'Where's the money': Snoop Dogg gives fiery speech in support of striking artists

ByABC7.com staff WPVI logo
Wednesday, July 19, 2023
'Where's the money': Snoop Dogg sounds off on streaming residuals
Snoop Dogg shared his thoughts on the Hollywood strikes, contrasting streaming residual pay with how the music industry pays its artists with album sales.

SANTA MONICA, Calif. -- Snoop Dogg shared his thoughts on the Hollywood strikes, contrasting streaming residual pay with how 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 an account to Twitter on Monday.

The WGA, which represents TV and movie writers, went on strike on May 2, and the SAG-AFTRA, which represents TV and film actors, went on earlier this month. Residual payments from content writers make for 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 could get a billion streams, and not get a million dollars," said Snoop. "Like, that s*** don't make sense to me."

Snoop said the studios need to give people information on "how to track the money down because one plus one ain't adding up to two."

"That's the main gripe with a lot of us artists is that we do major numbers with these streams, and this s***, but it don't add up to the money," said Snoop. "Like, where the f*** is the money."

Snoop said that when he started out, the amount of money he got was connected to how many albums he sold, and a similar situation worked out for writers with ratings.

"How many streams, how much money do I get? It's not translating and it's not working for the artists right now," he said.

Snoop ended his speech with a plea to the audience.

"This is a room full of business people and somebody may hear this and be able to do something about it, so that way the next artist don't have to struggle or cry to try to figure out how he can get to his money," Snoop said.

Snoop Dogg has been a vocal supporter of the writer's strike since the beginning. He and Dr. Dre postponed their concert for the 30th anniversary of the release of "The Chronic" back in June in support of the writers.