artists across 30,000 labels in Merlin's network the opportunity to participate and make their catalogs available for covers and remixes. The enthusiasm for the independent community has been striking, and we hear that same support across the wider market.

今天，我們宣布與 Merlin 達成合作協議；Merlin 是全球領先獨立唱片公司與發行商的數位授權合作夥伴。該協議讓 Merlin 網路中 30,000 家唱片公司旗下的藝人有機會參與，並將其曲庫開放供翻唱與重混。獨立音樂社群的熱情令人印象深刻，而我們也在更廣泛的市場中聽到同樣的支持。

Deals like these take time, but we built this so that virtually every rights holder who wants can join in. Big picture, there is more work to do before launch, and it will take time to scale into a material revenue driver. But we are very excited about the potential for Spotify and for artists.

這類協議需要時間，但我們打造這套機制，就是為了讓幾乎所有有意願的權利人都能加入。從大局來看，在正式上線前仍有更多工作要做，而要擴大到成為具實質性的營收驅動因素也需要時間。但我們對 Spotify 以及對藝人的潛力感到非常興奮。

So if there's one theme I would leave you with today, it is this. Investor Day described where we believe Spotify is going in the future. And this quarter demonstrated that we are already building that future, better engineering, faster shipping, new products and new ways for users to engage. We're still in the very early stages of what is possible and we'll continue to have a high bar for investments. Our margin is a managed outcome, not a byproduct.

所以，如果今天要留給各位一個主題，那就是這個。投資人日描述了我們相信 Spotify 未來將走向何處。而本季則證明我們已經在打造那個未來：更好的工程能力、更快的交付速度、新產品，以及使用者參與的新方式。我們仍處於可能性的非常早期階段，並會持續對投資維持高標準。我們的毛利率是被管理的結果，而不是副產品。

Our job remains the same: understand the technology early and deeply, and turn it into something that people love, creating value for our stakeholders.

我們的工作仍然相同：及早且深入理解科技，並把它轉化為人們喜愛的事物，為利害關係人創造價值。

Now, Christian will take you through the numbers.

接下來，Christian 將帶各位看數字。

Thank you, Gustav, and thanks, everyone, for joining us. I will cover the quarter-two results and then provide some perspective on our outlook. Unless otherwise noted, as always, our reference growth metrics are presented on a year-over-year constant currency basis.

謝謝你，Gustav，也謝謝各位今天加入我們。我將說明第二季的結果，接著提供一些對展望的看法。除非另有說明，一如往常，我們所引用的成長指標皆以年對年、固定匯率基礎呈現。

We're pleased with how the business performed in the quarter. MAU continued to grow healthy at 12% year over year with notable outperformance in Europe and North America. Our net additions of 16 million were 1 million below forecast. We added 7 million net subscribers during the quarter, growing quarter-on-quarter across all regions with notable outperformance in Rest of the World and North America. We finished at 300 million, 1 million ahead of our guidance.

我們對本季的業務表現感到滿意。MAU 年對年持續以 12% 的健康速度成長，且在歐洲與北美表現明顯優於預期。我們的淨新增為 1,600 萬，較預測少 100 萬。本季淨新增訂閱者 700 萬，所有地區皆呈現季對季成長，其中以世界其他地區與北美表現尤為突出。我們期末達到 3 億，較我們的指引高出 100 萬。

Total revenue was EUR4.8 billion, growing 15% year over year, which was an acceleration of the 14% we delivered in quarter one. Premium revenue rose approximately 16% year over year versus 15% last quarter, driven by subscriber growth of 9% and ARPU expansion of 7.4% year over year. Our ad-supported revenue grew 3% year-over-year, which is consistent with quarter one. Our automated sales channel continued to grow fast and represented nearly 40% of our ad-supported revenue in quarter two, up from just over 30% in quarter one. This strength was largely offset by expected declines in our direct sales channel.

總營收為 48 億歐元，年對年成長 15%，較第一季的 14% 進一步加速。Premium 營收年對年約成長 16%，高於上季的 15%，主要由 9% 的訂閱者成長與 ARPU 年對年 7.4% 的擴張所帶動。我們的廣告支援營收年對年成長 3%，與第一季一致。我們的自動化銷售通路持續快速成長，第二季占廣告支援營收接近 40%，高於第一季的略高於 30%。這項強勁表現大致被我們直銷通路如預期的下滑所抵銷。

Importantly, our price optimization work is now complete, and this channel is stabilizing. We have also completed the migration of our ad inventory to our in-house ad server, allowing us to further streamline our sales process and capture more demand.

重要的是，我們的價格最佳化工作現已完成，而該通路正趨於穩定。我們也已完成將廣告庫存遷移至自建的廣告伺服器，使我們能進一步精簡銷售流程並捕捉更多需求。

With respect to our outlook, nothing has changed. We continue to expect our ads business to inflect towards double-digit growth in the second half of 2026. Gross margin came in at 33.4%, surpassing guidance by 30 basis points, the year-over-year expansion of 193 basis points. Favorability versus our guidance was driven by primarily quarterly timing shifts related to our growth investments. We also saw a small onetime benefit from a cancellation of the digital service tax in Canada, where we reversed an accrual from previous years.

就展望而言，沒有任何改變。我們仍預期廣告業務將在 2026 年下半年轉向雙位數成長。毛利率為 33.4%，較指引高出 30 個基點，年對年擴張 193 個基點。相較指引的有利差異，主要來自與成長投資相關的季度時點移轉。我們也看到一項小幅的一次性利益：加拿大取消數位服務稅，我們因此回轉了前幾年提列的應計。

Operating income of EUR655 million was EUR25 million above our guidance of EUR630 million, delivering on operating margin of 13.7%. Social charges contributed to EUR9 million of outperformance, and that was against our forecast, of course, and due to share price movements in the quarters. Excluding the non-forecasted social charges favorability, we came in at EUR16 million above guidance, driven by the gross margin outperformance. Finally, free cash flow was EUR797 million in the quarter, up 14% year-over-year. The quarter was slightly lower relative to quarter one, partly as a result of timing of cash tax payments.

營業利益為 6.55 億歐元，較我們 6.30 億歐元的指引高出 2,500 萬歐元，對應營業利益率 13.7%。社會保險費用（social charges）帶來 900 萬歐元的超預期表現，這當然不在我們的預測之內，主要由季度內股價變動所致。若排除未預測到的社會保險費用有利因素，我們仍較指引高出 1,600 萬歐元，主要由毛利率優於預期所驅動。最後，本季自由現金流為 7.97 億歐元，年對年成長 14%。相較第一季略低，部分原因是現金所得稅支付時點的影響。

Our first-half working capital benefited from remain -- benefit remained consistent with the prior year. On capital allocation, we have repurchased $662 million in shares year-to-date through August 3, representing 30% increase over 2025 levels. In aggregate, we have bought back nearly 2.2 million shares since we resumed repurchasing activities in 2025 or approximately 1% of shares outstanding. Given the stronger cash flow in the years ahead, even with M&A, we expect that we will also return cash to shareholders. As the close of the quarter, we had EUR9.4 billion in cash and cash equivalents and no debt other than lease liabilities.

我們上半年營運資金受益於 remain -- 受益程度與前一年一致。在資本配置方面，截至 8 月 3 日，我們今年迄今已回購 6.62 億美元的股票，較 2025 年水準增加 30%。整體而言，自我們於 2025 年恢復回購以來，已回購近 220 萬股，約占流通在外股數的 1%。鑑於未來幾年現金流將更為強勁，即使包含併購（M&A），我們也預期將把現金回饋給股東。截至本季末，我們持有 94 億歐元的現金及約當現金，除租賃負債外沒有其他負債。

Looking ahead to quarter three, we are forecasting MAU of 788 million, an increase of 11 million from quarter two. As Alex discussed earlier in more detail, this guidance includes product optimization activities in emerging markets while growth rates in developed markets remain stable. On subscribers, we are forecasting 305 million for quarter three or net additions of 5 million. We continue to see the business as well positioned to drive another full year of healthy MAU and subscriber growth.

展望第三季，我們預測 MAU 將達到 7.88 億，較第二季增加 1,100 萬。如 Alex 先前更詳細說明，這項指引包含在新興市場進行產品最佳化活動，同時已開發市場的成長率維持穩定。在訂閱用戶方面，我們預測第三季為 3.05 億，或淨新增 500 萬。我們持續認為，公司的布局良好，有望再推動一整年健康的 MAU 與訂閱用戶成長。

We're also forecasting total revenue of approximately EUR5 billion in quarter three or 14% growth. This reflects an ARPU increase consistent with quarter two and improved growth in our advertising business that I mentioned earlier. We anticipate a quarter three gross margin of 32.9%, approximately 130 basis points above the prior year. Our gross margin outlook incorporates continued strengthening in our core business, reinvestments into new products and the typical charge we take in the third quarter to account for our annual exposure to regulatory fees in one of our markets.

我們也預測第三季總營收約為 50 億歐元，年增 14%。這反映 ARPU 的提升與第二季一致，並且如我先前提到的，我們的廣告業務成長有所改善。我們預期第三季毛利率為 32.9%，較去年同期高約 130 個基點。我們的毛利率展望納入核心業務持續走強、對新產品的再投資，以及我們通常在第三季認列的一項費用，用以反映我們在其中一個市場對年度監管費用的曝險。

Moving to operating income. We're guiding to EUR670 million in quarter three. This reflects the above, along with a temporary elevated operating expense in quarter two and quarter three. We continue to expect these marketing and AI-related investments to drive approximately EUR200 million in incremental operating expense for the full year. Quarter four is well positioned to see a moderation in the rate of year-over-year operating expense growth as we move past the heavy concentration of this year's marketing activities and calibrate on the other costs.

接著談營業利益。我們對第三季的指引為 6.70 億歐元。這反映上述因素，以及第二季與第三季營業費用短期偏高的情況。我們仍預期，這些行銷與 AI 相關投資將在全年帶來約 2 億歐元的增量營業費用。第四季的條件良好，隨著我們度過今年行銷活動高度集中的期間並校準其他成本，營業費用年增率可望放緩。

In 2026, we continue to be flat on the number of employees. So this year's investment cycle is not driven by structural expense additions. It's marketing and AI related, both for investments that are entirely in our control. As we stated at our recent Investor Day, we remain focused on striking a clear balance between LTV-enhancing investments and sustainable margin expansion.

在 2026 年，我們員工人數仍將維持持平。因此，今年的投資循環並非由結構性費用增加所驅動。主要是行銷與 AI 相關，且這兩者的投資完全在我們可控範圍內。如我們在近期投資人日所述，我們仍專注於在提升 LTV 的投資與可持續的利潤率擴張之間取得明確平衡。

Although we do not provide full year guidance for gross margin or operating margin, we continue to expect both to improve in 2026 on a full year basis. As we have said, the quarterly progression of our margins is variable and dependent on the timing of investments. As you've seen from us historically, the rollout of new features and products can temporarily moderate margin expansion while setting the business up well for future monetization potential. We continue to expect meaningful year-over-year growth in free cash flow in 2026.

雖然我們不提供全年毛利率或營業利潤率指引，但我們仍預期兩者在 2026 年以全年基礎計算將有所改善。如我們所說，我們利潤率的季度走勢具有變動性，並取決於投資時點。如同你們過去所見，新功能與新產品的推出可能會在短期內放緩利潤率擴張，但同時也能讓業務為未來的變現潛力做好更充分的準備。我們仍預期 2026 年自由現金流將實現顯著的年增成長。

So in conclusion, we had a solid quarter two. We remain well positioned to continue compounding growth, profitability and free cash flow.

總結來說，我們第二季表現穩健。我們仍具備良好條件，持續推動成長、獲利能力與自由現金流的複利式提升。

And with that, I hand it back to you, Bryan, and Q&A.

接下來交還給你，Bryan，並進入問答。

Great. Thank you, Christian. Again, if you've got any questions, please go to Slido.com, #SpotifyEarningsQ226. 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.

很好。謝謝你，Christian。再次提醒，如果你有任何問題，請前往 Slido.com，#SpotifyEarningsQ226。我們將依問題在佇列中出現的順序讀取，並參考大家對問題的投票排序。

And our first question today is going to come from Jessica Reif Ehrlich on the product road map. You have a unique global platform for both audio and video products. You provided a robust product road map in May at your analyst event. What products are you most excited about in the near term? And where do you think you will get the most traction over the next 3 to 5 years?

我們今天的第一個問題來自 Jessica Reif Ehrlich，關於產品路線圖。你們在音訊與視訊產品方面擁有獨特的全球平台。你們在 5 月的分析師活動中提供了相當完整的產品路線圖。短期內你們對哪些產品最感到興奮？而在未來 3 到 5 年，你認為哪些領域會獲得最大的市場動能？

So thanks for the question, Jessica. This is Gustav. I'll start and then maybe Alex wants to jump in because I know he's also very excited about the product. But this is kind of like asking me to choose between my children. So it's a tough question, but I'll try.

謝謝你的問題，Jessica。我是 Gustav。我先開始，然後也許 Alex 會補充，因為我知道他也對產品非常興奮。不過這有點像要我在孩子之間做選擇。所以這是個很難的問題，但我會試著回答。

But first, I kind of want to level up a little bit because what I am most excited about is the system that we've built and what we presented at Investor Day. So the way to think about it is some time ago, over a year ago, Alex and I spoke, and we realized that the world that we were in where software development was mostly an amortization game, right? You developed once and then you amortize your developer investment over more and more users. That world was going to change because inference adds a variable cost per user.

但首先，我想把層次拉高一點，因為我最興奮的是我們建立的系統，以及我們在投資人日所呈現的內容。思考方式是：在不久之前、約一年前，Alex 和我討論時意識到，我們所處的世界裡，軟體開發多半是一場攤銷的遊戲，對吧？你開發一次，然後把開發者的投資攤銷到越來越多的使用者身上。但那個世界將會改變，因為推論（inference）會為每位使用者帶來可變成本。

So we looked at this and we said the game is going to change. There's going to be more variable cost per user. This could be a headwind or it could be a tailwind. So we decided to start working on changing the model where this power law that Alex and I talked about were some users use the product a lot more than others, which didn't really matter so much in the amortization world because it didn't have large variable cost, but it will matter a lot in this new world. We decided to change the model.

所以我們看著這件事並說，遊戲規則將會改變。每位使用者的可變成本會更高。這可能是逆風，也可能是順風。因此我們決定著手改變模型：Alex 和我談到的冪次法則（power law）是，有些使用者使用產品的頻率遠高於其他人；在攤銷的世界裡這不太重要，因為沒有很大的可變成本，但在這個新世界裡就會非常重要。我們決定改變模型。

So we've built this platform where we can decide how much influence we want to put into the free tier, how much we want to put into the premium tier. And then instead of saying, that's where the party ends, you have to go somewhere else. We say to people, if you want to live in the future, you can, you just pay more.

因此我們建立了這個平台，讓我們可以決定要在免費層投入多少推論能力，要在付費層投入多少。然後我們不再對使用者說：「派對到此為止，你得去別的地方。」我們會對大家說：「如果你想活在未來，你可以，只是你要付更多。」

So we let some people who are prepared to pay for it run ahead of other users. And we demonstrated this model with Audiobooks, which works exactly like this. We give about 15 hours of Audiobooks in the premium tier. Some people want much much more than that. They're allowed to run ahead of everyone else and pay for it.

所以我們讓一些願意為此付費的人，能夠比其他使用者更早享受到更進階的體驗。我們用有聲書（Audiobooks）示範了這個模型，它的運作方式正是如此。我們在 Premium 方案中提供約 15 小時的有聲書。有些人想要遠遠超過這個量。他們可以比其他人更早往前走，並為此付費。

So we spent a lot of time building that infrastructure. And as we don't like to ship ideas, we didn't really talk about it until Investor Day. That's kind of what we revealed, this system to be able to have different types of users with different levels of monetization and different needs on the same platform instead of being sort of kept back by the average or what the least engaged user can afford or what we can afford to give them. So that is what I'm excited about, having built this platform.

因此我們花了很多時間打造那套基礎設施。而且因為我們不喜歡只發布想法，所以直到投資人日之前我們都沒有真正談這件事。那天我們揭露的，正是這套系統：能讓同一個平台上存在不同類型的使用者，具備不同程度的變現能力與不同需求，而不是被平均值、或最低參與度使用者能負擔的程度、或我們能提供給他們的程度所限制。所以我最興奮的是，我們打造出了這個平台。

Now we're launching a long range of products on top of this, and I can tell you sort of what I'm excited about there and which ones in the near term and longer term. But it's important to think about the structure on the systems type of guide. That's what really excites me.

現在我們會在這個基礎之上推出一長串產品，我也可以告訴你我對哪些短期與長期的產品感到興奮。但重要的是，要用系統架構這種指引方式來思考。那才是真正讓我感到興奮的地方。

In terms of actual products, I would say right now, the thing that excites me the most is Reserved. It is probably the feature that the most people ever have said, this is the best thing you ever did at Spotify. And we've seen, as Alex said in his introductory remark, really exciting numbers there. So I think this is one of the biggest values that we put in premium ever. And as we said before, this is actually unique to us because of the structure of these deals. So that's very exciting to me.

就實際產品而言，我會說目前最讓我興奮的是 Reserved。這大概是最多人曾經說過「這是你們在 Spotify 做過最棒的事情」的功能。而且正如 Alex 在開場致詞中所說，我們在那裡看到非常令人振奮的數據。所以我認為，這是我們迄今放進 Premium 的最大價值之一。而且如我們先前所說，這其實是我們獨有的，因為這些交易的結構使然。所以這讓我非常興奮。

The second thing I would say, more in terms of AI, which I mentioned in my comments, in my prepared remarks, is the LPM. The LPM, we talked a lot about at Investor Day, pretty big investment for us, both in terms of personnel but also training costs. So it's very good to see it paying off. The bet we made there was that the old type of machine learning had capped out. More data and larger models did not produce better results.

我想說的第二件事，更多是從 AI 的角度來看，我在評論、也在事先準備的發言中提到過，就是 LPM。我們在投資人日談了很多 LPM，對我們而言是相當大的投資，無論是人員配置還是訓練成本。所以很高興看到它開始帶來回報。我們當時的押注是，舊式的機器學習已經到達上限。更多資料與更大的模型並沒有產生更好的結果。

The sequence-based LLMs follow different loss, the loss that are called scaling loss where more compute, more parameters and more data actually produces better results. And now we're seeing those. We're seeing the scaling loss play out on the inside in terms of taste and recommendations. So that's very exciting to me.

以序列為基礎的 LLM 採用不同的 loss，也就是所謂的 scaling loss：更多算力、更多參數以及更多資料，確實會帶來更好的結果。而我們現在正看到這些效果。我們看到 scaling loss 在內部的「品味」與推薦上開始發揮作用。所以這讓我非常興奮。

The third thing that I'm really excited about, which I think Alex mentioned as well is SongDNA, which is a feature that we put a lot of love into. We acquired a company called WhoSampled to power this feature. So we invested something there. We took some cost and now it's paying off with over 100 million users using it and loving it. It's also very unique to us, so that's maybe my third if I would rank them.

第三件讓我非常興奮的事，我想 Alex 也提到過，就是 SongDNA。這是一個我們投入很多心力打造的功能。我們收購了一家名為 WhoSampled 的公司來支援這項功能。因此我們在那裡做了一些投資。我們承擔了一些成本，而現在它正在回收成果：已有超過 1 億名用戶在使用並且很喜歡。這也非常具有我們的獨特性，所以如果要排名的話，這可能是我的第三名。

Another one, which we don't talk so much about, but then I'm personally very excited about is music videos. We invested in music videos and a great music video experience for a very long time. Now we have both a good experience and a catalog. And we are seeing that songs with music videos, specifically new releases, are performing much better, which was the bet, meaning that music videos is of outsized importance when you're discovering a new artist because you're wondering who they are, you want to see them. It's not that important, the tenth time you listen to the song, but it's very important the first time, so that's quite exciting to me.

另外一個我們不太常談、但我個人非常興奮的是音樂影片。我們在音樂影片以及優質的音樂影片體驗上投入了很長一段時間。現在我們同時擁有良好的體驗與曲庫。而我們看到有音樂影片的歌曲，特別是新發行作品，表現明顯更好；這正是我們當初的押注。也就是說，在你發掘一位新藝人時，音樂影片的重要性遠高於平均，因為你會好奇他們是誰、你想看到他們。當你第十次聽同一首歌時，這就沒那麼重要，但第一次非常重要，所以這讓我很興奮。

Obviously, I think it's a tie between maybe (inaudible) pods and running. Running just because fitness is so close to my heart. I think we have a very unique experience there, which no one else can really do. There is no other service that can give you a playlist at the cadence you're running in with your favorite songs and beats stretch them and mix them together. (inaudible) excites me because it's a podcast that didn't exist before.

顯然，我覺得可能是（聽不清）pods 和跑步之間並列。跑步是因為健身對我來說非常貼近內心。我認為我們在那裡提供了非常獨特的體驗，其他人真的做不到。沒有任何其他服務能依照你跑步的步頻，提供一份播放清單，包含你最喜歡的歌曲，並把節拍拉伸、再把它們混合在一起。（聽不清）讓我興奮，因為那是一個以前不存在的 Podcast。

It's a podcast about you, both your taste, the new releases that came out in terms of music, the podcast that you missed last week, the books that you should have read or that are coming out. But also if you ask for it, exactly what happened in your neighborhood. There's no podcast about your actual neighborhood, but now there is. So that excites me and what we see the very, very early signs, I want to say, but the very early signs are exciting. This is something that is new to people. I think those are the ones that are near term and exciting.

那是一個關於你的 Podcast：包含你的品味、音樂方面的新發行、你上週錯過的 Podcast、你應該讀或即將出版的書。而且如果你提出要求，還能告訴你你所在社區到底發生了什麼事。以前沒有任何 Podcast 是關於你實際居住的社區，但現在有了。所以這讓我很興奮；而我們看到的跡象非常、非常早期，我想這麼說，但這些早期跡象令人振奮。這對人們來說是新的東西。我認為這些是近期內既令人興奮、也可望落地的項目。

Longer term, I was also, obviously, I'd be remiss if I didn't say that our remix and coverage, I think is an incredibly exciting product, again, because there is no one else that can really do this. Normal generative music will happen with or without us. This product will not happen without us, and it needs to exist so that existing artists can participate in this. So that's very exciting to me. It's a lot of work. It's going to take more time. but I'm very excited about what we're seeing internally.

更長期來看，當然，如果我不提我們的 remix 和 coverage，我就說不過去了；我認為這是一個極其令人興奮的產品，同樣因為沒有其他人真的能做到這件事。一般的生成式音樂不管有沒有我們都會發生。但這個產品沒有我們就不會發生，而且它必須存在，才能讓既有的藝人參與其中。所以這讓我非常興奮。這需要做很多工作。也會需要更多時間，但我對我們在內部看到的進展非常興奮。

Lastly, I would say the longer term back to systems thinking is really what you can see in Talk to Spotify. So if you've been lucky enough to be in the U.S., we started rolling this out and try it, you can literally talk to Spotify now and you get very good answers about the music, about who played in what band, when they're touring, what the song is about, these are better answers than you get from any LLM, certainly within our domains, about podcasts and books and music. So without stretching it too far, I feel like Spotify is coming alive and you can literally start talking to it. That's a long answer, but that's what I'm excited about.

最後，我想說更長期、回到系統思維的部分，真正能在「Talk to Spotify」中看到。如果你很幸運在美國，我們已開始逐步推出，你可以試用：你現在真的可以跟 Spotify 對話，而且你能得到非常好的答案——關於音樂、誰在哪個樂團演奏、他們何時巡演、歌曲在講什麼；在我們的領域內（包含 Podcast、書籍與音樂），這些答案比你從任何 LLM 得到的都更好。所以不把話說得太誇張的話，我覺得 Spotify 正在「活」起來，你真的可以開始跟它對話。回答有點長，但這就是我感到興奮的地方。

Man, you covered all of the ones that I would wanted. I wouldn't have to add. Sorry.

天啊，你把我想要的都講完了。我也不用再補充了。抱歉。

Great. All right. We'll go on to the next question. And another one from Jessica Reif Ehrlich on advertising. Advertising growth in the past year has been subdued despite programmatic now comprising over 25% of ad-supported revenue.

很好。好。我們進入下一題。下一題同樣來自 Jessica Reif Ehrlich，關於廣告。儘管程式化（programmatic）目前已占廣告支持營收的 25% 以上，但過去一年廣告成長仍然偏溫和。

Can you provide an outlook for the coming year or years? And what can you do to drive momentum in what is a very high-margin business that monetizes your engaged and growing base of users?

你能否提供未來一年或數年的展望？以及在這個高毛利業務中，你們能做些什麼來推動動能，將你們高度投入且持續成長的用戶基礎變現？

Jessica, this is Alex. I'll start. I'll actually take the opportunity to organize this a little bit differently because I do think that this similar question is coming further down the line from Richard Greenfield. So I'll try to do both at the same time. I'll speak to maybe most to why should investors have confidence in us when it comes to the ad sales business as Spotify, and then maybe Christian can talk about the margin side of things.

Jessica，我是 Alex。我先開始。我也想藉此機會用稍微不同的方式來整理，因為我確實認為後面還會有一個來自 Richard Greenfield 的類似問題。所以我會嘗試一次回答兩個。我會主要談談：就 Spotify 的廣告銷售業務而言，投資人為什麼應該對我們有信心；然後也許 Christian 可以談談毛利率那一側的事情。

So I want to pull the lens back a little bit and talk about the past 2 years here. I've said many times now that we have been in a transitional phase with ad sales. And in the beginning of this year, we completed that transitioning. We now are entirely on the new ad stack that is proprietary built inside the walls of Spotify. I think 99% of all the impressions that we serve are now on our own ad stack.

我想把視角稍微拉遠，談談過去兩年的情況。我已經多次說過，我們的廣告銷售一直處於轉型期。而在今年年初，我們完成了這個轉型。我們現在已完全切換到新的廣告技術堆疊（ad stack），這是 Spotify 在內部自建的專有系統。我想我們目前投放的所有曝光（impressions）中，有 99% 都已在我們自己的 ad stack 上。

But the big thing is the addition of the (inaudible) change that we put in place and the automated sales channels. These are now almost 40% in Q2, up from 30%. And if you ask me, I can tell you that it's even going up further from here.

但更重要的是，我們新增了（聽不清）的變更，以及我們導入的自動化銷售渠道。這些在第二季已接近 40%，高於先前的 30%。如果你問我，我可以告訴你，這個比例接下來還會繼續上升。

So the two things to think about is obviously supply and demand. We'll start with supply. The supply picture has actually never been stronger. It's not only about user growth and reach, which is obvious because we grow and then the reach follows. But it's also about [MFT+] and the new placements we have in the free tier. It's also about us launching personalized ad load, and it's also about the depth of the engagement that we have.

所以要思考的兩件事，顯然就是供給與需求。我們先從供給開始。供給面的情況其實從未如此強勁。這不只是用戶成長與觸及（reach）——這很直觀，因為我們成長，觸及就會跟著上升。也包括 [MFT+] 以及我們在免費層推出的新廣告版位。也包括我們推出個人化的廣告負載（personalized ad load），以及我們所擁有的互動深度。

So this, in turn, drives a lot of supply for us to sort of match demand against. Now on the demand side, for the longest time, since the inception of Spotify really, up until 2 years ago, the way to buy ads on Spotify is a brand would call us, literally call us or contact us via e-mail, and they would buy fixed and guaranteed campaigns from Spotify.

因此，這反過來為我們帶來大量供給，讓我們得以某種程度上用來對應需求。而在需求端，長期以來，從 Spotify 真正創立開始一直到 2 年前，在 Spotify 上購買廣告的方式是：品牌會打電話給我們，真的就是打電話或透過電子郵件聯絡我們，然後向 Spotify 購買固定且保證投放的活動。

Now, that's all good, but it's also capping us in several ways. One is it's really capping us in terms of pricing and sell-through. So when the inventory is bought, it's bought. And it's also capping us obviously in the ways that people want to buy, not everyone wants to write e-mails, sign IOs and make calls. They further wanted to automate the buying as well.

這當然不錯，但也在幾個方面限制了我們。其中之一是，它確實在定價與售罄率（sell-through）方面限制了我們。因為一旦庫存被買走，就等於被買走了。而且它也顯然限制了人們想要購買的方式——不是每個人都想寫電子郵件、簽 IO（插單）和打電話。他們也進一步希望把購買流程自動化。

So what we have put in place now actually uncaps this, unlocks both of these things. One of the obvious thing is that it's -- a lot of it is self-serve and automated. The other thing is that now people that find our ad inventory valuable can go in and bid up the pricing. So it unlocks really both of these things.

所以我們現在實際上建立的機制，確實把這些限制解除，並同時解鎖這兩件事。其中一個很明顯的是——很大一部分是自助式與自動化的。另一個是，現在覺得我們廣告庫存有價值的人，可以進來競價、把價格推高。所以它真的同時解鎖了這兩件事。

And the bottom line is really that this has led to not just existing advertisers moving over to this new way of buying. But it's also that we have increased the active advertisers. We are now at 33,000 active advertisers. This is 60% up from last year, which is great. So it's really the right plan, and we need to just keep working on it.

而最終結果是，這不僅讓既有廣告主轉移到這種新的購買方式。同時我們也增加了活躍廣告主的數量。我們現在有 33,000 名活躍廣告主。這比去年增加了 60%，非常好。所以這確實是正確的計畫，我們只需要持續推進。

A funny sort of tidbit in this is that we recently launched plug-ins and MCPs towards Claude, ChatGPT as well as Gemini. And people are now actually prompting to create campaigns and audio assets. I think out of the 33,000 active advertisers, we now have 7,000 of them using our AI audio asset creation tool, which just makes it easier for brands to buy on Spotify.

這裡有個有趣的小插曲：我們最近針對 Claude、ChatGPT 以及 Gemini 推出了外掛與 MCP。現在人們其實正在用提示詞（prompting）來建立活動與音訊素材。我想在這 33,000 名活躍廣告主中，我們現在有 7,000 名在使用我們的 AI 音訊素材製作工具，這讓品牌在 Spotify 上投放變得更容易。

So there's a lot of change going on. But I'll just rinse repeat. There are 3 reasons that there's -- well, something that hasn't changed, and that's the 3 reasons that people come to Spotify to buy ads. It's a beloved brand, it's the high-quality content and it's our high user engagement.

所以正在發生很多變化。但我再重複一次。有 3 個原因——也就是有些事情沒有改變——那就是人們來 Spotify 買廣告的 3 個原因。它是一個深受喜愛的品牌、有高品質內容，以及我們的用戶高參與度。

So Christian here, just on the margin side to fill in on that. I mean one of the things you brought up, Alex, is very important to understand. I mean when we move to an automated sales channel, and we also have self-served, it becomes a scale business different from before. So as we scale and the ad monetization, both from music and podcast, we will also be able to improve our profitability.

我是 Christian，補充一下關於毛利率（margin）的部分。Alex，你提到的一點非常重要，必須理解。當我們轉向自動化的銷售通路、同時也提供自助式投放時，它就會變成一個與過去不同的規模型（scale）生意。因此，隨著我們擴大規模並提升廣告變現（ad monetization），不論是音樂或 Podcast，我們也將能改善獲利能力。

And as we said at our Investor Day, we believe that we can move from the 20% range we have today towards 40% over time. And music, as we scale in emerging markets, we should see healthy margin flow through on ad sales. So that's what I wanted to add on the margin side.

而且正如我們在投資人日所說，我們相信我們可以從目前約 20% 的區間，隨時間推進到 40%。另外，隨著我們在新興市場擴大音樂規模，我們應該會看到廣告銷售帶來健康的毛利率貢獻（margin flow-through）。以上是我想在毛利率面補充的。

Okay. Our next question is going to come from Rich Greenfield on music add-ons. Are you surprised more artists have not signed on to the AI music tier to enable you to launch? What is stopping artists from participating?

好的。下一個問題來自 Rich Greenfield，關於音樂加購（add-ons）。你是否意外，為什麼還沒有更多藝人加入 AI 音樂層級（tier），以便你們推出？是什麼阻止藝人參與？

I'll start, and then maybe Gustav, you can jump in. Following our agreement that we had with UMG and Universal Music Publishing Group in May, we announced today the deal with Merlin which adds 30,000 labels in Merlin's network, the opportunity to partake into this new product that we're building around covers and remixes. I think it's worth rinse repeating what we said during Investor Day. What we're trying to do is very considerate and planned out. So we're trying to -- we call it the 3Cs at Spotify.

我先開始，然後 Gustav 你也可以補充。在我們於 5 月與 UMG 以及 Universal Music Publishing Group 達成協議之後，我們今天宣布與 Merlin 的合作，這讓 Merlin 網路中的 30,000 家唱片公司有機會參與我們正在打造、圍繞翻唱（covers）與混音（remixes）的新產品。我覺得值得再重複一次我們在投資人日說過的內容。我們正在做的事情非常審慎且有規劃。我們在 Spotify 把它稱為 3C。

First of all, we are looking for consent. We want artists to be consenting their work into this catalog, so people can play around with covers and remixes based on their art. We obviously want to give them credit. And last but not least, this is about compensation to the labels and publishers and artists and songwriters. Not only do we have the consent and give credit, but we also drive the compensation for this. So really, we're talking about the first legal way to partaking this AI tailwind that we see coming for interactive music basically.

首先，我們在尋求同意（consent）。我們希望藝人同意把他們的作品納入這個目錄，讓人們可以基於他們的藝術來玩翻唱與混音。我們當然也希望給予他們署名（credit）。最後但同樣重要的是，這關乎對唱片公司、出版商、藝人與詞曲作者的報酬（compensation）。我們不僅取得同意並給予署名，也會推動相應的報酬機制。所以本質上，我們談的是第一個合法的方式，去參與我們看到即將到來、面向互動式音樂的 AI 順風（tailwind）。

And I would just say we have really strong momentum there. One thing that I think is important to remember is that while you can see that there is skepticism around net new artificial music for many people out there, what we're doing is something different, and artists see that. Our products are about real artists, not fake artists. And in the case, our remix is real artists with real voices, right? So you're listening to real people.

我還想說，我們在這方面的動能非常強。我認為有一點很重要：雖然你可以看到，外界對於全新生成的人工音樂（artificial music）存在懷疑，但我們做的是不同的事情，藝人也看得出來。我們的產品是關於真實藝人，而不是假藝人。而且在混音的情境下，是用真實藝人的真實聲音，對吧？所以你聽到的是真人。

And that's a very different proposition, which is why we're focusing on this. This is the thing that doesn't exist. And artists remain excited about that, and consumers remain excited about that. But it is an ever-changing landscape.

這是一個非常不同的主張（proposition），也是我們聚焦於此的原因。這是目前不存在的東西。而藝人對此仍然感到興奮，消費者也仍然感到興奮。但這是一個持續變動的環境。

I would say what to expect from us is that you should expect to see a research preview coming out of our model where we start to give this to some users. And for that, we do not require, as we've said before, a full catalog. Why is this important for us? So this is not a test of the product. It is the thing that guarantees that the product will be very good.

我會說，你可以期待我們接下來會推出一個研究預覽（research preview），從我們的模型中釋出，並開始提供給部分用戶。而為了做到這點，我們不需要——如同我們之前說過的——完整的曲庫（full catalog）。為什麼這對我們很重要？因為這不是在測試產品。它是確保產品會非常好的關鍵。

So for those of you who know about machine learning, you know that one of the most important thesis is the post training using reinforcement learning. So what we will do is we will allow people who are fans of a certain art to start making remixes with songs from that artist. And what they do is they say, I think this remix was better than this remix. And then we get the preference data that actually makes the model better. And this is our unique advantage in this business. We have now 777 million people and music fans to do reinforcement learning with, which is why we think we're very well positioned in this business.

對於熟悉機器學習的人來說，你會知道其中一個最重要的論點是：透過強化學習進行後訓練（post training）。所以我們會讓某位藝人的粉絲，開始用該藝人的歌曲來做混音。然後他們會說，我覺得這個混音比那個混音更好。接著我們就能取得偏好資料（preference data），實際上讓模型變得更好。這就是我們在這個業務中的獨特優勢。我們現在有 7.77 億人與音樂粉絲可以用來做強化學習，因此我們認為自己在這個領域具備非常好的位置。

So that's kind of what you should expect as the next step. We're going to launch the product when it's ready. And we think it's good enough, and it has the right appeal to consumers.

所以這大概就是你可以期待的下一步。我們會在產品準備好時推出。而且我們認為它足夠好，也對消費者有正確的吸引力。

Okay. Our next question is going to come from Justin Patterson on AI tooling. Over the course of 2026, we've seen meaningful momentum in Open Source. How are you thinking about the costs and benefits of deploying Open Source more broadly versus how you're using Anthropics, Claude and other models today?

好的。下一個問題將來自 Justin Patterson，關於 AI 工具。在 2026 年的過程中，我們看到開源（Open Source）出現了顯著動能。你們如何思考更廣泛部署開源的成本與效益，相較於你們今天使用 Anthropic、Claude 以及其他模型的方式？

Yes. So I'll go here as well. Of course, the Open Source movement is very helpful for us. And we've talked about this, the large taste model is based on Open Source. It is using what is called CPT, continues pre-training, where you take a model that was trained in an Open Source Model and you continue to train it on your proprietary data.

是的。所以我也會在這裡談一下。當然，開源運動對我們非常有幫助。而且我們也談過，大型品味模型是建立在開源之上的。它使用所謂的 CPT（持續預訓練，continuous pre-training）：你先拿一個在開源模型上訓練過的模型，然後再用你的專有資料繼續訓練。

This is what I talked about that is performing really well for us. So the fact that these models come up more often are much better and cheaper at the same time. It's obviously very helpful for the consumer product.

這就是我提到的、對我們表現非常好的做法。因此，這些模型更頻繁地出現，而且同時更好也更便宜。這顯然對消費者產品非常有幫助。

But it's also helpful for our development environment and our developer cost, as I said. We've built this internal product called Chirp that we will also offer to other companies actually because they're asking for the same thing where you can seamlessly switch between one of the paid models and a hosted Open Source model, keeping the context of the project that you were in, right? This is why it's important for us that we control the context of the development we're doing so that we can always go towards the best price performance.

但這對我們的開發環境以及我所說的開發者成本也有幫助。我們打造了一個名為 Chirp 的內部產品；實際上我們也會提供給其他公司，因為他們也在尋求同樣的東西：你可以在付費模型與託管的開源模型之間無縫切換，同時保留你所在專案的上下文，對吧？這就是為什麼對我們而言，掌控我們正在進行的開發上下文很重要，這樣我們就能隨時選擇最佳的性價比。

Also, I think you can all see that this is putting pressure on the pricing. And there are lots of announcements of prices coming down per token, which is obviously very helpful for us, like on a constant per feature or quality level, it's pretty clear that the costs are coming down for a certain level of quality. That doesn't mean that we won't use more advanced models, but for a certain feature of level of quality, the costs are coming down quite fast.

另外，我想大家也都看得出來，這正在對定價造成壓力。而且有很多公告顯示每個 token 的價格在下降，這對我們顯然非常有利；也就是在每項功能或品質水準固定的情況下，很明顯在某個品質水準下的成本正在下降。這不代表我們不會使用更先進的模型，但就某個功能的品質水準而言，成本下降得相當快。

Okay. Our next question is going to come from Batya Levi on MAU. What's informing your guidance for slower MAU growth in the third quarter? Do you see a change in the competitive environment or the general intake for your campaigns? And then if I may, I see Benjamin Black had a question about some initiatives to drive MAU growth in the future as well, so you might want to address that also.

好的。下一個問題來自 MAU 方面的 Batya Levi。你們對第三季 MAU 成長放緩的指引是基於哪些因素？你們是否看到競爭環境或你們行銷活動的一般導入量有所變化？另外，如果可以的話，我看到 Benjamin Black 也問到一些未來推動 MAU 成長的措施，所以你們也可以一併回應。

Yes, I will. Thanks, Batya and Benjamin. Just to hijack this for a second. You don't see us here, but Gustav and I are in Stockholm. The sun is shining, and we're happy about the fundamentals of Spotify. It's really in a good place. We just hit 300 million subscribers, and we're super elated to be in this sort of rarified air, and it just keeps growing.

好的，我會的。謝謝你，Batya 和 Benjamin。讓我先借題發揮一下。你們看不到我們，但 Gustav 和我人在斯德哥爾摩。陽光正好，我們也對 Spotify 的基本面感到很開心。它真的處在一個很好的位置。我們剛達到 3 億訂閱戶，我們非常振奮能進入這種少數公司的行列，而且它還在持續成長。

On the question of MAU. So we've had a few years of outperformance in MAU. And maybe more recently and maybe past 4 or 5 quarters, we've had outperformance relating specifically to emerging markets. I think we've pointed that out in past earnings calls. And of course, emerging markets includes countries like India and Indonesia and so on.

關於 MAU 的問題。我們在 MAU 上已經有好幾年表現超出預期。而且可能在最近、也就是過去 4 到 5 個季度，我們的超預期表現特別來自新興市場。我想我們在過去的財報電話會議中也指出過這點。當然，新興市場包含像印度、印尼等等國家。

And as a reminder, these are very populous nations. So they're a very lucrative opportunity for us. And what you're seeing us do now is that we're making changes to the product and the value proposition and strategy in these markets. We've made changes like tweaking the sign-up to get a higher quality MAU throughput with deprecated (inaudible) and Android device support, which builds the business and makes it more efficient for us. We've carefully introduced some friction in both ad load and some limitations in our free tier.

提醒一下，這些都是人口非常多的國家。因此對我們而言是非常有利可圖的機會。而你們現在看到我們在做的是：我們正在這些市場調整產品、價值主張與策略。我們做了一些改動，例如調整註冊流程，以在淘汰（聽不清）與 Android 裝置支援的情況下，取得更高品質的 MAU 導入量，這能建立業務並提升我們的效率。我們也在廣告負載以及免費層的一些限制上，謹慎地引入了一些摩擦。

All of these things are positioning us for more monetization. And Gustav and I have the saying where we say sometimes we pull the growth lever and sometimes you pull the monetization level. Now here, we're starting to pull the monetization lever. So our belief is that this is going to take some time, but the shape of the growth curve follows other markets. And the way to think about it is really when you start out in the market, you work on getting product market fit and get some end use.

這些做法都在為更高的變現能力做定位。Gustav 和我有句話：有時候我們拉的是成長槓桿，有時候拉的是變現槓桿。而現在，我們開始拉變現槓桿。所以我們相信這需要一些時間，但成長曲線的形狀會跟其他市場相似。理解方式是：當你剛進入一個市場時，你會先致力於達到產品市場契合（PMF），並取得一些終端使用。

Slowly and surely, that MAU growth will increase. And then all of a sudden, you have a base to convert from. Then you have some subscribers come in, there's some conversion coming. And then as you calibrate the product and value proposition, that growth then continues to become something like a [LatAm,] which also started out with very low conversion, but massive MAU growth. So our planning here is very considerate. And I think also a consequential point here is that this will not affect subs growth in the near term.

慢慢地、穩健地，MAU 成長會提升。然後突然之間，你就有了一個可以轉換的基礎。接著會有一些訂閱戶進來，開始出現轉換。然後當你校準產品與價值主張後，成長就會持續演進，變得更像拉丁美洲（LatAm）那樣——那裡一開始轉換率也很低，但 MAU 成長非常強勁。因此我們在這裡的規劃非常審慎。另外一個重要且會帶來影響的點是：這在短期內不會影響訂閱戶成長。

All right. Our next question is from Rich Greenfield on Reserved. You started a meaningful ad campaign for Reserved ticketing after role model. How many concert tours have you worked with since? And are you starting to see an uptick in conversion to paid tiers to excess Reserved?

好的。下一個問題來自 Reserved 的 Rich Greenfield。你們在 role model 之後，為 Reserved 票務啟動了一個具規模的廣告活動。自那之後你們合作了多少個演唱會巡演？你們是否開始看到為了使用 Reserved 而轉換到付費層級的情況有所上升？

And how do you see Spotify's positioning in the broader live event ecosystem evolving?

以及你如何看待 Spotify 在更廣泛的現場活動生態系中的定位演進？

That's a good question. Thank you, Richard. Whenever I get to talk to users about Reserved, we get so much praise. We get praised. Live Nation gets praised for the partnership with us and the way we're sort of shaping this feature.

這是個好問題。謝謝你，Richard。每當我有機會跟使用者談 Reserved，我們都會收到很多稱讚。我們受到稱讚。Live Nation 也因為與我們的合作、以及我們塑造這項功能的方式而受到稱讚。

And just as a reminder, the big idea with Reserved is that the biggest fans get access to tickets. Secondly, artists get to have the biggest fans in the room. And third, Spotify gets to have unique value for our premium subscribers, which obviously gives us differentiation, the way the deals are structured, to Gustav's earlier point, but it also increases value to price perception for Spotify. It really is like a triple win.

再提醒一下，Reserved 的核心概念是：最忠實的粉絲可以取得門票。第二，藝人能讓最忠實的粉絲在現場。第三，Spotify 能為我們的 Premium 訂閱戶提供獨特價值，這顯然帶來差異化；依照交易結構（呼應 Gustav 先前的觀點），它也提升了使用者對 Spotify 的價值相對價格的感受。這確實是一個三贏。

It's still early to your point on how many tours we've done. It's been a few. It's U.S. only for premium right now. So the rough numbers that we've had about 100,000 ticks reserved -- tickets reserved.

就你提到我們做了多少巡演而言，現在還算早期。目前只有幾個。目前僅限美國、且只針對 Premium。所以我們目前大概的數字是：已預留大約 100,000 張票——預留的門票數。

And in some instances, we've blown through the allocation, and Live Nation has even upsized mid run. Obviously, I'm looking forward to many more tours and more markets. And as far as monetization goes, this is currently about increasing the value to price ratio on premium.

而在某些情況下，我們很快就用完配額，Live Nation 甚至在巡演進行中途增加配額。顯然，我期待未來有更多巡演以及更多市場。至於變現方面，目前主要是提升 Premium 的價值相對價格的比率。

All right. Our next question is going to come from Jason Bazinet on music add-ons. You now have AI music deals with UMG and Merlin. Do you need deals with all the majors before you launch an AI service? Why or why not?

好的。下一個問題將來自 Jason Bazinet，關於音樂加值服務（music add-ons）。你們現在已與 UMG 和 Merlin 達成 AI 音樂協議。在推出 AI 服務之前，你們是否需要與所有大型唱片公司都達成協議？為什麼需要或不需要？

So I can start there. So the answer is we do not need deal with all the majors. We would like to have as many artists as possible, obviously, but we don't expect to have all artists. And if you go back to the beginning of Spotify, Spotify started without significant parts of the catalog. It took many, many years before the big acts like maybe the Beatles, Metallica were on.

我可以先回答。答案是：我們不需要與所有大型唱片公司都達成協議。當然，我們希望涵蓋盡可能多的藝人，但我們不預期能涵蓋所有藝人。如果你回顧 Spotify 剛開始的時候，Spotify 在一開始就缺少目錄中的相當一部分內容。在像披頭四、Metallica 這類大型藝人上架之前，花了很多很多年。

So we don't need full catalog. Of course, we want as many as possible because that's better for consumers and for creators. But as I said, what you should expect is that we start improving this product in the public as a research preview so that we can start getting the preference data that automatically improves our model. So that will be the next step. And then we'll decide when we launch based on where we are. There's more to come, but very strong momentum.

所以我們不需要完整的目錄。當然，我們希望越多越好，因為這對消費者與創作者都更有利。但如我所說，你們應該預期的是，我們會先以研究預覽的形式在公開環境中開始改進這個產品，這樣我們就能開始取得偏好資料，並自動改善我們的模型。所以那將是下一步。接著我們會依據進展狀況來決定何時正式推出。後續還有更多內容，但動能非常強勁。

All right. Our next question comes from Eric Sheridan on monetization. On the heels of Q2 '26, premium subscriber growth reaching 300 million. How should investors think about the scope for monetization efforts as a result of more interactive tools and live event integrations across the subscriber base?

好的。下一個問題來自 Eric Sheridan，關於變現。在 2026 年第二季之後，Premium 訂閱用戶成長達到 3 億。隨著更多互動式工具與直播活動整合到整個訂閱用戶基礎中，投資人應該如何看待變現努力的空間與幅度？

I'll take that. So you're basically baking in an opportunity and TAM question and also sort of like a pricing question in here and product as well, I guess. And we've said it before, but we're early in our days. I think we've reached this sort of 300 million mark, which is rarified air. There aren't many other companies that have built one product and have 300 million recurring customers come back again and again every month.

我來回答。所以你基本上把機會與 TAM（總可服務市場）問題、某種程度上的定價問題，以及我想也包含產品面，都放在這個問題裡了。我們之前也說過，但我們仍處於早期階段。我認為我們達到這個 3 億的里程碑，這是非常稀有的層級。沒有多少公司能打造單一產品，並讓 3 億名經常性客戶每個月一次又一次回來使用。

So we're now close to 4% of the world's population.

所以我們現在接近全球人口的 4%。

We've said before that maybe we'll not reach 90% of the world, but it's not impossible that we'll get to 15% penetration of the world. So our most important line of work here for Gustav and I is actually to drive the value to price ratio upwards, meaning we need to keep building interactive tools like you talked about, including covers and remixes, but also some of the more recent ones like taste profile, personalized podcasts and so on and so on. And Audiobooks is a great example of an add-on on Spotify that basically generates more sort of structural ARPU increase than just price increases.

我們之前說過，也許我們不會觸及全球 90% 的人口，但達到全球 15% 的滲透率並非不可能。因此，對 Gustav 和我而言，這裡最重要的工作主軸其實是把「價值對價格比」往上推，也就是我們需要持續打造你提到的互動式工具，包括封面與混音（remixes），也包括一些較新的功能，例如品味輪廓（taste profile）、個人化 Podcast 等等。而有聲書（Audiobooks）就是 Spotify 上一個很好的加購（add-on）例子，它基本上帶來的是比單純漲價更具結構性的 ARPU 提升。

And I've spoken to MAU as well. So there's a bit of a differentiated approach depending on if we're talking about developed market or established -- developing markets or established markets. And so we do think that the opportunity ahead of us is still enhanced.

我也談到 MAU（每月活躍用戶）。所以如果我們談的是已開發市場或開發中市場、或成熟市場，做法會有一些差異化。因此我們確實認為，未來在我們面前的機會仍在擴大。

Okay. Our next question comes from Justin Patterson on time spent. In 2025, you streamed 211 billion hours of content versus Netflix's 191 billion. As you expanded new formats like fitness and deepen personalization capabilities across the platform, how do you believe time spent can evolve on Spotify?

好的。下一個問題來自 Justin Patterson，關於使用時長。在 2025 年，你們串流了 2,110 億小時的內容，相較之下 Netflix 為 1,910 億小時。隨著你們擴展健身等新形式並加深平台的個人化能力，你們認為 Spotify 的使用時長會如何演進？

It's a good question, Justin. You're pointing to Netflix and sometimes we also get a similar comparison with YouTube. And I think the important comparison and observation to make here is that we're very different from these other streamers. When it comes to engagement, our engagement typically spans many more devices than our friends here in the industry, whereas most of them are big screen and maybe small screen. We are speakers.

這是個好問題，Justin。你提到 Netflix，而我們有時也會被拿來與 YouTube 做類似比較。我認為這裡重要的比較與觀察是：我們與其他串流平台非常不同。就互動（engagement）而言，我們的互動通常跨越更多裝置，相較於業界的其他朋友多半是大螢幕，可能再加上小螢幕。我們是喇叭。

We're gaming consoles. We are cars. We are context like sleep, we're a context like studying, where you actually find Spotify actually much more compatible. So you have sort of the context universe spread out over our billions of hours.

我們是遊戲主機。我們在車上。我們也存在於各種情境，例如睡眠、例如讀書，在這些情境下你會發現 Spotify 其實更相容、更適配。所以你會看到情境宇宙分散在我們數十億小時的使用之中。

And I think it's worth pointing out also that the one metric that we pay, especially put special value on when it comes to engagement is the active days. And we've talked about before that we have over 100 million of our subscribers spending more than 20 days in a month with us. And so the reason why we're tracking this number, the active days is that we find it to correlate very well with lifetime value, which is great for us, right? So we've seen that increase again and again, and even this quarter, active days in the month has increased overall for premium subscribers on Spotify.

我也想指出，我們在衡量互動時特別重視的一個指標是「活躍天數（active days）」。我們之前談過，有超過 1 億名訂閱用戶每月與我們互動超過 20 天。我們之所以追蹤活躍天數，是因為我們發現它與終身價值（LTV）高度相關，這對我們非常有利，對吧？所以我們看到這個指標一再提升，甚至在本季，Spotify 的 Premium 訂閱用戶每月活躍天數整體也有所增加。

All right. Our next question is from Deepak Mathivanan on AI products. You've launched several AI-powered products in the last 6 months, including Prompted Playlists. Can you discuss what types of benefits you're seeing in the KPIs such as listening hours, conversion rates or churn?

好的。下一個問題來自 Deepak Mathivanan，關於 AI 產品。你們在過去 6 個月推出了多項 AI 驅動的產品，包括 Prompted Playlists。你們能否談談在 KPI（關鍵績效指標）上看到哪些效益，例如收聽時數、轉換率或流失率（churn）？

Sure. Thanks, Deepak. So I think in general, some metrics is that AI powered experiences now reach about 1/4 of our active users. And this year's launches, I talked to Spotify Studio personal podcast from the playlists, they're scaling really fast. So it's already reached more than 25% adoption among active users.

當然可以。謝謝你，Deepak。我想整體來說，一些指標顯示 AI 驅動的體驗目前已觸及約 1/4 的活躍用戶。而今年推出的功能——我提到的 Spotify Studio 個人化 Podcast（由播放清單生成）——擴張得非常快。所以在活躍用戶中，採用率已經超過 25%。

So we have scale and a healthy compounding business and opportunities that we're then uniquely positioned to pursue. So we feel very good about the overall adoption. Prompted Playlists specifically, I think has reached already 14 million of the 100 million active. So that's pretty quick adoption for a feature like this.

因此我們具備規模、健康的複利式業務，以及我們得以獨特地去追求的機會。所以我們對整體採用情況感到非常樂觀。就 Prompted Playlists 而言，我認為它已經觸及 1 億活躍用戶中的 1,400 萬人。所以對這樣的功能來說，這是相當快速的採用速度。

And in terms of what we're seeing, I shared a bunch of metrics in the prepared remarks here around the large taste model, where we are moving some of the metrics that are absolutely the hardest to move, which are active days. And sort of related to the previous question of viewing hours and engagement. As Alex has said before and I, we focus on active days as the most important metric to try to drive rather than only engagement in the moment. And so we are seeing those effects from this. And I think overall, since 2010, when we started investing in personalization, the correlation with personalization and retention has been super clear for us.

至於我們看到的成效，我在事先準備的講稿中分享了不少指標，圍繞著大型品味模型（large taste model），我們正在推動一些最難被推動的指標，其中就是活躍天數。這也與前一題提到的觀看時數與互動相關。如 Alex 之前以及我所說，我們更聚焦於把活躍天數作為最重要、需要推動的指標，而不只是當下的即時互動。因此我們確實看到了這些帶來的效果。而整體而言，自 2010 年我們開始投資個人化以來，個人化與留存（retention）之間的關聯對我們一直非常清楚。

Okay. Our next question comes from Doug Anmuth on third quarter operating expenses. Can you talk about the drivers of the implied acceleration in operating expenses in Q3?

好的。下一個問題來自 Doug Anmuth，關於第三季營運費用。你能談談第三季營運費用隱含加速的驅動因素嗎？

Thank you, Doug. Yes, I just wanted to -- I understand there could be a little bit of confusion here on our expense for this year. We have said we're going to elevate it with EUR200 million for this year, something that is very much in control and structural. And just to give a little bit better guidance on it, excluding the currency and social charges we see on our expenses, our expense growth in quarter three, we expect it to be roughly consistent with quarter two. So it's going to be pretty much the same growth. So I think it's important to be careful with the rounding nature of our guidance. We talked about EUR5 billion. We also had, I mean, growth, 14% growth and ARPU consistency between the quarters.

謝謝你，Doug。是的，我只是想——我理解大家對我們今年的費用可能會有一些困惑。我們已經說過，今年我們會把費用提高 2 億歐元（EUR200 million），這是我們非常可控且具結構性的項目。為了提供更清楚的指引，若排除我們費用中看到的匯率與社會費用（social charges）影響，我們預期第三季的費用成長大致會與第二季一致。所以成長幅度基本上會相同。因此我認為要留意我們指引在四捨五入上的特性很重要。我們談到 50 億歐元（EUR5 billion）。另外我們也有——我是說，成長、14% 的成長，以及各季之間 ARPU 的一致性。

So we're well positioned to actually moderate this into quarter four and to keep it consistent into quarter three. And this is a structural, nonstructural cost change, personnel is in the same level. We do this investment to increase engagement and LTV and marketing. We have a lot of new features coming out, and we are also boosting a bit on our AI, and we talked about that at Investor Day. So nothing strange, nothing new.

因此我們其實處於良好位置，可以在第四季把這個趨勢適度放緩，並在第三季維持一致。而這是一項結構性、非結構性的成本變動，人員成本維持在相同水準。我們進行這些投資是為了提升互動與 LTV，以及行銷。我們有許多新功能即將推出，也會在 AI 上再加碼一些，我們在投資人日（Investor Day）也談過。所以沒有什麼奇怪的，也沒有什麼新的。

And we are keeping this consistent with what we have been thinking all along from the beginning of the year, and we are in full control. So excluding currency and social charges, we see our expense growth to be roughly consistent in quarter-three with quarter-two growth.

而且我們一直以來都與年初至今的想法保持一致，我們完全掌控局面。因此，若排除匯率與社會費用，我們看到第三季的費用成長大致與第二季的成長一致。

And I would just chime in here. I said this in my prepared remarks, but we started this year by investing to make sure that we were leading in this wave of using AI. And we are leading according to other companies actually. Now we're starting to focus on cost and efficiency, which is always the second step. This is what I talked about when we talked about Chirp, where we have control over our spend, we can choose models, et cetera.

我也在這裡補充一下。我在事先準備的發言中提過，我們今年一開始就投入資源，確保我們在這波使用 AI 的浪潮中保持領先。而且根據其他公司來看，我們確實處於領先地位。現在我們開始把重點放在成本與效率上，這一向是第二步。這也是我在談到 Chirp 時所說的：我們能掌控支出、可以選擇模型等等。

So we are sticking to our cost moderating in Q4. It's also important to just remind all of you that these costs are compute and marketing. They are within our control. These are not long-term CapEx investments that needs years to roll back.

因此，我們會在第四季持續推動成本趨緩。同時也要提醒各位，這些成本主要是運算與行銷。它們都在我們的掌控之中。這些並非需要多年才能回收的長期資本支出（CapEx）投資。

All right. We are coming up on the hour, so we've got time for a few more questions. And we've got a follow-up from Doug Anmuth on product tiers and ARPU. Can you help us understand the timing of add-on to your rollouts across verticals? And how should we think about their impact on premium ARPU in the second half of this year and into 2027?

好的。我們快到一小時了，所以還有時間再回答幾個問題。接下來是 Doug Anmuth 針對產品分層與 ARPU 的追問。你們能否協助我們理解在各垂直領域推出加購項目的時程？以及我們應如何看待它們在今年下半年到 2027 年對高階（premium）ARPU 的影響？

Doug, Alex here. We don't comment on timing for launches, and we don't give guidance on ARPU either. But I can comment on this in a different way. You heard Gustav talk and (inaudible) passionately about the different products that we've been rolling out and how the sort of usage-driven paradigm is one important paradigm for us and how we convert from free to premium from premium to add-ons. The one example I want to share is that Audiobooks+, which was launched a while ago, since we last shared a number on that, that has now doubled, which is great.

Doug，我是 Alex。我們不評論產品上線的時程，也不提供 ARPU 的指引。但我可以用另一種方式來回應。你們聽到 Gustav 談到並且（聽不清）很有熱情地說明我們正在推出的不同產品，以及以使用量驅動的模式對我們而言是一個重要的模式，還有我們如何從免費轉為高階、再從高階轉為加購。我想分享的一個例子是 Audiobooks+，它在一段時間前推出；自從我們上次分享其數字以來，現在已經翻倍，這很棒。

And it just keeps growing, and this is just in a select few markets. So obviously, that introduces another type of change to ARPU. ARPU obviously can change by way of price increases. But when we have success with an add-on like this, it will structurally increase ARPU in a different way. So in the sort of like price to quantity equation, we're really providing a different type of price increase here than just sort of moving the price of premium upwards.

而且它仍在持續成長，而且目前只在少數幾個市場推出。因此，這顯然會為 ARPU 帶來另一種變化。ARPU 當然可以透過漲價而改變。但當我們像這樣的加購項目取得成功時，它會以不同的方式在結構上提高 ARPU。所以在「價格對數量」的方程式中，我們提供的是一種不同型態的價格提升，而不只是單純把高階方案的價格往上調。

Okay. And our next question is going to come from Jason Helfstein on the pricing environment. Is there any read-through from the Apple Music price increase that was announced in July? And how does this impact your thinking about price increases going forward?

好的。下一個問題將由 Jason Helfstein 提出，關於定價環境。對於 7 月宣布的 Apple Music 漲價，有沒有任何可供參考的訊號？這會如何影響你們對未來漲價的思考？

We don't comment on other companies' price increases, but what it does show is that this is an example of just continued valuing in music streaming services, and we're happy about that for the ecosystem. Our category leadership in not just user scale and subscriber scale, but also our leadership and engagement keeps on being our focus. And of course, the more value we deliver, the more pricing power we will have. And as of right now, we're happy to be the price leader in our category.

我們不評論其他公司的漲價，但這確實顯示出這是音樂串流服務持續被重視、被賦予價值的一個例子，我們也樂見其成，因為這對整個生態系是好事。我們在此類別的領導地位不僅體現在用戶規模與訂閱者規模，也體現在我們的領先與互動參與度，而這仍將是我們的重點。當然，我們提供的價值越多，我們就會擁有越強的定價能力。就目前而言，我們很高興能成為本類別的價格領導者。

Okay. And our last question is going to come from Jason Bazinet on the subscriber opportunity. You had solid premium net adds this quarter, but the record labels suggested the industry's premium growth slowed in the second quarter. How confident are you in the long-term growth of premium subscribers for the industry and Spotify?

好的。最後一個問題將由 Jason Bazinet 提出，關於訂閱者機會。你們本季的高階淨新增表現穩健，但唱片公司表示產業在第二季的高階成長放緩。你們對於產業以及 Spotify 的高階訂閱者長期成長有多大信心？

I'm very confident. We don't give guidance for long term, but we're optimizing for a healthy funnel. This not only builds our business, Jason. It's, of course, aimed at helping our subscriber growth and not slowing it down. So very confident about the long-term growth.

我非常有信心。我們不提供長期指引，但我們正以建立健康的漏斗為最佳化目標。這不僅能建立我們的業務，Jason。當然也旨在促進我們的訂閱者成長，而不是讓它放緩。所以對長期成長非常有信心。

All right. Great. So that concludes our Q&A session. Thank you, everyone, for the questions and it also concludes today's call. A replay of the call will be available on our website and also on the Spotify app under Spotify Earnings Call Replays. And thanks again, everyone, for joining.

好的。很好。以上就是我們的問答環節。感謝各位的提問，也同時結束今天的電話會議。會議重播將可在我們的網站上收聽，也可在 Spotify App 的「Spotify Earnings Call Replays」中收聽。再次感謝各位參與。

This concludes today's conference call. Thank you for joining. You may now disconnect.

今天的電話會議到此結束。感謝您的參與。您現在可以掛線。