In mid-March, fans noticed Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre’s Death Row releases were removed from major streaming services. At the time, there was speculation it was part of Snoop gearing up for the label’s new era in the metaverse after acquiring the brand in February. During a recent appearance on Drink Champs, the rapper-turned-label owner revealed he pulled those albums as part of a plan to build a streaming platform of his own.
“First thing I did was snatch all the music off those platforms traditionally known to people, because those platforms don’t pay,” he explained. “Those platforms get millions of millions of streams, and nobody gets paid other than the record labels. So what I wanted to do is snatch my music off, create a platform similar to Amazon, Netflix, Hulu. It’ll be a Death Row app, and the music, in the meantime, will live in the metaverse.”
Snoop continued by explaining what example he hopes to set with the platform. “I want to create an avenue to where I can show people how to not always have to go through the slave trade,” he said, “but create our own trade where we’re engaging with our own fans that’s buying our music, that’s making money off the music, and then making us money off of the music by it being traded and sold.”
As an example, Snoop cited the success of his latest album BODR (Bacc on Death Row), which made $21 million in metaverse on the first day, according to the rapper. Currently, his Death Row albums — Doggystyle and Tha Doggfather — and Dr. Dre’s The Chronic are no longer on Apple Music, Spotify, and Amazon Music. However, all of these records remain on TIDAL, which has been known for paying higher royalties.
Whether Snoop’s individual success with the metaverse can translate over to any artists he signs to Death Row is yet to be seen, but it’s well-established that Spotify is not the artist-friendly company it has claimed to be.