Earnings Labs

Warner Music Group Corp. (WMG)

Q2 2023 Earnings Call· Sat, May 13, 2023

$28.43

-0.85%

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Welcome to Warner Music Group's Second Quarter Earnings Call for the period ended March 31, 2023. At the request of Warner Music Group, today's call is being recorded for replay purposes. And if you object, you may disconnect at any time. Now, I would like to turn today's call over to your host, Mr. Kareem Chin, Head of Investor Relations. You may begin.

Kareem Chin

Management

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to Warner Music Group's Fiscal Second Quarter Earnings Conference Call. Please note that our earnings press release, earnings snapshot and the Form 10-Q we filed this morning will be available on our website. On today's call, we have our CEO, Robert Kyncl; and our CFO, Eric Levin, who will take you through our results and then will answer your questions. Before our prepared remarks, I'd like to refer you to the second slide of the earnings snapshot to remind you that this communication includes forward-looking statements that reflect the current views of Warner Music Group about future events and financial performance. We plan to present certain non-GAAP results during this conference call and in our earnings snapshot slides and have provided schedules reconciling these results to our GAAP results in our earnings press release. All of these materials are posted on our website. Also, please note that all revenue figures and comparisons discussed today will be presented in constant-currency unless otherwise noted. All forward-looking statements are made as of today and we disclaim any duty to update such statements. Our expectations, beliefs and projections are expressed in good faith, and we believe there is reasonable basis for them. However, there can be no assurance that management's expectations, beliefs and projections will result or be achieved. Investors should not rely on forward-looking statements because they are subject to a variety of risks, uncertainties and other factors that can cause actual results to differ materially from our expectations. Information concerning factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the forward-looking statements is contained in our filings with the SEC. And with that, I will turn it over to Robert.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Thanks, Kareem. And good morning, everyone. It's been four months since I joined Warner Music Group from Google, and I'd like to talk today about some changes we've made so far and shed some light on what's to come. But first, let me give you a summary of our Q2 results. As expected, on our last earnings call, some of the macroeconomic, currency and release slate headwinds from Q1 carried over into Q2. As a result, total revenue grew 5% and adjusted OIBDA increased 8%. Recorded Music revenue increased 3% and Streaming grew 2%, reflecting ongoing weakness in the ad market and modest growth in the United States. Music Publishing had another impressive quarter with revenue growth of 15%. Our strategy at Warner Chappell continues to deliver long-lasting relationships with a wide array of global and local talent, while expanding our services to songwriters and creating new opportunities for catalog. This quarter, highlights included our creative partnership with Belgian superstar, Stromae max contributions as a co-producer of Bad Bunny's latest album, and 21 Savage's collaboration with Drake on the number-one album, Her Loss. I promised I would be direct with you, so I'll simply say that while our results in Music Publishing were best-in-class, we underperformed in Recorded Music. There's plenty of room for improvement and we're addressing both company-specific and industry-wide issues. As we signaled, we have had two consecutive quarters where our release schedule was less robust than normal. That is now changing with the slate we have planned for the remainder of 2023. The early results are promising with new releases from the likes of Ed Sheeran, Jack Harlow, and Tiesto. I'll give some more details later on. While we are optimistic that our second half release slate will drive better results in the second half, this…

Eric Levin

Management

Thank you, Robert. And good morning, everyone. Despite the challenges Robert cited, we delivered growth in revenue, adjusted OIBDA and adjusted OIBDA margin. Total revenue increased 4.6%, reflecting growth in both Recorded Music and Music Publishing. Adjusted OIBDA increased 7.9% with margin of 20.4% compared to 19.8% in the prior-year quarter. These increases were primarily due to higher revenue and lower variable marketing spend which is linked to the timing of releases. Recorded Music revenue grew 2.5%. Streaming revenue increased 2.2% as subscription streaming grew in the mid-single-digits and was partially offset by ad-supported revenue declining in the mid-teens. Our streaming results reflect a lighter release schedule and market-related slowdown in ad-supported revenue. Physical revenue increased 1%, driven by solid performance in the US. Artist services and expanded rights revenue decreased by 4% due to lower merchandising and advertising revenue, partially offset by higher concert promotion revenue. Licensing revenue increased 27%, including growth in brand income and the licensing settlement. Recorded Music adjusted OIBDA increased by 2% with a margin of 21.8%, which was roughly flat compared to the prior-year quarter. Music Publishing continues to deliver impressive results, posting 15% revenue growth, driven by strength in digital, performance and mechanical. Digital revenue grew 18%, the same for streaming revenue, driven by continued growth in streaming and the impact of digital deal renewals. Performance revenue increased by 29% primarily due to the timing of payments from collection societies and the remaining recovery from COVID disruption. Performance revenue is now fully recovered from COVID, and we expect the growth to moderate meaningfully starting next quarter. Mechanical revenue increased 23% primarily due to a strong share in physical sales, and sync decreased by 4% due to lower commercial licensing activity in the US, partially offset by copyright infringement settlements. Music Publishing adjusted OIBDA…

Operator

Operator

Thank you. [Operator Instructions] Our first question comes from the line of Michael Morris with Guggenheim Securities. Your line is now open.

Michael Morris

Analyst

Thank you, guys. Good morning. Robert, I'd like to ask you a little bit more about the DSP pricing progression that you touched on in your prepared remarks. And I'd specifically love to hear your thoughts about Spotify. So you mentioned a couple of your partners who have already raised prices. And on their earnings call, Spotify management said that they would like to raise price in '23, but that it's pending discussion with their music partners, their label partners. So can you share any insights on your discussion with Spotify and if you see a path to collaborating on the price increase there? And then secondly, if I could, Eric. As we think about the stronger release slate in the second half of the fiscal year, can you help us with how much you think the key categories of Recorded Music revenue and I guess streaming revenue in particular will be impacted relative to the first half? Thank you.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Thanks, Michael. So on the first part of your question, there's no real update that I can provide you because those discussions are private, obviously. And when there is some update, I will make sure to share that. But what I can tell you is this, which is, one, I'm excited that they're sounding constructive publicly about the price increases on their earnings call. But more importantly, actually I think it was you who published a report that the price increase would result in EUR1 billion uplift in annual revenue for Spotify in 2024, which obviously is quite positive and accretive. So clearly there will be a win-win, not just for Spotify and us, but also for every DSP if price increases happen. That's really - that's all I have to say about that at this point.

Eric Levin

Management

So thanks, Robert. And good to talk to you, Michael. So on the kind of release slate and first half versus second half and the impact, I think we feel - as we've said and signaled before, our release slate was a little lighter in the first two quarters of the year and will be quite weighted towards Q3 and Q4. As we said on the call, we already have some releases out of Q3, Sheeran, Jack Harlow, Tiesto, that are already showing strong results with a lot more to come. We have the Barbie soundtrack featuring Dua Lipa, which we're excited about Tebi Rex and music, David Guetta, Charlie Puth. Yng Lvcas out of Mexico is the top three Spotify hit. We can keep going and going. The point is that the releases are there, and the second half is looking quite strong. We absolutely expect this to improve our results in Recorded Music streaming in the second half of the year, and this would likely create uplift in both streaming and physical. Those two categories are the ones that would be most positively affected, Michael.

Michael Morris

Analyst

Thank you both.

Eric Levin

Management

Sure. Thank you.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Ben Swinburne with Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Ben Swinburne

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Thanks, good morning. Robert, with another quarter under your belt there, I'm wondering if you could update us a bit on some of the technology opportunities you see at the company and sort of where you think the biggest - I don't know if it's efficiency or optimization potential is as you've brought on a new team and sort of worked for at least another quarter on building out systems at Warner. And then, you guys, I think, made a comment in your prepared remarks, you expect a gradual recovery in the second half. Do you think that we should be assuming that the major labels are growing slower than the industry on a go-forward basis because of just the growth of independents, maybe throw in some AI-generated music in there, maybe the sort of regional skew towards non-Western markets? Is that the right base case assumption? Because obviously we've sort of seen results across the major labels kind of lag Spotify on a revenue growth basis. And I'm curious, do you think maybe that's the right assumption going forward? So those are the two questions. Thank you.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Well, thanks. So on a technology front, I think in my opening remarks I highlighted the four areas that technology will impact Warner. 100% focused on efficiency. There is a lot that we can achieve using technology on that front. 100% focused on effectiveness of all of our activities, scale and then focus on monetization of superfans. It is - every area of our business that I look at can use technology as a force multiplier. So what we're doing is, A, we've recruited the initial team of just A-list technologists which are unprecedented in this music industry. And we're having an incredible momentum with hiring more and more people of that type that want to come here and be part of what we're doing. And at the same time, we're looking at all the activities inside the company, all the projects, and see how we apply them against the four areas that I was talking about. I think this is incredibly exciting, and I like to say is that we have to constantly parallel process on everything. This is the greatest example. We're parallel processing in four different areas with technology. And what's even more encouraging is that the music part of the company is embracing it in the most welcoming sense because everyone sees what a force multiplier this can be on all of our activities that we do developing artists and marketing artists and songwriters. So it's an exciting journey to be part of. And I can't underscore enough how unprecedented this is, but obviously time will - we will have to prove it through our products that we ship and our actual deliveries. I prefer actions speaking louder than words. So I look forward to, at some point in the future, be actually prove that, but…

Ben Swinburne

Analyst · Morgan Stanley. Your line is now open.

Thank you very much.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Your next question comes from the line of Sebastiano Petti with JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Sebastiano Petti

Analyst · JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Hi, thanks for taking the questions. I just wanted to see if you could touch on just, Robert, in some of your prepared remarks, the investments in tech capabilities and the tech-enabled strategies. I mean, what is the glide path, as we look at capital expenditures after the implementation of the financial transformation program. Should we expect a step-down in fiscal 2024 or will there maybe be some of these initiatives or some of these programs and reinvestment of cost savings that will still be felt inside of fiscal '24 and perhaps beyond? And then my second question just on the Warner Chappell, obviously segment OIBDA growth very strong in the quarter. Streaming, you talked about in your prepared remarks just the strong execution there. I mean, can you unpack perhaps some of the underlying drivers of that growth? How should we think about the segment growth from here on a go-forward basis, any underlying maybe one-offs or comps that are impacting the recent kind of growth rates? Thank you.

Robert Kyncl

Management

All right, I'll throw it to Eric. I think he is better suited to answer here. Go ahead, Eric.

Eric Levin

Management

Thanks. So hi, Sebastiano. Great to talk to you again. And on CapEx, I would say a few things. So we are absolutely, kind of with Robert and the tech team, developing, we'll call it the updated plan that shows increased investment in tech and tech capabilities to drive the business forward. So as our financial transformation starts to wind down and costs come down, I would reasonably expect that our tech investment and CapEx costs are higher than they were historically. So whether that yields to something that stays relatively flat, but I would expect it to be $100 million or more of the exact numbers over a long-term plan, will come out as we finalize our strategic plan and the financial plans that goes with it, which are still in-flight with Robert, and Ariel, and the new team still developing the plans forward. So I think more to come, but certainly there will be increased investment in technology. That said, some of the cost measures that we've taken, specifically the headcount reductions, which are going to generate $49 million of savings in fiscal '24 and annually thereafter, our objective is for the technology costs to basically be funded by other cost-savings measures. So it's not incremental cost to the business. It is just a reallocation of resources to where it could have more impact and drive growth and efficiency in the business. So the plan and details are in-flight, but the strategy is clear and already taking place. On OIBDA growth, Sebastiano, I think it's fair, as you look at the business, to say that our first half ago fiscal year had a lighter release schedule, which meant that it was very imperative for us to be managing costs very tightly and prudently, looking at every single line…

Sebastiano Petti

Analyst · JPMorgan. Your line is now open.

Thanks, Eric. See you soon.

Eric Levin

Management

Yes.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Benjamin Black with Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Benjamin Black

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Good morning, thanks for the questions. Robert, I know you spoke a lot about technologies, but UMG has been very vocal about the need to sort of redefine the DSP model is the one that's not more artist-centric. So I was curious, what are your thoughts on the way the model is currently constructed and do you think there is need for a change? And if so, how would you like to see the industry evolve? And then one on sort of advertising, it'd be great to hear sort of an update on the advertising backdrop and trends that you're seeing in early April. Are you seeing growing stabilization and the latest - has the ad's market dislocation impacted the pace of your emerging platform deals since many of these are tethered to the ad market? Thank you.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Yes, so on the DSP model. So I think I've said publicly a few times that I am convinced, and various numbers back up, that music is significantly undervalued. For instance, relative to streaming video, roughly $0.50 on a $1 by multiple different analyses or versus inflation, et cetera. So it is undervalued. When I look at that, I start thinking about like what are the underlying causes of that. And a great example of that is my own work at YouTube, where over the course of five years, we have increased the price of YouTube TV subscription by 100% and we have not increased the price of YouTube Music by any percent. Same people, two completely different decisions, two completely different outcomes. And by the way, both businesses grew very successfully. And the cause of that is the structure of the agreements with DSPs. That structure was really, really good for the industry. It has taken it from a low point to an incredible recurring revenue stream all around the world with massive amounts of people and have payment instruments on file, premium experience, personalization, all of that, and then has rebuilt the business. But it does not mean that it is the right thing for the next 10 or 20 years. It has to change, and it will change. One of the reasons for that is that there is not a real incentive for price increases that you see in every other industry. But the other is that every stream is valued exactly the same way. And that doesn't seem like something that's aligned with the way the world works. For instance, in sports, LeBron James earns more money than some of his teammates, not because he plays more hours per day. Plays exactly the same number of…

Eric Levin

Management

And I'm happy to take the advertising ones. So, Ben, on that one, I guess I would say we're seeing some positive signs, but I would continue to be cautious. I think in calendar Q1, we saw YouTube and Meta have some improved results. I think as we've talked about our stronger release schedule in the second half of the year gives us optimism that advertising has the opportunity to do better in Q3. We will start to have easier comps, as in Q3 of '22 was when the market started to soften and then in Q4 '22 is when it softened significantly. And so we are more optimistic going forward, but I would also say that in prior quarters, we've seen a stronger month or two and then a month that has been much weaker within a quarter. So I think we want to see a pattern of improvement before we really believe that the market has stabilized, but there are some signs of improvement out there. And with our stronger release schedule and easier comps, I think we feel much better about the second half of the year than the results from the first half of the year on advertising.

Benjamin Black

Analyst · Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Great, thank you.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Rich Greenfield with LightShed Partners. Your line is now open. Rich Greenfield, your line is open. Please check your mute button.

Rich Greenfield

Analyst · LightShed Partners. Your line is now open. Rich Greenfield, your line is open. Please check your mute button.

Hi, can you hear me? Sorry about that.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Yes, we can.

Rich Greenfield

Analyst · LightShed Partners. Your line is now open. Rich Greenfield, your line is open. Please check your mute button.

Sorry about that, Robert. I just want to expand on your last answer, Robert, because I think it's so important, thinking about sort of the future of this industry. And part of the issue at YouTube TV is you had obviously a lot of legacy cable companies that were charging $100-plus a month versus a much lower price. You had a lot of stealing in order to grow price as a low-cost new entrant. With the music industry, you sort of have everybody sort of at the same price point within a dollar, I guess, of everybody, but you don't have anybody - you don't have a lot of stealing to sort of grow and so - and we're even seeing people who had sort of like new ideas. You saw Resso come in, and they just got rid of their ad-supported service and go sort of subscription-only. How do you think about the evolution? Like should this be a hybrid model of advertising and subscription, should there be more of an advertising-only model, a subscription-only? Like what do you think of the future of the - what's the business model of music look like in five or 10 years that you think we're moving towards?

Robert Kyncl

Management

Yes, so I think there are two different things. One is sort of the user experience and the value proposition, which is, I think, more what you were touching on. And then there is the sort of wholesale relationship between us and the DSPs. So what I was talking about previously was the change of the wholesale relationship which is necessary going forward. But I do think that evolution of the - well, let's say the retailer relationship between the DSPs and the users is always open. And I think dual revenue stream models are great. I think you always need a premium version as well. Obviously, we've experimented with all of that at YouTube. I do think the experimentation with paid models that have ads in it is also important, right? Obviously, we've seen that with Hulu successfully as their most adopted tier despite having the completely ad-free option. So I think I think innovation around the use cases for users is important because it basically helps optimize audience segmentation, right, along different price points and different ARPUs. And we're 100% open to exploring all of these things with our partners. But what I'm trying to stress is that the status quo of the way things work right now is not something that's going to work going forward. And I think - yes, go ahead.

Rich Greenfield

Analyst · LightShed Partners. Your line is now open. Rich Greenfield, your line is open. Please check your mute button.

Just to dig in on that. Is the issue that the way the wholesale relationship works makes an advertising business model or other hybrid business models not as appealing? Is that what you're essentially saying needs to get fixed, is by changing wholesale you enable new retail models?

Robert Kyncl

Management

Yes and no. One, even if nothing changed on the user proposition, the wholesale relationship has to change because today, it does not increase - does not incentivize price increases. And as you've seen in every single subscription service, whether it's fitness services or video services, anything, have increased prices over the last five years significantly other than music. That's probably the only industry that hasn't, other than the 10% price increases last year in the last few months. That's one. Two, that is not actually incentivized in the current agreements. It's actually the opposite. And two, it values every single piece of content exactly the same. And that is not how the world works, that is not how media works, that is not how sports works and not how anything works. So those things will change. What you're getting at is the user proposition, which also requires changes in our relationship with the DSPs and open to that - open to exploring that as well so that there can be yet additional model to audience segment and figure out a way to provide yet additional option to users that is driving increased ARPU versus another segment of our industry - of our revenue streams.

Rich Greenfield

Analyst · LightShed Partners. Your line is now open. Rich Greenfield, your line is open. Please check your mute button.

Thanks very much.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Thanks.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Stephen Laszczyk with Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Stephen Laszczyk

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Hi, thanks, good morning. For Robert or maybe Eric, it sounds like international is one of the more attractive areas for you to invest capital at the moment. I'd be curious if you could update us on your view on the return profile of investments in international markets compared to some of the other areas where you could perhaps invest capital today. And then looking ahead, how much capital you think you can manageably invest in international markets over the next few years. Any thoughts there would be great.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Hi, Stephen. So we continue to focus on multiple ways to invest in the globalization of our business. Obviously, our A&R marketing spend continue to help drive local music in markets around the world. We also have looked and done selective M&A acquisitions and investments in key markets around the world, especially in emerging markets, that help us build market share in markets that are fast-growing and as I like to say, kind of coming online and coming of age with streaming. And so whether that's Investing in Rotana, or acquiring Qanawat in the Mideast, which has given us significant market share growth in the Mideast in the neighborhood of 20%; or Africori, which we acquired last year in the fast-growing African market, which is I think the fastest growing in the world. So we continue to look at the globalization and specifically, emerging markets, as a way to supplement the development and growth and expansion of our market share in fast-growing markets around the world that have the opportunity for strong IRRs. So as far as our return on capital, we look at them similar to how we look at any other deal. Obviously, we look at double-digit returns as our threshold. We do look at the risk of deals and the likelihood of them paying off and making sure that we have a strong return profile. Overall, the company has a high-teens - consistent delivery of high-teens return on invested capital. So we keep that in mind as well, but the investments that we make are supportive of our ROIC. How much we invest I would say is somewhat opportunistic. We do not have a specific pool of capital to deploy in the globalization of our business. Specifically, through M&A, we are looking at kind of markets we see as high-growth and we look at the kind of build versus buy tradeoffs. And in some markets, we build organically. In some markets, we see acquisition opportunities which can accelerate the development of market share require upfront capital, but the deal has to be right. The management team that would usually, the vast majority of times, want to stay with the business and help build out our business has to be a good fit for our company and want to stay and be part of the Warner Music Group. So it really is flexible to what the structure is, but we're very focused on developing emerging markets and have done so and will continue to do so going forward, which supplements our growth and help increase the reach and diversification of the business. Thanks, Stephen.

Stephen Laszczyk

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Great, thanks for that. And maybe just a second one on free cash flow conversion. Eric, it looked like it was pressured in the quarter by some one-time items. Could you help perhaps unpack some of those? And as you look out over the next year or so, I know on the call you mentioned the 50% to 60% cash conversion as being the multi-year target, is that within your scope this year or should we be thinking about that as more like your Q3-type target to achieve? Thank you.

Eric Levin

Management

So what I would say is that - so there's two pieces. So fiscal calendar Q2 has traditionally been a wider cash conversion quarter. There's several reasons for that. One is it's the quarter that we pay bonuses, our DSP advances, which based on the timing of deals could happen at different times throughout the year but have not - traditionally, or certainly for quite some time, have been focused on fiscal Q2, have generally been more focused towards fiscal Q4. So some of the things that drive working capital opportunities, plus bonuses make fiscal Q2 generally a lighter quarter. So happens in this quarter, we had some additional tax payments. That's largely timing, but that did affect this quarter as well. What I would say is that we're roughly in line with where our cash conversion was through the second quarter of '22. And last year, we, for the full year, had an over 60% cash conversion rate. I'm not saying that's going to happen this year. I'm saying there's a lot of things that are in-flight, timing of deals that are being negotiated which could have cash advances that may or may not close in '23 or might fall into '24. Depending on the timing of those deals, we could meet our cash conversion targets very strongly in fiscal '23. If some of those deals fall into '24, then the delivery of the 50% to 60% could be over multiple - over '23, '24. So we continue to say over a multi-year timeframe because the timing of some of the deals isn't fixed in stone and we need that flexibility. But on a sustainable basis, that 50% to 60% is our target on a running basis, and we continue to focus on and are confident we can deliver.

Stephen Laszczyk

Analyst · Goldman Sachs. Your line is now open.

Great, thanks, Eric.

Eric Levin

Management

Thanks, Stephen.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our next question comes from the line of Matthew Thornton with Truist Securities. Your line is now open.

Matthew Thornton

Analyst · Truist Securities. Your line is now open.

Hi, good morning, Robert. Good morning, Eric. Maybe two if I could. First one on emerging streaming. Eric, I apologize if I missed that, but was there any change in that revenue run rate? And I guess just higher level without getting into any specifics, I guess do you feel like you guys are making progress on the emerging side towards getting some more renewals closed later this year? And any just progress on that front would be helpful. Second question is really around margins. Eric, I think previously you talked about 50 basis points to 100 basis points OIBDA margin expansion this year. I think the long-term bogie over any multi-year period was roughly 100 basis points per year. Is that the right way to think about the business? Any color there would be helpful as well. Thanks, guys.

Robert Kyncl

Management

I'll take the first one on the renewals. So on the sort of emerging platforms renewals, my focus on - so, A, no update, but B, I have one rule that I focus on, which is if traffic moves from one platform to another, I want us to feel neutral about that. I don't want to trade dollars for pennies going one way or another. So that is really - that is what I'm looking for. And I think that's the fiscally responsible thing to do for the long-term health of the business. So that's all I can say as an update on that and so that you understand where our bottom line is. And I'll let Eric answer the second question.

Eric Levin

Management

Yes. So, Matthew, no change on our margin outlook. We are continuing to focus on margin growth and each of the first two quarters of this year, we've delivered very strong margin growth, and we'll continue to look at the full year and every year going forward for margin growth. I will say that as Robert and the technology team and the business overall look at the technology initiatives and its ability to drive efficiency and scale in our business and specific executions within operating plans developed, we will fine-tune our financial plan with that, and we expect margin to continue to be a focus once we have that plan tweaked to some of our perspective on margin. It might, but I expect our margin focus to continue to be positive and our outlook and focus continue to focus on margin improvements going forward. But right now, we continue to focus on the 100 basis points a year. And specifically, this year I'd said - I've said 50 basis points to 100 basis points, given some of the dynamics, might be more realistic, but given the first half of the year, margin improvements have been actually quite strong.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. Our last question comes from the line of Tim Nollen with Macquarie. Your line is now open.

Tim Nollen

Analyst

Great, thanks for fitting me in. I've got couple of questions related to AI, very interesting topic both maybe offensively and defensively for you, Robert. You mentioned some of the copyright issues and it sounds like you're quite confident about your ability to defend against those. Is this going to be a running topic for some time or do you think the legislation that you referred to might begin to help? And then secondly, more sort of offensively for you, you mentioned using AI both for creating efficiencies but also, I think, implying that you could use AI more for your artists' creation of music. Are you looking to be building sort of proprietary AI that your artists can use as supposed to maybe using other services, or maybe anything else you can give us in terms of what you can be using AI for productively? Thanks.

Robert Kyncl

Management

Sure, thank you. So, one, yes, this will likely be a topic that will be ongoing, and we'll probably be talking about it for the next five years all the time. So until we all get tired of it. But yes, because it's a transformative technology. And yes, I look at both the threats as well as the opportunities, and probably look at the opportunities even more so than the threats. However, as somebody who is working with dozens of artists, has a historic catalog, obviously we have to look at protection of copyright name and likeness and voice, et cetera. And so again, this goes back to my parallel processing. This company is parallel processing. And for us and AI, it means both defensive and offensive at the same time. And I think the - there are a couple of things on this. Number one, regulation is important. I think, including people who are creating AI - generative AI, they agree on that, lots of good actors in that area. That is important. And copyright protection as part of that is very, very important. The second part next to it is the actual detection and enforcement, which is - because you can have regulation, but if you don't have detection and enforcement of that, then it's less useful to have the regulation. So we're in discussions with partners who have - who operate generative AI to figure that out, who operate platforms to figure that out. We obviously have lots of expertise on this front in-house with Ariel having overseen content ID on YouTube. And so that's an important part of it. And then the - sort of the use of AI for sort of offensive purposes, there is a very, very wide spectrum of things that it could be used for. I don't really want to go into the specifics of that because it's early, but what I can tell you is that we're running fast exploring all of that. And yes, we are in the business of and creating tools for artists to do their work - to have tools that basically supercharge their work, right? So I'm not looking at technologies only being a force multiplier for our teams and for Warner Music Group, but also for our roster. And so parallel processing on all of these fronts, and I think it's an exciting time for a company like ours and to be part of this and to be able to figure it all out and do it together with all of our technology and distribution partners.

Operator

Operator

Thank you. I would now like to hand the conference back over to Robert Kyncl for closing remarks.

Robert Kyncl

Management

All right, so thank you all so much for your care, interest and all your questions, and I look forward to talking to you in 90 days. Thank you. Have a great day.

Operator

Operator

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