Spotify Technology SA (SPOT) 2020 Q2 法說會逐字稿

Ladies and gentlemen, thank you for standing by and welcome to the Spotify Q2 2020 Earnings Call (Operator Instructions)

女士們，先生們，感謝您的支持，歡迎來到 Spotify Q2 2020 財報電話會議（操作員說明）

Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker for today, Paul Vogel, Chief Financial Officer. Please go ahead.

謝謝你。我現在想將會議交給您今天的發言人，首席財務官 Paul Vogel。請繼續。

Great. Thank you, and welcome to Spotify's Second Quarter 2020 Earnings Conference Call. I hope everyone is continuing to stay safe. As is the case with just about everyone, our team again will be hosting this call entirely remotely. Our CEO, Daniel Ek, is participating from Stockholm, and I am at my home office in New Jersey.

偉大的。謝謝，歡迎來到 Spotify 2020 年第二季度收益電話會議。我希望每個人都繼續保持安全。與幾乎所有人的情況一樣，我們的團隊將再次完全遠程主持這次電話會議。我們的首席執行官 Daniel Ek 從斯德哥爾摩參加，而我在新澤西州的家庭辦公室。

This morning, I'm pleased to introduce our new Head of Investor Relations, Bryan Goldberg, who just recently joined our team. I'm sure many of you recognize his name from his time at Bank of America. Also joining the IR team is Lauren Katzen, who was previously on our licensing and finance team within FP&A. We're excited to have both of them on board.

今天早上，我很高興地介紹我們新的投資者關係主管 Bryan Goldberg，他最近才加入我們的團隊。我相信你們中的許多人都從他在美國銀行的時候就知道他的名字。加入 IR 團隊的還有 Lauren Katzen，他之前在 FP&A 的許可和財務團隊工作。我們很高興他們都加入了。

Mike Urciuoli, who has been both part of our IR team and FP&A teams over the past few years, is transitioning into an expanded role within FP&A, but will be on hand to answer questions post this quarter and for the next few weeks.

Mike Urciuoli 在過去幾年一直是我們 IR 團隊和 FP&A 團隊的一員，他正在過渡到 FP&A 中的擴展角色，但他將在本季度和接下來的幾週內回答問題。

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

有了這個，我會把它交給布萊恩。

Thanks, Paul. Turning now to the call. We'll start with opening comments from Daniel. After the remarks, Daniel and Paul will be happy to answer your questions.

謝謝，保羅。現在轉向通話。我們將從 Daniel 的開放評論開始。發言結束後，Daniel 和 Paul 將很樂意回答您的問題。

Like last quarter, we'll be taking questions exclusively through slido. Questions can be submitted by going to slido.com, s-l-i-d-o.com and using the code #spotifyearnings. 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 email investor relations at ir@spotify.com, and we'll add in your question.

與上個季度一樣，我們將只通過 slido 回答問題。可以訪問 slido.com、s-l-i-d-o.com 並使用代碼#spotifyearnings 提交問題。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。如果出於某種原因，您無法訪問 slido，您可以通過 ir@spotify.com 向投資者關係部門發送電子郵件，我們將添加您的問題。

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

在我們開始之前，讓我快速介紹一下安全港。在電話會議期間，我們將做出某些前瞻性陳述，包括對公司未來業績的預測或估計。這些陳述基於受風險和不確定因素影響的當前預期和假設。由於在今天的電話會議、我們致股東的信中以及提交給美國證券交易委員會的文件中討論的因素，實際結果可能存在重大差異。

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

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

And with that, I will turn it over to Daniel.

然後，我將把它交給丹尼爾。

All right. Hey, everyone, and thank you so much for joining us. Like all of you, Spotify continues to navigate issues related to COVID-19 and racial injustice, both of which are reshaping our industry and society in significant ways.

好的。大家好，非常感謝你們加入我們。和你們所有人一樣，Spotify 繼續解決與 COVID-19 和種族不公正相關的問題，這兩者都在以重大方式重塑我們的行業和社會。

Given the role we play in culture, we believe Spotify has a responsibility to use our platform to help build a more equitable future. For us, that means focusing on what's core to our business, amplifying the music and perspectives of Black creators and taking every opportunity to connect them with current and future fans. We're also taking a hard look at what we can do to build a more equitable workplace, and we have committed to increasing representation of Black employees at all levels within Spotify. When we do this right, it's good for employees, good for creators and good for shareholders.

鑑於我們在文化中扮演的角色，我們相信 Spotify 有責任使用我們的平台來幫助建設一個更加公平的未來。對我們來說，這意味著專注於我們業務的核心，擴大黑人創作者的音樂和觀點，並利用一切機會將他們與當前和未來的粉絲聯繫起來。我們也在認真審視我們可以做些什麼來建立一個更公平的工作場所，我們已經承諾在 Spotify 的各個級別增加黑人員工的代表性。如果我們做對了，對員工、創作者和股東都有好處。

Now turning to the quarter. We're pleased with our results, which met or exceeded our guidance by almost every metric. After making adjustments to help us weather the pandemic in Q1, consumption returned to normal levels this quarter. Monthly active users increased to 299 million, and subscribers grew to 138 million, both exceeding our expectations. Advertising revenue, which took a significant hit in Q1, improved notably throughout the quarter, and we feel good about our momentum as we enter Q3.

現在轉向季度。我們對我們的結果感到滿意，幾乎所有指標都達到或超過了我們的指導。經過一季度的疫情調整，本季度消費恢復到正常水平。月活躍用戶增至 2.99 億，訂閱用戶增至 1.38 億，均超出我們的預期。廣告收入在第一季度遭受重創，整個季度都有顯著改善，我們對進入第三季度的勢頭感到滿意。

We also continue to invest in our audio-first strategy, signing exclusive deals with some of the world's most well-known creators and most powerful voices. Earlier today, we launched the first episode of the Michelle Obama podcast, and it features a conversation with a very special guest, President Barrack Obama.

我們還繼續投資我們的音頻優先戰略，與一些世界上最知名的創作者和最有影響力的聲音簽署獨家協議。今天早些時候，我們推出了米歇爾奧巴馬播客的第一集，其中包括與一位非常特別的嘉賓巴拉克奧巴馬總統的對話。

Our podcast catalog now has over 1.5 million shows, 50% of which launched in 2020. And while it's been gratifying to see so much enthusiasm for these announcements throughout the quarter, it's important to remember that with many of our newer shows, we're still early in the progress. In some cases, like DC Comics, we need to produce the content; and in others, like Joe Rogan, it has yet to launch on our platform. There's still work to do and much more to come.

我們的播客目錄現在有超過 150 萬個節目，其中 50% 是在 2020 年推出的。雖然很高興看到整個季度對這些公告的熱情如此高，但重要的是要記住，對於我們的許多新節目，我們仍處於早期階段。在某些情況下，例如 DC Comics，我們需要製作內容；而在其他人中，例如 Joe Rogan，它尚未在我們的平台上發布。還有很多工作要做，還有更多工作要做。

On the music front, we entered a new multiyear global license agreement with Universal Music Group that reflects our shared commitment in growing the industry and supporting artists at all stages of their careers. Universal Music Group will leverage Spotify's Marketplace tools for both frontline and catalog artists to connect them with fans, grow their audiences and better monetize their fan base. And we'll also work together to develop new products and tools that drive discovery and engagement at a scale that has never before existed.

在音樂方面，我們與環球音樂集團簽訂了一項新的多年期全球許可協議，這反映了我們共同致力於發展行業並在藝術家職業生涯的各個階段為他們提供支持。環球音樂集團將利用 Spotify 的 Marketplace 工具為一線和目錄藝術家提供服務，將他們與粉絲聯繫起來，擴大他們的觀眾群，並更好地從他們的粉絲群中獲利。我們還將共同開發新產品和工具，以前所未有的規模推動發現和參與。

Spotify has now surpassed 60 million tracks globally, giving artists even more opportunities to connect with their biggest fans. And just last week, Taylor Swift's surprise release of her new album, Folklore, broke the #1 first-day record for a female artist album in Spotify's history. She also became the most streamed artist on Spotify on any day this year, with nearly 98 million streams on July 24 alone.

Spotify 現已在全球擁有超過 6000 萬首曲目，為藝術家提供更多機會與他們的忠實粉絲建立聯繫。就在上週，泰勒·斯威夫特 (Taylor Swift) 出人意料地發行了她的新專輯《Folklore》，打破了 Spotify 歷史上女性藝術家專輯首日排名第一的記錄。她還成為今年任何一天 Spotify 上流媒體播放量最多的藝術家，僅 7 月 24 日就有近 9800 萬流媒體播放。

Finally, I would like to address our business overall. Investors often ask me what our secret sauce is, expecting that there's some sort of silver bullet to our growth. The reality is that at a platform of our scale, it's rarely about one thing. Instead, it's about setting up a culture of experimentation and being willing to double down on opportunities if we believe they have the potential to enhance the user experience and change the slope of our growth curve. And I want to share 2 recent examples that I think exemplifies these points.

最後，我想談談我們的整體業務。投資者經常問我我們的秘訣是什麼，期望我們的增長有某種靈丹妙藥。現實情況是，在我們這種規模的平台上，很少只關註一件事。相反，它是關於建立一種實驗文化，如果我們相信機會有可能增強用戶體驗並改變我們增長曲線的斜率，則願意加倍努力。我想分享 2 個最近的例子，我認為它們可以說明這些觀點。

Over the last 2 years, we have tripled the number of experiments from a few hundred to thousands of A/B tests. Some of these experiments yield nothing more than a few key learnings, while others have shown great promise. In one of our recent podcast experiments, we increased listening among the test group by 33%. And that's just one example of many. And when we see results like this, you should expect us to invest even more. And we know that no one experiment is going to materially impact us even in the next year. It's the thousands of little things that we're doing which will gradually add up over time.

在過去的 2 年裡，我們將實驗數量增加了兩倍，從幾百個增加到數千個 A/B 測試。其中一些實驗僅產生一些關鍵知識，而其他實驗則顯示出巨大的希望。在我們最近的一項播客實驗中，我們將測試組的收聽率提高了 33%。這只是眾多例子中的一個。當我們看到這樣的結果時，您應該期待我們投入更多。而且我們知道，即使在明年，也沒有任何一項實驗會對我們產生重大影響。我們正在做的數以千計的小事會隨著時間的推移逐漸累積起來。

The second example I want to point is new market launches. Just this month, we launched in Russia and 12 other European countries. And our first week in Russia was huge, even bigger than our first week in India. So if we do this right, we have the opportunity to reach 250 million more listeners in these markets over the long term. And we're now operating in nearly every country across Europe, but there's still a lot of pent-up demand for Spotify in markets around the world, which is why we have plans for further expansion globally.

我想指出的第二個例子是新市場的推出。就在本月，我們在俄羅斯和其他 12 個歐洲國家推出了該服務。我們在俄羅斯的第一周意義重大，甚至比我們在印度的第一周還要大。因此，如果我們做得對，從長遠來看，我們將有機會在這些市場中多接觸 2.5 億聽眾。我們現在幾乎在歐洲的每個國家都開展業務，但全球市場對 Spotify 仍有大量被壓抑的需求，這就是我們計劃在全球進一步擴張的原因。

And what these 2 recent examples underscore is that staying focused on the long-term growth whilst managing for speed of iteration near term is what will drive future growth. And using that lens, and with the examples I gave, I think it is apparent that we still have many more improvements left to make. And that's also why we keep investing.

這 2 個最近的例子強調的是，保持專注於長期增長，同時管理近期迭代速度將推動未來增長。使用那個鏡頭，並結合我給出的例子，我認為很明顯我們還有很多改進要做。這也是我們繼續投資的原因。

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

有了這個，我會把它轉回給布萊恩。

Thanks, Daniel. Again, if you have any questions, please go to slido.com, #spotifyearnings. We'll read the questions in the order they come in with respect to how people vote up their preference for questions.

謝謝，丹尼爾。同樣，如果您有任何問題，請訪問 slido.com，#spotifyearnings。我們將按照問題的出現順序閱讀問題，以了解人們如何投票支持他們對問題的偏好。

And the first question today is going to come from Eric Sheridan.

今天的第一個問題將來自 Eric Sheridan。

Can you frame the impacts you expect long-term in your business from greater podcast content consumption: Lower churn, greater gross ad share of streamed audio, increased long-term ad-supported gross margins?

您能否構想出更多播客內容消費對您的業務的長期影響：更低的流失率、更高的流媒體音頻總廣告份額、更高的長期廣告支持毛利率？

Well, it's really about taking a step back. And I think what we're seeing here is the beginning of a flywheel. So as we talked about before, Spotify is now going after all of audio. And that's obviously a significantly larger market than just the music industry in and on itself.

好吧，這真的是關於退後一步。我認為我們在這裡看到的是飛輪的開始。所以正如我們之前談到的，Spotify 現在正在追求所有的音頻。這顯然是一個比音樂產業本身更大的市場。

And so what we're seeing is that by every piece of content that we're adding on the service that we're successful in serving to a consumer, we're creating more engagement. That engagement, in turn, leads to obviously lower churn. But more importantly, now that we have almost 300 million monthly active users on the platform, these users are also, when they find great shows, sharing that on social media and other forms to other consumers as well, driving this virtuous cycle where more and more people are learning about what's going on, on Spotify, and more and more creators want to be on Spotify, creating this virtuous flywheel.

因此，我們看到的是，通過我們在服務中添加的每一條內容，我們成功地為消費者提供服務，我們正在創造更多的參與度。反過來，這種參與會明顯降低客戶流失率。但更重要的是，現在我們平台上每月有近 3 億活躍用戶，當這些用戶發現精彩節目時，他們也會在社交媒體和其他形式上與其他消費者分享，推動這種良性循環，更多和越來越多的人在 Spotify 上了解正在發生的事情，越來越多的創作者希望在 Spotify 上，創造這個良性飛輪。

So with the expansion of podcast, we're definitely seeing more of that, and it's happening at a faster clip than what we've seen before, and we're very encouraged by it.

因此，隨著播客的擴展，我們肯定會看到更多這樣的內容，而且它的發生速度比我們以前看到的更快，我們對此感到非常鼓舞。

Yes. And then from a numbers perspective, I would say everything you mentioned is what we're looking at to value each piece of content. So it is the combination of what is it doing for our user growth? What is it doing to improve retention and lower churn? And then also how can we grow advertising on top of it? And so when we look at pieces of content and we look at how much we need to add and where we're spending, it's really about the LTV of the overall spend on content and how it impacts holistically the entire business, from user growth to subscriber growth to advertising growth.

是的。然後從數字的角度來看，我想說的是你提到的一切都是我們正在尋找的來評估每一條內容的價值。所以它是它為我們的用戶增長做了什麼的組合？它在提高保留率和降低流失率方面做了什麼？然後我們如何在其上增加廣告？因此，當我們查看內容片段並查看我們需要添加多少以及我們在哪里花費時，這實際上是關於內容總花費的 LTV 以及它如何從整體上影響整個業務，從用戶增長到訂戶增長對廣告增長的影響。

Okay. Great. Next question from Rich Greenfield.

好的。偉大的。 Rich Greenfield 的下一個問題。

What percentage of ad revenue is now directly tied to podcasting? Trying to understand what ad-supported music revenues were down year-over-year relative to 21% overall ad decline in the quarter as podcasting growth and acquisition first time benefits presumably benefited the 21% decline.

現在有多少廣告收入直接與播客相關？試圖了解廣告支持的音樂收入同比下降 21% 相對於本季度整體廣告下降 21%，因為播客的增長和收購的首次收益大概受益於 21% 的下降。

Yes. So I would say a couple of things on this. One is podcasting is still reasonably small relative to the overall amount of advertising. That being said, it did outperform in the quarter, and we felt it was one of the stronger areas of growth, which is great.

是的。所以我想就此說幾件事。一是播客相對於廣告總量而言仍然相當小。話雖這麼說，它確實在本季度表現出色，我們認為它是增長強勁的領域之一，這很好。

Hopefully, everyone has seen the deal we struck with Omnicom at the last couple of weeks, which was a $20 million deal to invest in podcast advertising moving forward, which we're really excited about.

希望每個人都看到我們在過去幾週與 Omnicom 達成的交易，這是一筆 2000 萬美元的交易，用於投資播客廣告向前發展，我們對此感到非常興奮。

And the other thing about podcasting is it's having a couple of effects. One is overall podcast growth is there, and so we finished this quarter at 21% of MAU, which is up from 19%. Podcast consumption is still up over 100%. And we're seeing advertisers really wanting to invest in podcasting as a media.

播客的另一件事是它有幾個影響。一是整體播客增長，因此本季度我們以 MAU 的 21% 結束，高於 19%。播客消費仍然增長超過 100%。我們看到廣告商確實希望將播客作為一種媒體進行投資。

The other thing that's benefiting us is we're starting to sell more media deals across all of our products. And so we're seeing nice growth from deals that incorporate both music advertising and podcasting advertising in the deals.

另一件讓我們受益的事情是，我們開始銷售更多涉及我們所有產品的媒體交易。因此，我們看到在交易中同時包含音樂廣告和播客廣告的交易取得了不錯的增長。

And so in general, podcast was strong in the quarter. It's still reasonably small, but growing very nicely.

因此，總的來說，播客在本季度表現強勁。它仍然相當小，但生長得非常好。

Okay. Next question from Eric Sheridan.

好的。 Eric Sheridan 的下一個問題。

Can you update investors on your views on acquiring/licensing podcasting content? What will drive either approach? Any update on the level of investments in podcasts? And how critical is putting podcast content exclusively on your own platform against your long-term goals for the business model?

您能否向投資者更新您對獲取/許可播客內容的看法？什麼會推動這兩種方法？關於播客投資水平的任何更新？將播客內容專門放在你自己的平台上對你的商業模式的長期目標有多重要？

Yes. I mean, we are really pursuing sort of all strategies in tandem. It's really all about creating the best overall user experience, as I talked about before with this virtuous cycle. Now that said, exclusivity is a key component of that strategy. We want to create more and more original programming that only exists on Spotify. And I think this quarter, you started seeing some of those announcements come in, in a big way.

是的。我的意思是，我們真的在同時追求所有戰略。正如我之前談到的良性循環一樣，這實際上就是創造最佳的整體用戶體驗。話雖如此，排他性是該戰略的關鍵組成部分。我們想創作越來越多只存在於 Spotify 上的原創節目。我認為本季度，你開始看到其中一些公告大量出現。

And obviously, that's something we're pursuing with creators, but it's important that we are an open platform. And we're seeing more and more content. As I mentioned in my opening statement, over 1.5 million shows are now available on Spotify, and about 50% of them was created in 2020. It's impossible, even if we wanted to, to have all of that content exclusively on our platform. So it's going to be a mix of all of those things going forward.

顯然，這是我們與創作者一起追求的東西，但重要的是我們是一個開放平台。我們看到越來越多的內容。正如我在開場白中提到的，現在 Spotify 上有超過 150 萬個節目，其中約 50% 是在 2020 年創作的。即使我們願意，也不可能將所有這些內容都獨家放在我們的平台上。所以這將是所有這些事情的混合體。

Okay. Next question from Richard Kramer.

好的。 Richard Kramer 的下一個問題。

With the UMG deal, has SPOT secured any firm commercial commitment to pay for 2-sided Marketplace services?

通過與 UMG 的交易，SPOT 是否獲得了支付 2-sided Marketplace 服務的任何堅定的商業承諾？

So as we talked about before, we're very, very excited about Marketplace and the momentum it's having. We're seeing lots and lots of big artists come in. We saw John Legend, we saw The 1975, Lady Gaga, among many others, adopt the tools this quarter. So we're very excited about it.

因此，正如我們之前所說，我們對 Marketplace 及其發展勢頭感到非常非常興奮。我們看到很多很多大藝術家進來。我們看到了 John Legend，我們看到了 The 1975，Lady Gaga 以及其他許多人，在本季度採用了這些工具。所以我們對此感到非常興奮。

And with the Universal Music Group announcement, they're really now leaning in because of that really early excitement in the Marketplace and want to adopt more tools and want to go deeper because they're seeing the potential impact that it can have on their business.

隨著 Universal Music Group 的宣布，他們現在真正地投入其中，因為 Marketplace 很早就引起了人們的興奮，他們希望採用更多工具並希望更深入，因為他們看到了它可能對他們的業務產生的潛在影響.

Next question from Eric Sheridan.

Eric Sheridan 的下一個問題。

Can you give us a sense of how the ad market evolved over the recent quarter in terms of ad budgets, pricing and how you see those dynamics evolving against the current macro backdrop? Can you provide color on any variability by industry verticals, geographies or type of ad budget?

您能否介紹一下最近一個季度廣告市場在廣告預算、定價方面的演變情況，以及您如何看待這些動態在當前宏觀背景下的演變？您能否根據垂直行業、地理位置或廣告預算類型提供任何可變性的顏色？

Yes. So the advertising market, it definitely started -- the quarter started out slow. We mentioned coming out of Q1, that the last 3 weeks of Q1 were pretty weak and saw some big declines, and that continued into April and May. We were actually running behind on the ads business for April and May, probably down about 25% on those 2 months. And then we really had a nice pickup in June. June was only down about 10% on the advertising side.

是的。所以廣告市場，它肯定開始了——這個季度開始緩慢。我們提到從第一季度開始，第一季度的最後 3 周非常疲軟，出現了一些大幅下滑，這種情況一直持續到 4 月和 5 月。實際上，我們在 4 月和 5 月的廣告業務上落後了，這兩個月可能下降了約 25%。然後我們在 6 月真的有一個不錯的選擇。 6 月份廣告方面僅下降了 10% 左右。

In terms of geographies, I'm not going to get into specifics, but we have a much higher percentage of our revenue on the ad side comes from North America than on the Premium side. So how North America goes tends to be how our overall business goes.

就地理位置而言，我不打算詳細說明，但我們在廣告方面的收入中來自北美的比例比在高級方面高得多。因此，北美的發展情況往往就是我們整體業務的發展方式。

And then in terms of product, the Direct business was weak in the quarter and actually underperformed our expectations. And we were very strong on our ad studio, which is our self-service tool, which outperformed. And as I mentioned above, podcasting outperformed as well.

然後在產品方面，本季度直接業務表現疲軟，實際上低於我們的預期。我們的廣告工作室非常強大，這是我們的自助服務工具，表現出色。正如我上面提到的，播客也表現出色。

Okay. Next question from Michael Morris.

好的。邁克爾莫里斯的下一個問題。

Is the level of podcast engagement similar across both Premium and ad-supported users? Are you seeing a difference in churn for podcast users? If so, can you quantify the relative impact?

高級用戶和廣告支持用戶的播客參與度是否相似？您是否看到播客用戶流失的差異？如果是這樣，你能量化相對影響嗎？

So at a high level, I would say the good news is that podcast engagement in general overall is increasing. So as I mentioned, we're now 21% of our MAU engaged with podcasts, which is up from 19%. And consumption was up over 100% in the quarter. So we continue to see it going up in general.

因此，在較高的層面上，我會說好消息是播客的整體參與度總體上正在增加。正如我提到的，我們現在有 21% 的 MAU 參與播客，高於 19%。本季度消費增長超過 100%。所以我們繼續看到它總體上上漲。

Premium does have higher engagement than the ad-supported business, but both of them have been moving up nicely, and both of them have been improving.

Premium 確實比廣告支持的業務具有更高的參與度，但它們都在很好地上升，並且它們都在改進。

And with respect to any impacts on churn, we don't break that out individually.

關於對客戶流失的任何影響，我們不會單獨分解。

Okay. Next question from Doug Anmuth.

好的。 Doug Anmuth 的下一個問題。

Do you expect podcast to have a bigger financial impact through advertising dollars or more through incremental premium subscribers to the platform?

您希望播客通過廣告收入產生更大的財務影響，還是通過增加平台的高級訂閱者產生更多影響？

I really say it depends on what the time horizon is that you're looking at. Obviously, our subscription business is a much larger business. So even if we improve that by a small percentage base, that's likely going to be a larger impact than even if we improved our advertising business with a strong double-digit growth as well.

我真的說這取決於你正在看的時間範圍。顯然，我們的訂閱業務規模要大得多。因此，即使我們將其提高了一小部分，這也可能比我們以兩位數的強勁增長改善我們的廣告業務產生更大的影響。

So I think in the short term, any improvement we can make on improving retention is going to be material to the subscription business, and that's how you should look at it. But long term, when I look at the landscape, what excites me is that we're going after all of audio. And all of audio is a multibillion-user opportunity. And it's a marketplace that, only in its existing form today, is north of $50 billion in advertising revenue. And it's the combination of subscription and advertising long term that I think is the future of media businesses. And Spotify has really, since its inception, played in both of these businesses.

所以我認為在短期內，我們可以在提高保留率方面做出的任何改進都將對訂閱業務產生重大影響，這就是你應該如何看待它。但從長遠來看，當我看風景時，令我興奮的是我們正在追求所有的音頻。所有音頻都是數十億用戶的機會。這是一個市場，僅在今天的現有形式下，廣告收入就超過 500 億美元。我認為訂閱和廣告的長期結合才是媒體業務的未來。而 Spotify 自成立以來，確實參與了這兩項業務。

So I'm very excited about long term, both being a principal player in advertising as well as in subscription. And so over the long term, it will become a bigger part of our business.

因此，我對長期成為廣告和訂閱領域的主要參與者感到非常興奮。因此，從長遠來看，它將成為我們業務的重要組成部分。

And I would just add, which I think I mentioned earlier. When we look at some of the larger content deals we've done, we are measuring or forecasting both sides of the equation in terms of how we value that content moving forward.

我只想補充一點，我想我之前提到過。當我們審視我們已經完成的一些較大的內容交易時，我們正在衡量或預測等式的兩邊，即我們如何評價內容的未來發展。

Okay. Another question here from Doug.

好的。道格的另一個問題。

Can you talk about how the recent Universal deal may treat the 2-sided marketplace differently than other recently signed label deals? Or are they essentially the same?

你能談談最近的 Universal 交易與其他最近簽署的標籤交易如何不同地對待 2-sided 市場嗎？或者它們本質上是一樣的？

Well, I think the big difference here is really Universal's willingness to experiment and go all-in on Marketplace, and that's what I think should be the bigger takeaway here for all investors as well. So what that means in essence is Universal has seen the early success and is very excited by it. And they want to make sure that it can get behind and experiment a lot more with the paid tools of the Marketplace, but also the organic tools that allows artists to create more fans, engage with those fans and monetize those fans better. And so overall, we want to work with all labels, but we are very, very encouraged to see Universal go all-in on the tools and services that we're building.

好吧，我認為這裡最大的不同在於環球公司願意在 Marketplace 上進行試驗和全力以赴，我認為這對所有投資者來說也應該是更大的收穫。所以這在本質上意味著環球公司已經看到了早期的成功並且對此感到非常興奮。他們希望確保它能夠落後並使用 Marketplace 的付費工具進行更多試驗，同時還希望使用允許藝術家創造更多粉絲、與這些粉絲互動並更好地從這些粉絲中獲利的有機工具。所以總的來說，我們希望與所有標籤合作，但我們非常非常鼓勵看到 Universal 全力投入我們正在構建的工具和服務。

Okay. Next question from Mark Mahaney.

好的。 Mark Mahaney 的下一個問題。

Where can ad-supported gross margins go near term? And long term, can these gross margins match those of Premium?

廣告支持的毛利率近期會走向何方？從長遠來看，這些毛利率能否與 Premium 相提並論？

Yes. So in the very long term, we definitely think ad gross margins can reach the Premium gross margins. We haven't given a time frame on that, but we believe that's where we're headed.

是的。所以從長遠來看，我們絕對認為廣告毛利率可以達到高級毛利率。我們還沒有給出時間框架，但我們相信這就是我們前進的方向。

In the near term, there's a couple of factors at play here. One, obviously, is the weaker overall ad environment, which is impacting gross margins. And particularly on the ad side, there are some minimum that we pay in certain markets where the advertising hasn't reached -- hasn't quite reached critical mass. And so as we get to a tipping point in some of those markets on the music side, the gross margin will improve.

在短期內，這裡有幾個因素在起作用。其中之一顯然是整體廣告環境疲軟，這正在影響毛利率。特別是在廣告方面，我們在廣告尚未達到的某些市場中支付了一些最低限度 - 尚未達到臨界質量。因此，當我們在音樂方面的某些市場達到臨界點時，毛利率將會提高。

And then additionally, just a reminder, we now account for all of the costs of podcasting in our ad-supported business. So the entire brunt of the investment we're making on the content side is hitting the ad-supported line. And so as we continue to invest in content, the ad business will feel it more. We do expect ads gross margins to improve in Q3 and then be even better in Q4.

此外，提醒一下，我們現在在我們的廣告支持業務中計算播客的所有成本。因此，我們在內容方面所做的全部投資都是針對廣告支持的。因此，隨著我們繼續投資於內容，廣告業務將感受到更多。我們確實預計廣告毛利率在第三季度會有所改善，然後在第四季度會更好。

Our next question is from Steven Cahall.

我們的下一個問題來自 Steven Cahall。

What do you expect will be the impact to MAUs, Premium subs and gross profit when The Joe Rogan Experience comes exclusive to Spotify in September?

當 Joe Rogan Experience 於 9 月獨家登陸 Spotify 時，您預計會對 MAU、高級訂閱和毛利潤產生什麼影響？

I think it's too early to talk about what the impact will be. Yet we obviously know it's a big show, and we are encouraged by the reception we've seen in the marketplace. So I do think a lot of his fans are very excited about the announcement. But it's going to take time. And we have to learn how to market and merchandise the Joe Rogan show, both to its existing fans as well as to all of the other 300 million or so listeners on Spotify as well. Because this, as we have talked about before, even with the announcement of Joe Rogan, this was the #1 searched for show on Spotify that we're now including. So I think it's going to be a very, very positive one.

我認為現在談論影響會是什麼還為時過早。然而，我們顯然知道這是一場盛大的演出，我們對市場上的反響感到鼓舞。所以我確實認為他的很多粉絲都對這一消息感到非常興奮。但這需要時間。我們必須學習如何向現有的粉絲以及 Spotify 上的所有其他 3 億左右聽眾營銷和銷售喬·羅根的節目。因為這個，正如我們之前談到的，即使喬羅根宣布，這是我們現在包括的 Spotify 上搜索節目的第一名。所以我認為這將是一個非常、非常積極的結果。

But again, I think the best way to think about this is that Spotify is not about one single show, it is really about the drumbeat now of new exclusive content, original programming and the 1.5 million podcasts that exist on the platform that's growing at a very, very rapid pace. So there's something for everyone. That's the message I want you to take away.

但同樣，我認為最好的思考方式是 Spotify 不是一個單一的節目，它實際上是關於新的獨家內容、原創節目和平台上存在的 150 萬個播客的鼓點，這些播客正在以驚人的速度增長非常非常快的節奏。所以總有適合每個人的東西。這就是我要你帶走的信息。

The next question is from Rich Greenfield.

下一個問題來自 Rich Greenfield。

Howard Stern's multiyear agreement with Sirius expires at the end of this calendar year. If you were Howard Stern, why would you want to be on Spotify versus Sirius?

霍華德斯特恩與天狼星的多年協議將於本日曆年年底到期。如果你是霍華德斯特恩，你為什麼要在 Spotify 上而不是 Sirius？

I can't really speak to Howard Stern specifically. What I can say, though, as you've seen in the quarter, there are more and more great creators around the world that are turning to Spotify. And I think part of that reason is because this is an interactive medium. This allows them to better connect with their audience, seeing the data, seeing how they're engaging with the content, seeing the feedback directly.

我真的不能具體和霍華德斯特恩說話。不過，我可以說的是，正如您在本季度所見，全球越來越多的偉大創作者轉向 Spotify。我認為部分原因是因為這是一種互動媒體。這使他們能夠更好地與觀眾建立聯繫，查看數據，查看他們如何參與內容，直接查看反饋。

It is an international platform, too, not just the domestic. So while we are very large in North America, we are equally large in Europe and LatAm and Asia as well. So this is a global audio platform unlike anything else.

它也是一個國際平台，而不僅僅是國內平台。因此，雖然我們在北美非常大，但我們在歐洲、拉丁美洲和亞洲也同樣大。所以這是一個與眾不同的全球音頻平台。

And now thirdly, the size of this platform is just huge compared to many of these platforms that may operate in just one market. So I think the combination of that interactivity, the flexibility that allows you and the global nature and scale of this platform is what excites a lot of creators to be on our platform.

第三，與許多可能只在一個市場運營的平台相比，這個平台的規模非常大。因此，我認為這種交互性、允許您的靈活性以及該平台的全球性和規模的結合，激發了許多創作者加入我們的平台。

Next question is from Richard Kramer.

下一個問題來自理查德克萊默。

How will you get the local data to target podcast ads you intend to insert? Will each host have to record a large number of ads which will be inserted depending on local interests, customer segment, et cetera?

您將如何獲取本地數據以定位您打算插入的播客廣告？每個主機是否必須錄製大量廣告，這些廣告將根據當地興趣、客戶群等插入？

I'll take this, and maybe, Paul, you can chime in as well. So just to level-set with everyone, there's a number of different tools that we have in our podcasting advertising sets. And the host-read ads is one of them, and what we call SAI is something very different.

我會接受這個，也許，保羅，你也可以插話。因此，為了與每個人保持一致，我們的播客廣告集中有許多不同的工具。主播廣告就是其中之一，我們所說的 SAI 是非常不同的東西。

So specifically, to address the question, on our host-read ads, the host itself decides among a number of different brands that it wants to work with and then reads those ads in. And then Spotify serves that base to the audience that best suits the advertiser's intent. And then with SAI, it's more dynamically created ads that are set in. Some of them are recorded by the advertisers themselves, and some of them are host-read ads as well that are baked into the mix.

因此，具體來說，為了解決這個問題，在我們的主機閱讀廣告中，主機本身在它想要合作的許多不同品牌中做出決定，然後讀入這些廣告。然後 Spotify 將這個基礎提供給最適合的觀眾廣告商的意圖。然後使用 SAI，它是更動態創建的廣告，這些廣告是廣告商自己錄製的，還有一些是主機讀取的廣告，它們被混合在一起。

But this is a very, very nascent marketplace that exists today. So generally speaking, when it comes to podcast, a lot of this data that we're now talking about that's become standard on the Internet has not existed. So what I think the general trend has been is that when you have -- add Internet-level data and accessibility of those tools, the performance of those ads goes up. And when the performance of those ads goes up, the value goes up as well, both to the creator and to the platform as well. So we're very, very excited about bringing Internet-level advertising technology to the podcast medium. And this is something that I'm very, very encouraged by and that I think you should look out for, for the next coming quarters and years.

但這是一個非常非常新興的市場，今天就存在了。所以一般來說，當談到播客時，我們現在談論的很多已經成為互聯網標準的數據並不存在。所以我認為總的趨勢是，當你擁有 - 添加互聯網級數據和這些工具的可訪問性時，這些廣告的效果就會提高。當這些廣告的效果上升時，對創作者和平台的價值也會上升。因此，我們對將互聯網級廣告技術引入播客媒體感到非常非常興奮。這是我非常非常鼓舞的事情，我認為你應該在接下來的幾個季度和幾年裡註意這一點。

Next question is from Michael [Cling].

下一個問題來自 Michael [Cling]。

Can you elaborate on how you expect the addition of video will impact the growth of Spotify's advertising business? Is it realistic for investors to expect a positive impact in the next 12 months?

您能否詳細說明添加視頻將如何影響 Spotify 廣告業務的增長？投資者期望在未來 12 個月內產生積極影響是否現實？

Yes. So I think the way you should look at video overall is it's yet another capability that we're adding for creators to connect to fans as well. And it's just in this quarter as well with discovery of podcast, where the podcast charts are coming in, more and more tools and data that we're adding to podcasters as well. This is another innovation as well to allow podcasters to creatively express themselves in a different way. So you should expect us to iterate on that.

是的。所以我認為你應該從整體上看待視頻的方式是，它是我們為創作者添加的另一種與粉絲聯繫的能力。就在本季度，隨著播客的發現，播客圖表也出現了，我們也向播客添加了越來越多的工具和數據。這也是另一項創新，允許播客以不同的方式創造性地表達自己。所以你應該期待我們對此進行迭代。

Now that said, we are an audio-first platform, and so we expect for the foreseeable future the majority of consumption to be audio. Meaning that consumers that watch video will go in and out of the video experience and then being able to put that experience in their pocket and continue. Then when they hear something interesting, pull it back up and then watch the show again. So this is -- you should not look at this as some of the other platforms like YouTube and Snap, where it's predominantly a lean-in experience. Video is an added capability. It is priced very attractively for advertisers, but the share of video on Spotify is low right now. And it will be growing, but I don't think you should expect it to be another YouTube.

話雖如此，我們是一個音頻優先的平台，因此我們預計在可預見的未來，大部分消費將是音頻。這意味著觀看視頻的消費者將進出視頻體驗，然後能夠將這種體驗放在口袋裡並繼續。然後，當他們聽到有趣的聲音時，將其拉回並再次觀看節目。所以這是——你不應該把它看成是其他一些平台，比如 YouTube 和 Snap，在這些平台上，它主要是一種精益求精的體驗。視頻是一項附加功能。它的定價對廣告商來說非常有吸引力，但目前 Spotify 上的視頻份額很低。它會不斷增長，但我認為您不應該期望它會成為另一個 YouTube。

Next question from Matt Thornton.

Matt Thornton 的下一個問題。

On podcast, can you give some color on, one, what percent of hours are currently monetizable and how is that trending? Two, how current ad loads and CPM stack up versus industry average? And three, the third-party ad network opportunity.

在播客上，你能給出一些顏色嗎，一個，目前可貨幣化的時間百分比是多少，趨勢如何？第二，當前的廣告負載和每千次展示費用與行業平均水平相比如何？第三，第三方廣告網絡機會。

Yes. So we don't really disclose ad loads particularly, but I'd say they're pretty close to industry averages. I would say, in general, what's really interesting, and I think Daniel touched on this is, is as you get better at targeting, when you have tools like SAI, you're able to actually increase your monetization, increase the relevancy of the ads and increase overall monetization without actually having to increase the overall ad load.

是的。所以我們並沒有真正特別披露廣告負載，但我會說它們非常接近行業平均水平。我想說的是，總的來說，真正有趣的是，我認為 Daniel 提到的是，當你在定位方面做得更好時，當你擁有像 SAI 這樣的工具時，你實際上能夠增加你的貨幣化，增加廣告並增加整體貨幣化，而實際上不必增加整體廣告負載。

So we feel really optimistic that our technology and the innovation we're bringing to technology will allow for greater monetization over time and doing it in a way where you don't necessarily have to increase ad loads. In some cases, you might even be able to lower ad loads if you're able to target the ads more specifically to users with a higher ROI.

因此，我們感到非常樂觀，我們的技術和我們為技術帶來的創新將隨著時間的推移實現更大的貨幣化，並且以一種您不一定必須增加廣告負載的方式進行。在某些情況下，如果您能夠將廣告更具體地定位到具有更高投資回報率的用戶，您甚至可以降低廣告加載量。

And in terms of the third-party ad network opportunity, it's definitely something potentially, longer-term, we could look into. We know that when we launched SAI, which is only on our owned and operated properties, the number of inbound calls we got from folks who had interest in using that technology as well was pretty high. So nothing to announce at this point in time, but obviously something we would potentially consider.

就第三方廣告網絡機會而言，這絕對是我們可以長期研究的潛在問題。我們知道，當我們推出僅在我們擁有和經營的物業上的 SAI 時，我們從有興趣使用該技術的人們那裡接到的呼入電話數量非常多。所以目前沒有什麼可宣布的，但顯然我們可能會考慮。

One thing I would add also, I think part of this question was how -- where we are in just the rollout of this. So we're very, very early days. So the expectation I want everyone to have is the vast majority of advertising you hear on Spotify today is the burnt-in ads that the podcasters themselves have served. Spotify does not participate in that. But by building out tools like SAI and host-read ads, which are a lot more efficient and better for the advertisers, better for the creator as well, we expect that to mean a lot more adoption in the coming quarters as well. So just want to make everyone aware of that.

我還要補充一件事，我認為這個問題的一部分是如何——我們在推出這個方面所處的位置。所以我們還處於非常非常早期的階段。因此，我希望每個人都有這樣的期望，即您今天在 Spotify 上聽到的絕大多數廣告都是播客本身投放的固定廣告。 Spotify 不參與其中。但是，通過構建像 SAI 和主機閱讀廣告這樣的工具，它們對廣告商和創作者來說更有效、更好，我們預計這也意味著在未來幾個季度會有更多的採用。所以只想讓每個人都意識到這一點。

Next question is from Rich Greenfield.

下一個問題來自 Rich Greenfield。

You mentioned a change in the cadence and promotional offers impacting churn. How should we think about the timing and length of major promos going forward?

您提到了影響客戶流失的節奏和促銷優惠的變化。我們應該如何考慮未來主要促銷活動的時間和長度？

Yes. So I think if you take a step back, historically, we've run promotional offerings seasonally. So one in the summer and one at the holiday period of time every year, which we've done for the last couple of years. Last year, we did even more experimentation with offers at different times and different types of offers. And so for instance, in 4Q of last year, we had an always-on promotion that started earlier in 4Q than normal. And in Q1 this year, we actually extended the normal holiday campaign into Q1, which persisted for -- through the early parts of February.

是的。所以我認為，如果你退後一步，從歷史上看，我們會季節性地提供促銷產品。因此，一個在夏天，一個在每年的假期，這是我們過去幾年所做的。去年，我們對不同時間和不同類型的優惠進行了更多試驗。因此，例如，在去年第四季度，我們在第四季度比正常情況下更早開始了永遠在線的促銷活動。在今年第一季度，我們實際上將正常的假期活動延長到了第一季度，一直持續到 2 月初。

The seasonal cadence there is that we had more folks in Q2 this year coming off of seasonal campaigns than we normally do. So as a result, you normally expect some uptick in churn when you have people rolling off of those promotional offerings. I would say the -- while the quarter-on-quarter -- year-on-year churn was down, but quarter-on-quarter was up modestly, but that was totally expected and in line with our expectations.

那裡的季節性節奏是，今年第二季度我們有比往常更多的人結束季節性活動。因此，當人們放棄這些促銷產品時，您通常會期望客戶流失率有所上升。我要說的是——雖然環比——同比流失率有所下降，但環比略有上升，但這完全在意料之中，也符合我們的預期。

And moving forward, you can expect us to continue to experiment. I would say the seasonal campaigns are likely to continue to happen with the same regularity. And then we'll experiment with other offerings and other promotions, other regional plans over time.

展望未來，您可以期待我們繼續進行試驗。我想說季節性活動可能會繼續以同樣的規律發生。然後我們將隨著時間的推移嘗試其他產品和其他促銷活動以及其他區域計劃。

Next question from Lloyd Walmsley.

Lloyd Walmsley 的下一個問題。

Can you tell us how much premium gross margins benefited in 2Q relative to a year ago from the extended use of the free trial this year versus last year's $0.99 for 3 months? What about the total impact to first half premium gross margins?

你能告訴我們今年第二季度的保費毛利率與一年前相比有多少受益於今年免費試用的延長使用與去年 3 個月的 0.99 美元相比嗎？對上半年保費毛利率的總體影響如何？

Yes. So in Q2, that impact was small. It was probably about 15, 20 basis points. And it had a bigger impact in Q1, around 80 basis points. So together, it's probably about 40 basis points or so for the first half of the year.

是的。所以在第二季度，這種影響很小。大概是 15、20 個基點。它在第一季度產生了更大的影響，約為 80 個基點。因此，今年上半年加起來可能約為 40 個基點左右。

Next question from Rich Greenfield.

Rich Greenfield 的下一個問題。

The core Apple podcast experience has evolved in years, but there are a wide array of dedicated podcast apps, such as Pocket Casts, Overcast, Castro, et cetera. How would you rank the experience of Spotify as a podcast player versus the dedicated apps? Can you become the best place for podcasts?

核心的 Apple 播客體驗已經發展了多年，但也有大量專門的播客應用程序，例如 Pocket Casts、Overcast、Castro 等。您如何評價 Spotify 作為播客播放器與專用應用程序的體驗？你能成為播客的最佳去處嗎？

Well, that's certainly our ambition. Again, what I've said prior is that we want to be the de facto audio platform of the world. And there's a lot more innovation that we have started doing about 2 years ago and that we keep shipping quarter-by-quarter. I think my personal favorite at the moment, which I'm super excited about, is the ability to do group listening remotely. So just as an example, this is something we announced yesterday, where our consumers can now share what they're currently listening to and people can tune in to that experience, so whether that be podcast or whether that be music.

嗯，這當然是我們的雄心壯志。同樣，我之前說過的是，我們希望成為世界事實上的音頻平台。大約 2 年前，我們已經開始進行更多的創新，並且我們每季度都會出貨。我認為目前我個人最喜歡的是遠程群組收聽的能力，這讓我非常興奮。舉個例子，這是我們昨天宣布的，我們的消費者現在可以分享他們目前正在收聽的內容，人們可以收聽這種體驗，無論是播客還是音樂。

But because we have this large music platform and because we have this audio platform, all of the benefits that we are developing for the music ecosystem are coming to the podcast ecosystem as well. And that's true of advertising as well as the discovery tools and other usability benefits, too. And I think over time, that's going to compound into an amazing user experience that we believe will be attractive to most, if not all, consumers around the world who are interested in listening to audio content.

但因為我們擁有這個大型音樂平台和音頻平台，我們為音樂生態系統開發的所有好處也將進入播客生態系統。廣告以及發現工具和其他可用性優勢也是如此。而且我認為，隨著時間的推移，這將融入令人驚嘆的用戶體驗，我們相信這將吸引世界上大多數（如果不是全部）對收聽音頻內容感興趣的消費者。

Next question comes from Ben Swinburne.

下一個問題來自 Ben Swinburne。

Why do you believe COVID-19 pressures seem to persist and be more substantial in Latin America and rest of world relative to North America? And separately, do you think there's been a reduction in artist releases due to COVID? And if that's impacted engagement.

為什麼您認為 COVID-19 壓力似乎在拉丁美洲和世界其他地區持續存在並且相對於北美更為嚴重？另外，您認為 COVID 導致藝術家發行量減少了嗎？如果那會影響參與度。

A very good question. And generally, I would say, we see some of the seasonality on a market-by-market basis as well, not related to COVID, but just due to seasonality, due to holidays, that kind of thing. My best thesis at the moment, we have talked about this last quarter, that there's been a pull-forward effect of smart devices and smart home devices, so smart speakers, smart TV screens, et cetera, exploding in consumption. This has been a very, very nice tailwind overall. My best thesis at the moment is we don't have the same extent of smart devices in LatAm as we do in, say, more mature markets like North America and Europe, and that can have some of the impact that we're seeing as well on that. But that's my own thesis and not something that I can sort of just confirm on a broader basis.

一個很好的問題。一般來說，我想說的是，我們也會在逐個市場的基礎上看到一些季節性，與 COVID 無關，而只是由於季節性，由於假期之類的事情。我目前最好的論點是，我們在上個季度談到了這一點，即智能設備和智能家居設備產生了拉動效應，因此智能揚聲器、智能電視屏幕等的消費呈爆炸式增長。總體而言，這是一個非常非常好的順風。我目前最好的論點是，我們在拉丁美洲的智能設備數量不如在北美和歐洲等更成熟的市場，這可能會產生一些影響，如我們所看到的好吧。但這是我自己的論點，而不是我可以在更廣泛的基礎上確認的東西。

Next question from Sumant Wahi.

Sumant Wahi 的下一個問題。

Can you talk about the margin profile of the podcast business and the shape of the ROI? What are your expectations there?

你能談談播客業務的利潤率概況和投資回報率的形狀嗎？你在那裡有什麼期望？

Yes. So I think as we've talked about in the short term, short to intermediate term, we're still in investment mode. And we're going to continue to invest in the business. And you'll see the content drag on gross margins, and it will continue for some period of time as advertising grows.

是的。所以我認為，正如我們在短期、短期和中期所討論的那樣，我們仍處於投資模式。我們將繼續投資於這項業務。你會看到內容拖累毛利率，隨著廣告的增長，這種情況會持續一段時間。

Over the long term, we think it should be margin-accretive. How long that takes, we'll have to see. And I think we've said on a couple of occasions that if you continue to see the goodness in the business from podcasting, whether it's on user growth or subscriber growth, if we see it impacting the retention numbers and churn numbers in a positive way, we're going to continue to invest in that business. And so I think you'll see it holistically in our LTV and our LTV to SAC and how we think about that. But it could be a drag for a period of time before it starts to be a benefit, which we think will be significant over time.

從長遠來看，我們認為它應該會增加利潤率。這需要多長時間，我們必須拭目以待。而且我想我們已經在幾個場合說過，如果你繼續看到播客業務的好處，無論是用戶增長還是訂閱者增長，如果我們看到它以積極的方式影響保留數量和流失數量，我們將繼續投資於該業務。因此，我認為您會在我們的 LTV 和 LTV 到 SAC 以及我們對此的看法中全面看到它。但這可能會拖累一段時間，然後才會開始帶來好處，我們認為隨著時間的推移，這將變得很重要。

The one added thing I would probably add to what Paul said just overall, is that the best measure that we use internally for judging the business success is the LTV to SAC metric. And baked into the LTV metric, of course, is the retention of our basis. It is about getting exclusive content, and that exclusive content may mean that we are the only place to have that show, which enables pricing power as well.

我可能會在 Paul 所說的整體上補充一件事，即我們內部用於判斷業務成功的最佳衡量標準是 LTV 到 SAC 指標。當然，融入 LTV 指標的是我們基礎的保留。這是關於獲得獨家內容，而獨家內容可能意味著我們是唯一擁有該節目的地方，這也具有定價權。

So long term, that's the flywheel, that's the metric that we're focusing on. So we are investing in that business to build a differentiated business compared to all other businesses that exist here, and we think this will be the audio platform on the Internet, and that's a large opportunity and a very valuable opportunity, both with subscription and advertising.

從長遠來看，這就是飛輪，這是我們關注的指標。因此，我們正在投資該業務，以建立與這裡存在的所有其他業務相比差異化的業務，我們認為這將是互聯網上的音頻平台，這是一個巨大的機會，也是一個非常寶貴的機會，無論是訂閱還是廣告.

Okay. Next question comes from Brian Russo.

好的。下一個問題來自 Brian Russo。

On your recent renewal with UMG, can you confirm this partner has agreed to treat podcasting on your freemium tier in the same manner that the other majors have with regard to a carve-out of listening time?

關於您最近與 UMG 的續約，您能否確認該合作夥伴已同意在您的免費增值層上以與其他專業在收聽時間劃分方面相同的方式對待播客？

Well, I think what we have said is that from a podcasting perspective, the advertising related to podcasting will be 100% Spotify's and not shared. Beyond that, I'm not sure we've commented much on any other terms of the deals.

好吧，我認為我們所說的是，從播客的角度來看，與播客相關的廣告將 100% 屬於 Spotify，不會共享。除此之外，我不確定我們是否對交易的任何其他條款發表了很多評論。

Okay. Next question from Richard Kramer.

好的。 Richard Kramer 的下一個問題。

What ROI do you think you could provide advertisers or labels for their promoted songs? How do you balance that with the legal limitations on payola and consumer expectations around recommendations?

您認為您可以為廣告商或他們推廣的歌曲提供標籤的投資回報率是多少？你如何平衡 payola 的法律限制和消費者對推薦的期望？

Yes. So we've been investing in Marketplace for quite some time. And in particular, we have had Marquee being out there. We are always, of course, monitoring consumer satisfaction and making sure that, that is high. That's the gauging factor that we're looking into everything.

是的。所以我們投資 Marketplace 已經有一段時間了。特別是，我們有 Marquee 在那裡。當然，我們一直在監控消費者滿意度並確保其處於高水平。這是我們正在研究一切的衡量因素。

But I do want to talk a little bit about the onuses behind this. I talked about the economics of a label before, but the single-largest cost of a label today, unlike before. It used to be that distribution was the single-largest cost of a label. Today, the single-largest cost of label is promotion and marketing. And what's exciting to me is that Spotify is the platform where most people are consuming and discovering content.

但我確實想談談這背後的責任。之前我講過標籤的經濟性，但是今天一個標籤的單筆最大成本，跟以前不一樣了。過去，分銷是標籤的最大單項成本。如今，標籤的最大單項成本是促銷和營銷。令我興奮的是，Spotify 是大多數人消費和發現內容的平台。

So if labels instead reinvest some of the portion of the marketing spend that they use to promote market artists on this platform natively, the result should be a lot better. You should see better results for consumers because they're getting more of what they actually like. You should see better results for artists and labels as well because they're able to grow their fans a lot better at more efficiently priced -- prices than, say, other advertising marketplaces or billboards that they've traditionally spent them on. And of course, for Spotify, it means a higher gross margin business as well.

因此，如果唱片公司轉而將他們用於在該平台上推廣市場藝術家的營銷支出的一部分再投資，結果應該會好得多。您應該會為消費者看到更好的結果，因為他們得到了更多他們真正喜歡的東西。你也應該看到藝術家和唱片公司的更好結果，因為他們能夠以更有效的定價方式更好地培養他們的粉絲——比起他們傳統上花錢購買的其他廣告市場或廣告牌的價格。當然，對於 Spotify 來說，這也意味著更高的毛利率業務。

So I really do look at this as a win-win-win, where it's better for the consumer, better for artists and labels and better for Spotify.

所以我真的把這看作是三贏，它對消費者更好，對藝術家和唱片公司更好，對 Spotify 也更好。

Okay. Next question comes from Steven Cahall.

好的。下一個問題來自 Steven Cahall。

When users combine into a Premium Duo account or a Family Plan, how is this factored into gross adds, net adds and churn?

當用戶合併到一個 Premium Duo 帳戶或一個家庭計劃中時，這將如何計入總增加量、淨增加量和流失率？

Well, if you're already a subscriber and you just move to a new plan, you continue to be a subscriber, so there's no change there. And for gross adds, it's just -- it will be new users to the platform. So -- and with respect to churn, if you're moving from one plan to the other, but you're staying a subscriber, it shouldn't impact churn either. So yes, that's pretty much it.

好吧，如果您已經是訂戶並且您只是轉到新計劃，那麼您將繼續是訂戶，因此那裡沒有變化。對於總增加量，它只是 - 它將是該平台的新用戶。所以——關於流失，如果你從一個計劃轉向另一個，但你仍然是一個訂閱者，它也不應該影響流失。所以是的，差不多就是這樣。

Okay. We've got time for about 2 or 3 more questions. We'll go to Mark Mahaney.

好的。我們還有時間回答大約 2 或 3 個問題。我們會去馬克馬哈尼。

Can you talk through the P&L impact so far from the 2-sided Marketplace and comment on its potential future financial impact?

您能否談談目前為止 2 方市場對損益的影響，並評論其未來潛在的財務影響？

Yes. So I think we mentioned last year that it was about EUR 30 million benefit to gross profit. And then to start the year, we said that we expect the Marketplace to be up about 50% in the contribution to gross profit in 2020. And so there's no change at all to our expectations for the year in terms of how Marketplace is rolling out.

是的。所以我認為我們去年提到毛利潤約為 3000 萬歐元。然後在今年年初，我們說我們預計 Marketplace 對 2020 年毛利潤的貢獻將增長約 50%。因此，我們對今年 Marketplace 推出方式的預期完全沒有變化.

And sorry -- sorry, just to add. I know there's some questions on -- a good majority of that is contra-cost. So it's a benefit to gross margin without revenue. There is some revenue attached to the benefits of Marketplace, but it's reasonably small. The majority of the benefit we get is directly related to benefits we see directly in the gross margin.

抱歉——抱歉，只是補充一下。我知道有一些問題 - 其中大部分是對價。因此，這對沒有收入的毛利率是有好處的。 Marketplace 的好處附帶了一些收入，但它相當小。我們獲得的大部分收益與我們在毛利率中直接看到的收益直接相關。

And the next question comes from [Deepak] at Barclays.

下一個問題來自巴克萊銀行的 [Deepak]。

With Joe Rogan coming on the platform exclusively in September and other podcasts potentially launching, how are you thinking about the potential benefit to Premium subs and MAUs in your third and fourth quarter guidance?

隨著喬·羅根 (Joe Rogan) 於 9 月獨家登陸該平台，其他播客也可能推出，您如何看待第三和第四季度指南中高級訂閱和 MAU 的潛在好處？

Yes. So it's a great question. And to piggyback on what Daniel said earlier, we've been reasonably conservative with the expectations for how much it benefits our platform. And so when you look at the guidance range, again, if you go back to the start of the year, we had mentioned a certain level of conservatism within our guidance, particularly for MAU, with respect to how much potential benefit we're going to see this year from pods and podcast launches and new content launches.

是的。所以這是一個很好的問題。並藉鑑丹尼爾之前所說的話，我們對它對我們平台有多大好處的期望一直相當保守。因此，當您再次查看指導範圍時，如果您回到年初，我們在我們的指導中提到了一定程度的保守主義，特別是對於 MAU，關於我們將獲得多少潛在收益從播客和播客的發布以及新內容的發布來看今年。

And so we definitely have seen continued growth in MAU. As I mentioned earlier, it was up this year more than it was up at the same time first half of 2019. And we've seen really nice growth there. But I would say the exact impact modeled in for the benefits of any of the content is still fairly minor. And so there is some conservatism baked into the MAU side with respect to the benefit of podcasts and new content.

因此，我們肯定看到了 MAU 的持續增長。正如我之前提到的，今年的漲幅超過了 2019 年上半年的同期漲幅。我們在那裡看到了非常好的增長。但我想說的是，為任何內容的好處建模的確切影響仍然相當小。因此，在播客和新內容的好處方面，MAU 方面存在一些保守主義。

One addition I would just make there, too, is that the interesting factor isn't just about one show. It is when you're adding more and more things that only exist on Spotify, as we talked about before. So to the extent that we're looking at this as a big event, that's fantastic and that's great, and I'm sure it will have a big impact with both existing fans and new fans alike. But for me, this is really about adding more and more and more reasons for you to come to Spotify and be on the Spotify ecosystem as well.

我也想補充一點，有趣的因素不僅僅是一場演出。正如我們之前談到的，當您添加越來越多僅存在於 Spotify 上的內容時。因此，就我們將其視為一件大事而言，這太棒了，太棒了，我相信它會對現有粉絲和新粉絲產生重大影響。但對我來說，這實際上是增加越來越多的理由讓你來到 Spotify 並加入 Spotify 生態系統。

And with that, I'm very excited about both the launches we've already had, but also the coming announcements in the coming quarters about all the other shows that we're making, that there should be something for every single person on the Spotify platform, and more and more of those shows will only exist on Spotify.

因此，我對我們已經推出的產品以及未來幾個季度即將發布的關於我們正在製作的所有其他節目的公告感到非常興奮，我們應該為每個人提供一些東西Spotify 平台，越來越多的節目將只存在於 Spotify 上。

Okay. We got a question from Richard Kramer.

好的。我們收到了理查德·克萊默 (Richard Kramer) 的問題。

What precisely are you hoping to gain from the Apple antitrust case? What's your ideal outcome? And given that 70%-plus of U.S. subs are on iOS, how would it affect earnings?

你究竟希望從蘋果反壟斷案中得到什麼？你理想的結果是什麼？考慮到 70% 以上的美國訂閱者都在 iOS 上，這將如何影響收入？

Paul, maybe you can talk about the specific impact for us. But just overall, the most important thing for us is to create platform principles where it's a more fair and equitable marketplace for us and other start-ups to engage and compete for consumers' attention, time and wallets. We ultimately think this is important not just for Spotify, but actually for the broader ecosystem as well. The best service is the one that should be -- win, not the one who had an existing platform that we're able to lock in consumers with as well. So that's certainly what we're hoping for as an outcome.

保羅，也許你可以談談對我們的具體影響。但總的來說，對我們來說最重要的是製定平台原則，為我們和其他初創企業提供一個更加公平和公正的市場，以吸引和競爭消費者的注意力、時間和錢包。我們最終認為這不僅對 Spotify 很重要，實際上對更廣泛的生態系統也很重要。最好的服務是應該贏得的服務，而不是擁有我們也能夠鎖定消費者的現有平台的服務。所以這當然是我們希望的結果。

And maybe you, Paul, have something more specific on the impact for us.

保羅，也許你對我們的影響有更具體的看法。

Yes, nothing other than I think what we said in the past, which is we've grown really, really nicely and really well in the face of some, let's say, competitive dynamics that aren't ideal for us in terms of how we can market and talk to our consumers within the iOS ecosystem. So we feel really good about the growth we've had in spite of the fact that there are limitations that Apple puts on us and our ability to market, promote and convert our users into subscribers.

是的，除了我認為我們過去所說的，我們已經真正、非常好地、非常好地成長，面對一些，比方說，競爭動態，這些動態對我們來說並不理想，我們如何可以在 iOS 生態系統中與我們的消費者進行營銷和交流。因此，儘管 Apple 對我們以及我們營銷、推廣和將用戶轉化為訂閱者的能力存在限制，但我們對我們的增長感到非常滿意。

All right. And our last question will come from Ben Swinburne.

好的。我們的最後一個問題將來自 Ben Swinburne。

Product mix shift largely due to discounted and Family Plans continues to benefit users but weigh on ARPU and your year-over-year Premium revenue growth, which is slowing. Why should shareholders view this trend positively for the long-term earnings power of the business and not a sign of a maturing market?

產品組合的轉變主要是由於打折和家庭計劃繼續使用戶受益，但對 ARPU 和您的保費收入同比增長構成壓力，後者正在放緩。為什麼股東應該對企業的長期盈利能力持積極態度，而不是市場成熟的跡象？

I guess, I'll start and I'll see if Daniel has any question -- comments on this one. But I think for us, we've really been in a mode of growing market share, and it's all been about growing users and growing subscribers. And as we've talked about on a number of calls, we really focus on LTV to SAC and making sure that we're adding subscribers that we believe will be profitable, and profitable over the long term.

我想，我要開始了，我會看看 Daniel 是否有任何問題——對這個問題的評論。但我認為對我們來說，我們確實處於一種市場份額不斷增長的模式，而這一切都與不斷增長的用戶和不斷增長的訂閱者有關。正如我們在多次電話會議上談到的那樣，我們真正關注的是 LTV 到 SAC，並確保我們正在增加我們認為會有利可圖且長期有利可圖的訂戶。

And so we continue to add. We've had a lot of success with our Family Plan and Student plan. And the affinity plans have helped us grow our overall subscribers and gain share, but we have seen ARPU decline. It was down 9% in the quarter, as I mentioned, 7% excluding FX. And there was another 1% impact of the revenue reversal, so down about 6%. I think over long term, our expectation is that ARPU will moderate in terms of declines and start to move higher. But for now, it's really been about market share gains over near-term profitability.

所以我們繼續添加。我們的家庭計劃和學生計劃取得了很大成功。親和力計劃幫助我們增加了整體訂戶並獲得了份額，但我們看到 ARPU 下降了。正如我提到的，本季度下降了 9%，不包括外彙在內下降了 7%。收入逆轉還有 1% 的影響，因此下降了約 6%。我認為從長遠來看，我們的預期是 ARPU 將在下降方面放緩並開始走高。但就目前而言，這實際上是關於市場份額超過近期盈利能力的增長。

Yes, and I think the only thing I would add to that is we keep looking at all of those changes in product mix from the lens of just the overall LTV. So there are many variables that go into LTV. One of them, of course, is retention and overall acquisition as well, when we monitor for that. And as Paul said, we have been mostly focused for growth, and I think rightly so. Because with the scale of the platform, that enables more and more and more of the benefits that we've been talking about as well. It's easier for us to market to existing consumers. When we're doing something like podcast, those consumers are, in turn, marketing to other new consumers to join the platform, too. So we're seeing this virtuous cycle of more and more people joining the platform on the basis of that.

是的，我認為我唯一要補充的是，我們一直在從整體 LTV 的角度關注產品組合的所有這些變化。所以 LTV 有很多變量。當然，當我們對此進行監控時，其中之一就是保留率和整體收購。正如保羅所說，我們主要關注增長，我認為這是正確的。因為隨著平台的規模，這也帶來了我們一直在談論的越來越多的好處。我們更容易向現有消費者推銷產品。當我們做播客之類的事情時，這些消費者反過來也會向其他新消費者進行營銷以加入該平台。因此，我們看到了越來越多的人在此基礎上加入該平台的良性循環。

Long term, though, just to elevate this discussion, we are very, very bullish still, and we're still in the early days on this journey of going after the audio platform of the world. And that is still measured in billions of consumers. We're still relatively early in that cycle. And just from a TAM perspective, even today, the radio industry is north of $50 billion. Most of that is advertising. Advertising's today, a small portion of the Spotify's business, but it will be a much bigger one overall. So that's an added potential benefit.

不過，從長遠來看，只是為了提升這場討論，我們仍然非常、非常樂觀，而且我們仍處於追求世界音頻平台的旅程的早期階段。這仍然以數十億消費者為衡量標準。我們仍處於該週期的早期階段。僅從 TAM 的角度來看，即使在今天，無線電行業也超過 500 億美元。其中大部分是廣告。今天的廣告業務只是 Spotify 業務的一小部分，但總體而言會大得多。所以這是一個額外的潛在好處。

Then on the subscriber side, as Japan and the U.S. have shown before, there are existing audio products that are monetized at much higher ARPUs than Spotify in those marketplaces. And I think the Spotify product and content mix is getting better by the day. And over time, that gives us confidence that we should have ability to be a significant player in subscription and have pricing power as well going forward.

然後在訂閱者方面，正如日本和美國之前所展示的那樣，在這些市場中，現有音頻產品的貨幣化 ARPU 比 Spotify 高得多。而且我認為 Spotify 的產品和內容組合一天比一天好。隨著時間的推移，這讓我們相信，我們應該有能力成為訂閱領域的重要參與者，並在未來擁有定價權。

So I think the combination of those 2. Growth will still be the priority given that we're talking about in the billions. But I am very, very bullish on our ability, both on advertising and subscription, long term.

所以我認為這兩個因素的結合。考慮到我們正在談論的數十億，增長仍然是首要任務。但我非常非常看好我們在廣告和訂閱方面的長期能力。

Okay. That concludes our question-and-answer session. Daniel, do you have any final closing remarks?

好的。我們的問答環節到此結束。丹尼爾，你有什麼最後的結束語嗎？

Yes, sure. So in closing, we had a very strong quarter. And as I mentioned just before, I've really never been more bullish about where we are today and our future opportunity. And there are still billions of people who have yet to discover our on-demand music streaming or listen to a podcast, and of course many more we have yet to reach in markets around the world where Spotify doesn't yet exist.

是的，當然。所以最後，我們有一個非常強勁的季度。正如我之前提到的，我對我們今天所處的位置和未來的機會從未如此樂觀。還有數十億人尚未發現我們的點播音樂流媒體或收聽播客，當然還有更多我們尚未進入 Spotify 尚不存在的全球市場。

And speaking of podcast, the last thing I wanted to do is just encourage you to check out Spotify's new For The Record podcast that's coming out this Friday. Paul and I will be sharing additional thoughts about the quarter, and we will be discussing my philosophy on growth, innovation and the importance of risk taking. So feel free to check that out. Shameless Plug.

說到播客，我最不想做的就是鼓勵您查看 Spotify 將於本週五發布的新 For The Record 播客。 Paul 和我將分享關於本季度的其他想法，我們將討論我關於增長、創新和承擔風險的重要性的理念。所以請隨時檢查一下。無恥的插件。

But thanks again for joining us this morning. This is an exciting time to be focused on audio, and we're only just getting started.

但再次感謝今天早上加入我們。這是專注於音頻的激動人心的時刻，而我們才剛剛開始。

Thanks again, everyone, for joining. The replay of the call will be available on our website, and new for the first time, also on the Spotify app under Spotify earnings call replays. Thanks again.

再次感謝大家的加入。電話重播將在我們的網站上提供，這也是首次在 Spotify 收益電話重播下的 Spotify 應用程序上提供。再次感謝。

This concludes the Spotify Q2 2020 Earnings Call. We thank you for your participation. You may now disconnect.

Spotify 2020 年第二季度財報電話會議到此結束。我們感謝您的參與。您現在可以斷開連接。