Snoop Dogg raised his concerns about the music industry in solidarity with the Writers’ strike. On May 2nd 2024 (Tuesday) Writers Guild of America have gone on a strike. The WGA’s demand for changes in writers’ pay and better working conditions in Hollywood directly led to this strike. According to informed sources, more than 11,000 television and film makers have gone on strike for the first time after 15 years. The WGA strike has a huge impact on the creation and distribution of several television programmes and motion pictures. Better pay and working conditions for authors, who are crucial to producing the content that fuels the industry, are the strike’s key objectives. The strike is anticipated to have a considerable effect on the film and television industry, causing several projects to be delayed in development and distribution. This applies to both written and unscripted material, as well as late-night talk shows, which rely largely on writers for their content.
Image source: Los Angeles Times
With this huge strike moving ahead, Snoop Dogg in a panel discussion with co-panelist Larry Jackson (his business partner) and Shirley Halperin (Variety’s executive music editor), stated that the whole system is flawed. He added that musical artists are trying to work out solutions in the same way the writers are. He points out that the writers are on strike because streaming services are unable to pay them and that platform revenue is not equivalent to box office revenue.
Image source: Variety
One of the main concerns raised by Snoop Dogg were that the number of streams does not match the amount of money that the musicians get. He stated that, “Somebody explain to me how you can get a billion streams and not get a million dollars?”
Later in the panel discussion, Snoop Dogg and Larry Jackson talked about Snoop’s partnership with Gamma. The exclusive rights to market and distribute the Death Row Records back catalogue is part of Gamma’s collaboration with Snoop. Jackson stated that Snoop could have gone to any three of the major labels but he would only get paid in a biannual basis. She said that Gamma is paying Snoop once each month now that they have access to the financial analytics dashboard. She also added that in Gamma, few artists are being paid once a week, she states that this is revolutionary and that this is not common in music business. Regarding the issue of artificial intelligence, Jackson stated that there are a lot of productive ways to utilize AI and that the anticipatory insights will inform users how much artists generate hourly.
Snoop Dogg is always known for candidly voicing out his opinions and he always makes it clear about what his stance on a particular subject is. Snoop’s concerns about the music industry in the light of the writers’ strike, highlights the ongoing struggle for fair compensation and working conditions for the creators. The strike is a powerful tool for workers to assert their rights and demand changes from an industry that often prioritizes profits over the well-being of the workers. Snoop’s concerns sheds light on how this is not just a writers’ issue but also an issue of other artists.
