Spotify Technology S.A.

are in a listen-only mode. If you require operator assistance at any time, please press star zero. As a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to Brian Goldberg, Head of Investor Relations. Thank you. Please go ahead.

Thanks, Operator, and welcome to Spotify's first quarter 2025 earnings conference call. Joining us today will be Daniel Eck, our CEO, Alex Nordstrom, our co-president and chief business officer, Gustav Soderstrom, our co-president and chief product and technology officer, and Christian Luiga, our CFO. We'll start with opening comments from the team, and afterwards, we'll be happy to answer your questions. Questions can be submitted by going to slido.com, S-L-I-D-O.com, and using the code hashtag SpotifyEarningsQ125. 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 InvestorRelations at IR at Spotify.com, and we'll add in your question. Before we begin, let me quickly cover the safe harbor. During this call, we'll be making certain forward-looking statements, including projections or estimates about the future performance of the company. These statements are based on current expectations and assumptions that are subject to risks and uncertainties. Actual results could materially differ because of factors discussed on today's call, in our shareholder deck, and in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. During this call, we'll also refer to certain non-IFRS financial measures. Reconciliations between our IFRS and non-IFRS financial measures can be found in our shareholder deck, in the financial section of our investor relations website, and also furnished today on Form 6-K. And with that, I'm going to turn the floor over to Daniel.

All right. Thanks, Brian. And hi, everyone. I'm really pleased to report that this was another solid quarter, largely in line with our expectation with one clear standout, the outperformance in our subscriber growth. It was a fairly straightforward quarter, so I'll let Alex and Christian take you through the numbers and share their insights. So instead of going over what's already working, I want to use this time to talk about two things that are more top of mind for me right now. The first thing I want to acknowledge is the broader macro environment. There's a lot of uncertainty in the world, and when volatility rises, it's natural to ask who might be affected and how. And from where I sit, Spotify is faring better than most. But of course, if something truly extreme happens, we may be impacted too. That said, I don't believe anything we're seeing today changes the long-term picture for Spotify. The business is solid, our model holds up, and the direction we're heading in remains clear. People still want to listen to music. They want to learn, they want to be entertained, and they want to be inspired. That fundamental demand hasn't changed since we started Spotify, and the engagement we're seeing now suggests we've become even more central to people's lives. That only happens when you consistently solve real problems and meet more of their needs. The underlying data at the moment is very healthy. Engagement remains high, retention is strong, and thanks to our freemium model, people have the flexibility to stay with us even when things feel more uncertain. So yes, the short term may bring some noise, but we remain confident in the long-term story and the direction we're heading in feels clearer than ever. April 1st marked my 19th year working here. And that kind of milestone naturally leads to reflection. And one thing that stands out is that while the emphasis on what we prioritize may shift, the core strategy has stayed remarkably consistent. Our focus has always been on delivering the best possible experience to users and creators and solving the real problems they face. For me, it's never been either or when it comes to the short term or the long term. The way I see it, the long term is built one day at a time. We focus on the inputs we can control, solving real problems, improving the experience, and moving with speed. And we trust that if we keep doing that, the outcomes will follow. My co-founder, Martin, has this line that I keep coming back to. The value of a company is the sum of all problems solved. And that's how we think about our job. Just keep solving meaningful problems every day, and the long term takes care of itself. And that's also why we came into this year with a clear commitment to accelerate our pace of innovation. We're calling 2025 the year of accelerated execution. And so far, we're delivering on that promise. We support now more than 2000 partner devices. And as you can imagine, this comes with complexity. We've now decreased the time spent rolling out across all of our Ubiquiti apps by 10x. And timing for scaling new features on Ubiquiti devices has shrunk 6x. So what used to take us years to deliver is now taking months. From behind the scenes upgrades to visible new offerings, these are already creating the significant impact. One great example is the Spotify Partner Program, our new monetization system for video podcasters, which launched in January and complements our growing podcasting ads business. In record time, we've expanded it to nine new markets, and we're seeing strong traction with users spending 44% more time with video content overall. And as we work to scale quickly, the program has enabled us to pay out over $100 million to podcast creators in Q1 alone. We also continue to expand audiobooks in premium, rolling it out to more regions and introducing innovations that are driving higher user and author engagement. And what's particularly exciting is that I think it's only the beginning. Internal tooling and AI system we've been building over the past few years, combined with new ways of working across teams, are now enabling us to execute faster and smarter. And the compounding effect of that shift is something I believe will become even more visible in the quarters ahead. And with that, I'll hand it over to Alex.