Featured Image Credit: Business Untitled/Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images
Topics: Money, Music, Rap, Snoop Dogg, Spotify
Niamh Shackleton
Topics: Money, Music, Rap, Snoop Dogg, Spotify
Snoop Dogg is arguably one of the most popular rappers on the planet.
The rapper released his first song in 1989, and has since gone on to drop a series of hits such as 'Drop It Like It's Hot', 'Sweat', 'Gin and Juice', and 'Who Am I'.
To add to his already long list of accolades, Snoop recently hit a whopping one billion streams on Spotify for his song 'Young, Wild & Free' featuring Wiz Khalifa and Bruno Mars.
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The track was released in 2011 and made it into the top ten in several countries' music charts, including the US, France, Australia, New Zealand and Italy.
Over a decade on from its debut and Snoop revealed that he'd been informed that it had hit a huge one billion streams on the popular music platform, so asked his publisher how much he'd made.
"They just sent me some s**t from Spotify where I got a billion streams," he recalled on the Business Untitled podcast in December.
"My publisher hit me, and I said break that down. How much money is that?
"That s**t wasn't even $45,000."
His revelations have since raised a lot of questions as it's thought that one billion streams on Spotify should earn an artist as much as $3 million.
Reports suggest the music streamer pays $.003 per single stream, but the company has denied this.
As per the Spotify website, it depends on the artist's agreement with their label regarding how much they're paid.
The site explains: "In many cases, royalty payments happen once a month, but exactly when and how much artists and songwriters get paid depends on their agreements with their record label or distributor - or collection societies and publishers in the case of songwriters."
Spotify further explains: "Once we pay rightsholders according to their streamshare, they pay artists and songwriters according to their individual agreements. Spotify has no knowledge of the agreements that artists and songwriters sign with their labels, publishers, or collecting societies, so we can’t answer why a rightsholder’s payment comes to a particular amount in a particular month."
In light of Snoop's comments, people have shared their surprise at the amount he received.
"If snoop is only making 45,000 then everyday artists make virtually nothing from Spotify," someone speculated on TikTok.
"Artist gonna go back to selling albums," another commented.
But others said that, while it wasn't as much as he'd expected, $45,000 can still go a reasonably long way.
Putting things into perspective, one TikToker shared: "I worked 90 hours last week and it wasn't even 2000."
Spotify has declined to comment.