Snoop Dogg has urged artists to boycott streaming services in response to low payouts following the Writer’s Guild of America strike in Hollywood.
The West Coast legend spoke on a panel earlier this week alongside his business partner, former Apple Music executive and now Gamma founder Larry Jackson, as well as Variety‘s Shirley Halperin.
“[Artists] need to figure it out the same way the writers are figuring it out,” Snoop said. “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.
“I don’t understand how the fuck you get paid off of that shit. 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 fuck is the money?”
Snoop then took aim at YouTube after Jackson revealed Gamma received just $16,000 from 500 million streams through YouTube Shorts. “YouTube, y’all motherfuckers need to break bread or fake dead!” he barked.
The Writer’s Guild of America began their strike earlier this week, which has resulted in shows like Saturday Night Live going dark.
Unfortunately for rap fans, that means Lil Uzi Vert’s SNL debut has been put on hold. The Philadelphia rapper was slated to perform on this weekend’s show, with Pete Davidson on hosting duties.
Snoop Dogg inked a longterm partnership with Larry Jackson’s Gamma in March, through which he brought Death Row Records’ catalog back to streaming services. The deal also includes two future Snoop albums.
Gamma was also quietly behind the release of Death Row’s catalog on TikTok in February, which came roughly a year after Snoop became the new owner of the label and subsequently pulled some of its music from streaming services over gripes with artist payouts.
Snoop hasn’t been shy in voicing his frustration with streaming services when it comes to their payouts, which he expanded on his during his interview with Drink Champs last year.
“First thing I did was snatch all the music off those platforms traditionally known to people, because those platforms don’t pay,” he explained. “And those platforms get millions of streams, and nobody gets paid other than the record labels.
“So what I wanted to do is snatch my music off, create a platform similar to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. It’ll be a Death Row app, and the music, in the meantime, will live in the metaverse.”
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