Spotify (SPOT) Risk Analysis

We rely on our systems and those of third parties to provide our products and services. For instance, Google Cloud Platform ("GCP") provides a distributed computing infrastructure platform for business operations, or what is commonly referred to as a cloud computing service. We have designed our software and computer systems to utilize data processing, storage capabilities, and other services provided by GCP, currently rely on GCP for the vast majority of our primary data storage (including personal data of users and audio data licensed from rights holders) and computing, and any transition of our GCP operations to another cloud provider would incur significant time and expense. We have experienced, and may in the future experience, periodic service interruptions and delays involving our own systems and those of third parties that we work with. Both our own systems and those of third parties are vulnerable to damage or interruption from natural disasters (such as earthquakes or fires, droughts, flooding, or storms), temperature or precipitation extremes, changes in meteorological patterns, water shortages, power loss, telecommunications failures, cyberattacks, and similar events. Global climate change could increase the intensity or frequency of certain such events, as well as result in certain chronic changes (including changes in meteorological and hydrological patterns) that may have similar effects. Our own systems and those of third parties are also subject to break-ins, sabotage, intentional acts of vandalism, the failure of physical, administrative, technical, and cyber security measures, terrorist acts, natural disasters, human error, the financial insolvency of third parties that we work with, war or prolonged conflict, global pandemics and other public health crises, and other unanticipated problems or events. The occurrence of any of these events could result in interruptions in our services, unauthorized access to, or alteration of, the content and data contained in our systems or stored by third parties and delivered on our behalf, and otherwise disrupt our operations. Any disruption in the services provided by these third parties could materially adversely impact our business reputation, customer relations, and operating results. Upon expiration or termination of any of our agreements with third parties, we may not be able to replace the services provided to us in a timely manner or on terms and conditions, including service levels and cost, that are favorable to us, and a transition from one third party to another could subject us to operational delays and inefficiencies until the transition is complete. See also "Item 5.B. Liquidity and Capital Resources-Contractual Obligations" for a discussion of our agreement for the use of GCP, which includes minimum payments.

We use AI, including generative AI and machine learning, to provide personalized content to our users, develop new products or new features for existing products, including consumer-facing features such as AI DJ and AI Playlist, and improve our operations. There are significant risks involved in developing and deploying AI and there can be no assurance that the usage of AI will enhance our products or services or be beneficial to our business, including our efficiency or profitability. For example, there is a risk that AI could produce outputs that are inaccurate, misleading, biased, or harmful, or generate other unexpected results or behaviors, which could harm our reputation or business. As a result of the complexity and rapid development of AI, it is also the subject of evolving review by various governmental and regulatory agencies around the world. Various jurisdictions are applying, or are considering applying, their intellectual property, cybersecurity, data protection, and other laws to AI and/or are considering or have proposed or enacted general legal frameworks on AI, including the EU Artificial Intelligence Act (the "EU AI Act"). We may not always be able to determine the impact relevant laws, regulations, standards, or market perception of their requirements may have on our business and otherwise respond to these frameworks. Given the rapidly evolving nature of the legal and regulatory environment surrounding AI, our AI features and our use, training, and implementation of AI could subject us to new or enhanced governmental or regulatory scrutiny, product restrictions, social and ethical issues, negative consumer perceptions and reputational harm, intellectual property disputes, compliance costs, and other issues, including issues related to cybersecurity and data privacy. Certain AI-related regulations, such as the EU AI Act, could impose obligations on our business that may require us to change our products or business practices to comply. AI-related regulations may develop at different rates and inconsistently across jurisdictions, and require us to expend significant resources or cause delays or disruptions to our offerings. We face significant competition from other companies that are developing their own AI products and technologies, some of which also compete with us in other areas, including streaming audio. Those other companies may develop AI products and technologies that are similar or superior to our technologies or are more cost-effective to develop, deploy, and maintain. Given the long history of development in the AI sector, other parties may have (or in the future may obtain) patents or other proprietary rights that would prevent, limit, or interfere with our ability to make, use, or sell our own AI products. Any of these uncertainties or risks related to AI may require additional compliance measures, increase costs, subject us to legal liability, hurt our competitive position, erode trust among our users, or otherwise harm our business, operating results, and financial condition.

We rely on a variety of operating systems, online platforms, hardware, and networks to reach our users. These platforms range from desktop and mobile operating systems and application stores to wearables and intelligent voice assistants. The owners or operators of these platforms may not share our interests and may restrict our access to them or place conditions on access that would materially affect our ability to access those platforms. In particular, where the owner of a platform is also our direct competitor, the platform may attempt to use this position to affect our access to users and ability to compete. For example, an online platform might arbitrarily remove our products or services from its platform, deprive us of access to business critical data, or engage in other harmful practices. Online platforms also may unilaterally impose certain requirements that negatively affect our ability to convert users to the Premium Service, such as conditions that limit our freedom to communicate promotions and offers to our users. Similarly, online platforms may force us to use the platform's payment processing systems that may be inferior to, and more costly than, other payment processing services available in the market. Online platforms frequently change the rules and requirements for services like ours to access the platform, and such changes may adversely affect the success or desirability of our Service. To maintain certain elements of the service on a platform, we may need to make additional concessions to the platform operator that may adversely affect other aspects of the business or require us to invest significant expenses. Online platforms may limit our access to information about users, limiting our ability to convert and retain them. Online platforms also may deny access to application programming interfaces or documentation, limiting functionality of our products or services on the platform. In addition, if online platforms discontinue any log-in authentication services that our users use to access our products or services, we may lose and be unable to recover users previously using this function. In March 2019, we filed a complaint against Apple with the European Commission for engaging in certain behaviors that we believe are unlawful and anti-competitive. In June 2020, the European Commission opened a formal investigation into Apple's conduct. In March 2024, the European Commission found that Apple's conduct was illegal under the European Union (the "EU")'s antitrust rules and fined Apple €1.84 billion. While the decision marked a historic milestone in our ongoing efforts to stop Apple's anticompetitive behavior, we cannot assure you that Apple will comply with the decision in ways that materially improve our business. Apple has appealed the decision and we have intervened in the appeal to explain why the decision should be upheld, but we cannot assure you that the courts will uphold it. In May 2025, in response to an injunction issued by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, Apple updated its app store rules in the United States to enable developers including Spotify to include links in their apps to offers and sales on websites. We cannot assure you that Apple will not introduce new fees that would make it commercially unviable to include links in our app to offers and sales on our websites. Furthermore, devices providing access to our products and services are manufactured by a wide array of companies and we cannot guarantee that these devices perform reliably. Any faulty connection between these devices and our products and services may result in consumer dissatisfaction toward us, which could damage our brand. In addition, we have no control over the hardware or software of these devices and any changes to them may negatively impact our business. For example, changes to operating systems' practices and policies have reduced and may continue to reduce the quantity and quality of the data and metrics that can be collected or used by us and our partners. These limitations have affected and may continue to adversely affect our and our advertisers' ability to effectively target advertisements and measure their performance, thereby reducing the demand or pricing for certain of our advertising products and harming our business. Moreover, our Service requires high-bandwidth data capabilities. If the costs of data usage increase or access to data networks is limited, our business may be seriously harmed. Additionally, to deliver high-quality audio, video, and other content over networks, our Service must work well with a range of technologies, systems, networks, regulations, and standards that we do not control. In addition, the adoption of any laws or regulations that adversely affect the growth, popularity, or use of the internet, including laws governing internet neutrality, could decrease the demand for our Service and increase our cost of doing business. For example, a U.S. federal court in January 2025 invalidated the latest attempt by the Federal Communications Commission to adopt net neutrality rules for internet service providers, though certain U.S. states (such as California) have enacted net neutrality requirements of their own. The EU currently requires equal access to internet content, but as part of the EU's Digital Single Market initiative and the implementation of the European Electronic Communications Code at the national level, EU Member States may impose network security and disability access obligations on "over-the-top" services such as those provided by us. Where internet service providers are subject to lighter net neutrality regulation, in the EU or elsewhere, they may be able to limit our users' ability to access our Service or make it a less attractive alternative to our competitors' applications, and our business, operating results, and financial condition would be seriously harmed. We may not successfully cultivate relationships with key industry participants or comply with the requirements of various operating systems, online platforms, hardware, networks, regulations, and standards on which our products and services depend, and failure to do so could result in serious harm to our business and user retention, growth, and engagement.

Agencies, advertisers, and other third parties have adopted several different measurement and pricing methodologies and standards. Our advertising revenue may be adversely affected by the availability, accuracy, and utility of analytics and measurement technologies as well as our ability to successfully implement and operationalize such technologies and standards. For example, we leverage streaming ad insertion technology to improve our targeting and measurement capabilities for podcast advertising that rely on our streaming capabilities instead of using downloads as a proxy. However, the impact of the shift in measurement from downloads to real impressions on our advertising revenue remains uncertain, as is its wide-scale adoption by our advertising partners and providers of advertising inventory. Further, the digital advertising industry increasingly uses data-driven technologies and advertising products, such as automated buying. These data-driven advertising products and automated buying technologies allow publishers and advertisers to use data to target advertising toward specific groups of users who are more likely to be interested in the advertising message delivered to them. These advertising products and programmatic technologies may not integrate with our Service and if we are unable to deploy effective solutions to sell and monetize our advertising inventory, our ability to attract advertising spend, and ultimately our advertising revenue, may be adversely affected. Failure to successfully operate our proprietary advertising exchange and self-service advertising platform may impact our ability to efficiently scale automated buying with advertisers. In addition, we rely on third-party advertising technology platforms to participate in automated buying, and if these platforms cease to operate or experience instability in their business models, it also may adversely affect our ability to capture advertising spend. The evolution of privacy laws and other laws relating to digital platforms, as well as relevant case law and regulatory guidance, may also impact the way we generate revenue from advertising.

We have in the past been, and continue to be, impacted by attempts by third parties to artificially manipulate stream counts. Such attempts may, for example, be designed to generate revenue for content providers and/or rights holders or to influence placement of content on Spotify-created playlists or industry charts. Attempted stream manipulation may involve creating non-bona fide user accounts or content or using compromised passwords to access legitimate user accounts. For example, we have detected botnet operators creating non-bona fide user accounts or hackers using passwords compromised as a result of a data breach on a non-Spotify service to access legitimate user accounts and streaming specific content repeatedly, thereby generating royalties each time the content is streamed or increasing its visibility on our or third-party charts. We use a combination of algorithms and manual review by employees to detect artificial streams and aim to remove such artificial streams or non-bona fide user accounts created for the above purposes and filter them out from our metrics on an ongoing basis, as well as to require users to reset passwords that we suspect have been compromised. We have also made considerable investments in preventing non-bona fide accounts from registering on our Service and preventing suspicious log-in attempts from bad actors. However, we may not be successful in detecting, removing, and addressing all artificial streams and any related user accounts. If we fail to successfully detect, remove, and address artificial streams and associated user accounts, it may result in the manipulation of our data, including the key performance indicators, which underlie, among other things, our contractual obligations with rights holders and advertisers (which could expose us to the risk of litigation), as well as harm our relationships with rights holders and advertisers. In addition, once we detect and mitigate artificial streams and associated user accounts, this may result in the removal of certain user accounts and/or a reduction in account activity, which may affect key performance indicators and undermine investor confidence in the integrity of our key performance indicators. These could have a material adverse impact on our business, operating results, and financial condition.

We are organized under the laws of Luxembourg. In addition, a substantial amount of our assets are located outside the United States. Furthermore, many of the members of our board of directors and officers reside outside the United States and a substantial portion of their assets are located outside the United States. Investors may not be able to effect service of process within the United States upon us or these persons or enforce judgments obtained against us or these persons in U.S. courts, including judgments in actions predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws. Likewise, it may also be difficult for an investor to enforce in U.S. courts judgments obtained against us or these persons in courts located in jurisdictions outside the United States, including judgments predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws. Awards of punitive damages in actions brought in the United States or elsewhere are generally not enforceable in Luxembourg. As there is no treaty in force on the reciprocal recognition and enforcement of judgments in civil and commercial matters between the United States and Luxembourg, courts in Luxembourg will not automatically recognize and enforce a final judgment rendered by a U.S. court. A valid judgment obtained from a court of competent jurisdiction in the United States may be entered and enforced through a court of competent jurisdiction in Luxembourg, subject to compliance with the enforcement procedures (exequatur). The enforceability in Luxembourg courts of judgments rendered by U.S. courts will be subject, prior to any enforcement in Luxembourg, to the procedure and the conditions set forth in the Luxembourg procedural code. In addition, actions brought in a Luxembourg court against us, the members of our board of directors, or our officers to enforce liabilities based on U.S. federal securities laws may be subject to certain restrictions. In particular, Luxembourg courts generally do not award punitive damages. Litigation in Luxembourg also is subject to rules of procedure that differ from the U.S. rules. Proceedings in Luxembourg would have to be conducted in the French or German language, and all documents submitted to the court would, in principle, have to be translated into French or German. For these reasons, it may be difficult for a U.S. investor to bring an original action in a Luxembourg court predicated upon the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws against us, the members of our board of directors, or our officers. In addition, even if a judgment against the Company, the non-U.S. members of our board of directors, or our officers based on the civil liability provisions of the U.S. federal securities laws is obtained, a U.S. investor may not be able to enforce it in U.S. or Luxembourg courts. Our articles of association provide that directors and officers, past and present, are entitled to indemnification from us to the fullest extent permitted by Luxembourg law against all liability and expenses reasonably incurred or paid by him or her in connection with any claim, action, suit, or proceeding in which he or she would be involved by virtue of his or her being or having been a director or officer and against amounts paid or incurred by him or her in the settlement thereof, subject to limited exceptions. The rights to and obligations of indemnification among or between us and any of our current or former directors and officers are generally governed by the laws of Luxembourg and subject to the jurisdiction of the Luxembourg courts, unless such rights or obligations do not relate to or arise out of such persons' capacities listed above. Although there is doubt as to whether U.S. courts would enforce this indemnification provision in an action brought in the United States under U.S. federal or state securities laws, this provision could make it more difficult to obtain judgments outside Luxembourg or from non-Luxembourg jurisdictions that would apply Luxembourg law against our assets in Luxembourg.

As a company organized under the laws of Luxembourg and with its registered office in Luxembourg, we are subject to Luxembourg insolvency and bankruptcy laws in the event any insolvency proceedings are initiated against us including, among other things, Council and European Parliament Regulation (EU) 2015/848 of 20 May 2015 on insolvency proceedings (recast). Should courts in another European country determine that the insolvency and bankruptcy laws of that country apply to us in accordance with and subject to such EU regulations, the courts in that country could have jurisdiction over the insolvency proceedings initiated against us. Insolvency and bankruptcy laws in Luxembourg or the relevant other European country, if any, may offer our shareholders less protection than they would have under U.S. insolvency and bankruptcy laws and make it more difficult for them to recover the amount they could expect to recover in a liquidation under U.S. insolvency and bankruptcy laws.

Tax laws, including tax rates, in the jurisdictions in which we operate may change as a result of macroeconomic or other factors outside of our control. Governments in the 184 countries and territories where our services are offered, as well as organizations such as the EU and the OECD, are increasingly focused on tax reform and other legislative or regulatory actions to increase tax revenue. For example, a number of jurisdictions around the world have enacted or are considering changes to the existing framework to calculate income and non-income based taxes, including revenue-based taxes such as digital services taxes and other targeted taxes that may apply to our business. Additionally, in July 2025, Public Law No: 119-21, informally known as the "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" ("OBBBA"), was signed into law in the United States. The OBBBA made multiple changes to U.S. federal income tax laws, which may affect our future effective tax rate and income tax liability. Further administrative guidance is anticipated regarding the application of numerous provisions in the OBBBA, including their interaction with other tax rules such as the corporate alternative minimum tax enacted in 2022. Over the last few years, the OECD has been discussing fundamental changes in allocation of profits among tax jurisdictions in which companies do business, as well as the implementation of a global minimum tax (referred to as "Pillar One" and "Pillar Two" respectively). Discussions on Pillar One are ongoing. The proliferation of digital services taxes and similar taxes, which are generally revenue-based tax measures, may continue unless broader international tax reform is implemented. The OECD and participating countries continue to issue administrative guidance related to Pillar Two. A growing number of countries have meanwhile enacted, are in the process of enacting, or are considering domestic legislation to implement Pillar Two, including updating legislation to reflect the OECD administrative guidance issued. Sweden and Luxembourg each enacted such legislation at the end of 2023, with application as of January 1, 2024. Changes in tax laws, treaties, or regulations, or their interpretation or enforcement are unpredictable. Many of the types of changes described above, if and when agreed and enacted by various countries in which we do business, may increase our tax liability. Changes in profitability or the mix of earnings in the jurisdictions in which we operate could have a material adverse effect on our business, operating results, and financial condition, including a substantial impact on our tax obligations, and change the amount and recognition of our current and deferred tax assets and liabilities. The timing and ultimate impact of any such changes on our tax obligations is uncertain.

Comprehensive and accurate ownership information for the musical compositions embodied in sound recordings and audiovisual works is sometimes unavailable to us or difficult or, in some cases, impossible for us to obtain, including where the owners or administrators of such rights have failed to accurately identify their interest in a musical composition. We currently rely on licensors and other third parties to determine this information. If the information provided to us does not comprehensively or accurately identify the ownership of musical compositions, or if we are unable to determine which musical compositions correspond to specific sound recordings and audiovisual works, it may be difficult or impossible to identify the appropriate rights holders from whom to obtain licenses or to whom to pay royalties. This may make it difficult to comply with certain obligations of any agreements with relevant rights holders. This may also make it difficult to identify content for removal from the Service if we lose the rights to such musical compositions. In the United States, we also relied on the assistance of third parties to issue notices of intent to obtain a compulsory license under Section 115 of the Copyright Act to those copyright owners with whom we did not have a direct license agreement. Following the enactment of the Music Modernization Act ("MMA"), for the period between October 2018 and December 31, 2020, to the extent we did not have a direct license and could not locate the owner of a composition, the law provides a limitation of liability under which our only liability for the reproduction and/or distribution of such compositions is the royalty rate set by the U.S. Copyright Royalty Board. That limitation of liability is contingent upon following various procedural steps outlined in the MMA and there is a risk that we can be found to not have properly followed those steps (which could expose us to the risk of increased financial liability in litigations). Beginning on January 1, 2021, the MMA provides a blanket license to reproduce and/or distribute musical compositions on our Service. These challenges, and others concerning the licensing of musical compositions embodied in sound recordings and audiovisual works on our Service, may subject us to significant liability for copyright infringement, breach of contract, or other claims. See "Item 8.A. Consolidated Statements and Other Financial Information-Legal or Arbitration Proceedings."

Our ability to attract and retain advertisers, and to maintain and increase advertising revenue, depends on a number of factors, including: - increasing the number of Ad-Supported Users and the level of our users' engagement with content on our Service;- user demographics and engagement patterns that make us more or less attractive to advertisers;- providing a content portfolio that sustains or increases the value of our advertisements;- keeping pace with changes in technology and our competitors;- competing effectively for advertising dollars with other online and mobile marketing and media companies;- maintaining and growing our relationships with marketers, agencies, demand side platforms, and other sources of advertising demand who purchase advertising inventory from us;- maintaining and growing our relationships with creators who provide us with sources of advertising inventory that are both monetizable and attractive;- impact from the macroeconomic environment on advertisers;- maintaining an effective infrastructure for campaign and order management;- managing adverse legal developments relating to advertising, including changes mandated or prompted by legislation, regulation, executive actions, or litigation regarding the collection, use, and sharing of personal data for advertising-related purposes;- continuing to develop our advertising platform and offerings, which currently include delivery of advertising products through multiple delivery channels, including traditional computers, mobile, and other connected devices, and multiple content types, including podcasts; and - convincing advertisers of the value of innovations to our current advertising offerings, including our automated buying channels such as the Spotify Ad Exchange. We may not succeed in capturing a greater share of our advertisers' core marketing budgets, particularly if we are unable to achieve the scale, reach, frequency, products, and market penetration necessary to demonstrate the effectiveness of our advertising solutions, or if our advertising model proves ineffective or not competitive when compared to other alternatives and platforms through which advertisers choose to invest their budgets. Selling advertisements requires that we demonstrate to advertisers that our advertising offerings are effective. For example, we need to show that our Service has substantial reach and engagement by relevant demographic audiences. Some of our demographic data may be incomplete or inaccurate. For example, because our users self-report their personal data, the data we have may differ from our users' actual information. If our users provide us with incorrect or incomplete information, or the data are otherwise not available to us, then we may fail to target the correct demographics with our advertising. Certain operating systems' practices, policies, and privacy controls have reduced and may continue to reduce the quantity and quality of the data and metrics that can be collected or used by us and our partners. Our users may also exercise their option to opt out of tailored advertising or otherwise not to share certain personal data for a number of reasons, and current and future data privacy laws and regulations may further impede our ability to stream personalized content or offer targeted advertising and promotional opportunities to users of the Service. These limitations have affected and may continue to adversely affect our and our advertisers' ability to effectively target advertisements and measure their performance, thereby reducing the demand or pricing for certain of our advertising products and harming our business. The impact of these changes on the overall mobile advertising ecosystem, our business, and the developers, partners, and advertisers in the ecosystem are evolving and their ultimate impact remains uncertain. Additionally, advertisers often rely on third parties to quantify the reach and effectiveness of our advertising products. These third-party measurement services may not reflect our true audience or the performance of our advertising products, and their underlying methodologies are subject to change at any time. In addition, the methodologies we apply to measure the metrics that we use to monitor and manage our business may differ from the methodologies used by third-party measurement service providers, who may not integrate effectively with our Service. If such third-party measurement providers report lower metrics than we do, there is wide variance among reported metrics, or we cannot adequately integrate with such services that advertisers require, our ability to convince advertisers of the benefits of our Service could be adversely affected.

There is no guarantee that we will be able to generate sufficient revenue from podcasts, audiobooks, or other non-music content to offset the costs of creating or acquiring this content. Our expanded audiobook or video content offerings may involve additional risks and challenges, including increased capital requirements, new competitors, and the need to develop new strategic relationships. Failure to successfully monetize and generate revenues from non-music content, or to effectively manage the numerous risks and challenges associated with delivering such content, including failure to obtain or retain rights to podcasts, audiobooks, or other non-music content on acceptable terms, or at all, could adversely affect our business, operating results, and financial condition.

We believe that a key differentiating factor between Spotify and other audio content providers is our ability to provide personalized content that our users will enjoy. Our system for predicting user preferences and selecting content tailored to our users' individual tastes is based on advanced data analytics systems and our proprietary algorithms, including AI and machine learning models. We have invested, and will continue to invest, significant resources in refining these technologies; however, we cannot assure you that such investments will yield an attractive return or that such refinements will be effective. The effectiveness of our ability to provide a personalized experience to our users depends in part on our ability to gather and effectively analyze large amounts of user data and our ability to train our AI and machine learning models. In addition, our ability to offer users content that they have not previously heard and impart a sense of discovery depends on our ability to acquire and appropriately categorize additional content that will appeal to our users' diverse and changing tastes. Applicable laws and regulations, including those relating to AI, digital services and online safety, data security and privacy, and operating systems' practices and policies, may impact our ability to collect user information and provide personalized content. While we have a large catalog of music, podcasts, audiobooks, and other content available, we must continuously identify and analyze additional content that our users will enjoy and we may not effectively do so. Our ability to deliver effective personalization to our users is critical to the perceived value of our Service among our users and our failure to do so or any actual or perceived decline in the quality of our personalization could materially adversely affect our ability to adequately attract and retain users and grow our business.

We rely on various rights holders, over whom we have no control, for the content we make available on our Service. We cannot guarantee that these parties will always choose to license to us or license to us on terms that are acceptable to us. The music industry has a high level of concentration, which means that one or a small number of entities may, on their own, take actions that adversely affect our business. For example, with respect to sound recordings, the music licensed to us under our agreements with Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, and Music and Entertainment Rights Licensing Independent Network ("Merlin"), makes up the majority of music consumed on our Service. For the year ended December 31, 2025, this content accounted for approximately 72% of streams of audio content delivered by record labels. Our business may be adversely affected if our access to music is limited or delayed because of deterioration in our relationships with one or more of these rights holders or if they choose not to license to us for any other reason. These rights holders also may attempt to take advantage of their market power (including by leveraging their publishing affiliate) to seek onerous financial or other terms from us or otherwise impose restrictions that hinder our ability to further innovate our service offerings. We have particular issues in markets where local content is important and such local content is held by local major labels or even individual artists, making it difficult to obtain such local content at all or on economically favorable terms. In addition, publishers' fractional ownership of shares of musical compositions may enhance their leverage, as the loss of rights to a major publisher catalog would force us to take down a significant portion of popular repertoire in the applicable territory or territories, which would significantly disadvantage us in such territory or territories. The lack of complete metadata with respect to publisher ownership may also present challenges in taking down all the tracks that include the works of a given publisher. Even if we are able to secure rights to sound recordings from record labels and other copyright owners, artists and/or artist groups may object and may exert public or private pressure on those record labels or copyright owners or other third parties to discontinue licensing rights to us, hold back content from us, or increase royalty rates. As a result, our ability to continue to license rights to sound recordings is subject to convincing a broad range of stakeholders of the value and quality of our Service. To the extent that we are unable to license a large amount of content or the content of certain popular artists, our business, operating results, and financial condition could be materially harmed.