SANTA MONICA, Calif. — Snoop Dogg shared his thoughts on the Hollywood strike, comparing streaming residual payments to the way the music industry pays its artists with album sales.
Snoop's comments were recorded at an event at the Milken Institute on May 3 in Santa Monica, but were posted by the account to Twitter on Monday.
The WGA, which represents TV and film writers, went on strike May 2, and SAG-AFTRA, which represents TV and film actors, went on strike earlier this month. Residual payments from content writers made to streaming services have been one of the sticking points between writers and studios, along with the use of artificial intelligence.
“I mean, I don't understand how you can get a billion streams, and not get a million dollars,” Snoop said. “Like, that shit just doesn't make sense to me.”
Snoop said the studio needs to provide people with information on “how to track money because one plus one doesn't add up to two.”
“That's the main gripe of a lot of our artists is that we do a lot of stuff with this genre, and this shit, but it's not making money,” Snoop said. “Like, where's the money.”
Snoop says that when he started out, the amount of money he made was related to how many albums he sold, and a similar situation occurred with writers with ratings.
“How many streams, how much money do I get? It doesn't translate and it doesn't work for artists now,” he said.
Snoop ended his speech with a plea to the audience.
“This is a room full of business people and someone might hear this and be able to do something, so that the next artist doesn't have to struggle or cry trying to figure out how he can get his money,” Snop said.
Snoop Dogg has been a vocal supporter of the writers' strike since its inception. He and Dr. Dre delays their concert for the 30th anniversary of the release of “The Chronic” last June to support the writers.