Yahoo News Snoop Dogg Supports Striking Artists In Fight For Streaming Residuals: “Where’s The Money?”
Snoop Dogg is sharing his thoughts over streaming residuals and asking where the money is at as the writers’ and actors’ strikes have brought Hollywood to a standstill.
WGA and SAG-AFTRA are standing up to the studios and Snoop Dogg understands their fight as he delivered a passionate speech during an event at the Milken Institute this week.
More from Deadline
Burbank Street Used During Strike Blocked To Parked Cars; Provides Safer Space For Picketers
WGA West Members Paid Record Dues In Year Preceding Strike, Financial Report Shows
“The streaming gotta get their shit together because I don’t understand how the f**k you get paid off of that shit,” the rapper said. “I mean, can someone explain to me how you can get a billion streams and not get a million dollars? That shit don’t make sense to me. I don’t know who the f**k is running the streaming industry, if you’re in here or not, but you need to give us some information on how the f**k to track this money down ’cause one plus one ain’t adding up to two.”
Snoop said that the “main gripe” of artists that are hitting big numbers on streaming services are not seeing monetary results. The rapper recalled that when he started in the industry, it was much easier to calculate how much money he would get as it was all based on selling physical copies.
“If you sold a million copies, that means 999, $9 million, you get this percentage, that’s what it is,” he added. “So if I sell how many streams, how much money do I get? It’s not being translated and it’s not working for the artist right now.”
He continued, “We need to figure that out the same way the writers are figuring it out — the writers are striking because [of] streaming, they can’t get paid. Because when it’s on the [streaming] platform, it’s not like in the box office. In the box office, if it does all these numbers you make it up, ‘Oh, it did this many, here’s another check.’ But on streaming, you got 300,000 hours that somebody watched your movie, where’s the money? I know I’m going off the script right now but f**k it, this is business.”
Snoop hoped that in a room full of business people someone could be able to figure out how to fix the issue “so the next artist don’t have to struggle or cry or try to figure out how to get to his money. Because some of these artists are streaming millions and millions… of f**king streams and they don’t got no million dollars in their pockets.”
Watch Snoop Dogg in the video below.
Snoop Dogg breaks down why streaming residuals is a huge issue for SAG-AFTRA & WGA. Well said! pic.twitter.com/fBOSUOyPnV
— Todd Spence (@Todd_Spence) July 18, 2023
Best of Deadline
Sign up for Deadline's Newsletter. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.
