Snoop Dogg believes musicians should strike over pay, just like the Writers Guild of America (WGA).
While speaking on a panel alongside his business partner, Gamma’s Larry Jackson, the music legend shared that he did not think artists were fairly compensated in the age of streaming.
The ‘Drop It Like It’s Hot’ rapper suggested musicians stage a strike similar to WGA.
“[Artists] need to figure it out the same way the writers are figuring it out,” he said at the Milken Institute 2023 Global Conference in Los Angeles, as per Variety.
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“The writers are striking because [of] streaming, they can’t get paid. Because when it’s on the platform, it’s not like in the box office.”
The music mogul added that even if an artist's music thrives via streaming service, it isn’t reflected in their pay.
He shared: “I don’t understand how the f**k you get paid off of that s**t.
"Somebody explain to me how you can get a billion streams and not get a million dollars?
"That’s the main gripe with a lot of us artists is that we do major numbers… but it don’t add up to the money. Like where the f**k is the money?”
Gamma’s partnership with Snoop allows them exclusive rights to market and distribute the Death Row Records catalog.
Jackson said before the panel of the new partnership: “Snoop could’ve gone to any three of [the major labels]… but [he] would be getting paid on a biannual basis.”
He added that while his company distributes music faster to consumers, they’re paying their artists quicker, which he described as ‘revolutionary’.
According to Ditto, Spotify pays its artists between $0.003 - $0.005 per stream on average, which works out as a revenue split of 70/30 - so that’s 70 per cent going to the artist/rights holders while 30 per cent to Spotify.
In 2020, The Union of Musicians and Allied Workers (UMAW) launched the ‘Justice at Spotify’ campaign, advocating changes to the streaming platform’s business model.
According to their website, on 15 March 2020, the organization launched a worldwide action at the Spotify offices with music workers ‘fighting for a more just music industry’.
Organization representative Damon Krukowski told TechCrunch that musicians rallied together during the pandemic as they had become more reliant on streaming as their primary source of income.
He added: “The problem we are calling attention to is precisely that musicians have been left out of the conversation!
"We always come last in payment and in consultation — even though our work is what the streaming business is built on.”
Topics: News, Music, Celebrity, Snoop Dogg
Charisa Bossinakis