Snoop Dogg has an interesting take on the Hollywood strike that is currently ongoing. The Writers Guild of America (WGA) started striking against studio producers at the beginning of May. The reason was for fair wages and protection against the growing forces of AI. Now, the Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA) is part of the growing fight against unfair labor rules. With a deal nowhere close to happening, Snoop Dogg has decided to weigh in on the topic.
According to Deadline, the rapper-turned-actor said, "The streaming gotta get their sh*t together because I don’t understand how the f*ck you get paid off of that sh*t. I mean, can someone explain to me how you can get a billion streams and not get a million dollars? That sh*t don’t make sense to me. If you sold a million copies, that means 999, $9 million, you get this percentage, that’s what it is. 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."
Snoop Dogg & The New Streaming War
While he's talking about streaming music, Snoop Dogg has a point for all streaming content. To him, there aren't any rules protecting the musicians from the streaming platforms simply underpaying them. Streams are easily quantifiable, but the conversion rate to pay the artists is extremely unfair. For Snoop, he believes the music industry needs to follow in the footsteps of the WGA and SAG-AFTRA.
"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." Snoop Dogg went on to say that "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?" Snoop has starred in films like 2001's Baby Boy and 2004's Starsky & Hutch. If his suggestion gains traction, we could see the entire music industry go the same way as movies and TV shows.