Hip-hop mogul Snoop Dogg has officially partnered with blockchain-based music streaming service Tune.FM, potentially marking his shift away from traditional streaming platforms following a public dispute with Spotify over royalty payments.
Snoop Dogg will become “the face” of Web3 streaming platform Tune.FM, launching the collaboration with his new single, Spaceship Party. The rapper signaled his intention to migrate more of his extensive catalog, including Death Row Records material, to Tune.FM, and to move away from streaming platforms, telling Billboard: “I don’t f*** with Spotify anymore, I’m only on Tune.FM.”
Snoop Dogg has nearly 30 million monthly listeners on Spotify as of writing and all of his classic albums are still on the platform.
When asked whether all of Snoop Dogg’s music will remain on Spotify, a spokesperson said, “For now, his other music is still on DSPs, but Snoop is signaling that that will change.”
The announcement comes about three months after the rapper publicly criticized Spotify’s payment structure, claiming he received less than $45,000 for accumulating over one billion streams on the platform.
“I don’t f*** with Spotify anymore, I’m only on Tune.FM.”
Snoop Dogg
“They just sent me some s**t from Spotify where I got a billion streams. My publisher hit me. I said, ‘Break that down, how much money is that?’ That s**t wasn’t even $45,000,” the artist told Business Untitled podcast in December.
However, Spotify has contested these figures, with a company spokesperson telling TMZ Hip Hop: “We can’t speak to endorsement deals for Web3 companies but… $45K for a billion streams? It’s well documented that a billion streams on Spotify generates millions of dollars to rights holders. It’s unfortunate to hear that Spotify’s payments didn’t make it through to Snoop.”
The spokesperson added: “Snoop’s a legend and, hopefully now that he owns Death Row Records, he’s seeing more of that money.”
Snoop Dogg acquired Death Row Records from MNRK Music Group in 2022. The label, founded by Dr. Dre, The D.O.C., Suge Knight and Dick Griffey, is home to a number of the most iconic names in Hip Hop including Dr. Dre and 2Pac, and was Snoop Dogg’s debut label.
Last year, Snoop Dogg partnered with TikTok to bring the Death Row Records catalog back to the platform through TikTok’s independent distribution platform, SoundOn. The deal marked Death Row’s “first official online release since its removal from streaming services in early 2022, and the first-ever catalog reissue to release exclusively through SoundOn.”
Shortly after the acquisition, fans noticed several albums in the catalog disappeared from streaming apps like Spotify and Apple Music, with many blaming Snoop Dogg’s plans to turn Death Row into an NFT music label.
“Death Row will be an NFT label, we will be putting out artists through the metaverse and a whole ‘nother chain of music,” Snoop Dogg said in an interview in 2022.
“Just like when we broke the industry when we were the first independent [record label] to be major, I want to be the first major in the metaverse.”
Speaking to Rap Money around the same time, Snoop Dogg said, “Snatch everything Death Row off traditional: iTunes, Apple, Spotify… So take the Death Row catalog to Gala Games, a company that I f**k with in the metaverse. That’s where it lives at in the metaverse. It built a Death Row app, so we could be like Netflix, Amazon, Hulu. And we have an app where all our content is with all our music. And now instead of Apple and Spotify… p*mpin’, there’s a new m**** f***in’ p*mp on the block.”
“Snoop is the OG pioneer who is always on the cutting edge of technology and new ways of doing business. He totally gets it, and we are ready to take on the world together.”
Andrew Antar, Tune.FM
In February 2022, Snoop Dogg sold over $44 million worth of “Stash Box” NFTs in just five days via Gala Games’ Gala Music store.
The partnership with Tune.FM coalesced after the company’s founder and CEO, Andrew Antar, met the artist at the Crypto Ball preceding President Donald Trump‘s January inauguration.
“We are thrilled to welcome Snoop Dogg as the face of Tune.FM,” said Antar. “Snoop is the OG pioneer who is always on the cutting edge of technology and new ways of doing business. He totally gets it, and we are ready to take on the world together.”
Tune.FM touts itself as a decentralized alternative to traditional streaming services, offering “instant per-second payouts, and JAM, The Official Currency of Music—a fully tradable cryptocurrency built on the Hedera Hashgraph (HBAR) network.”
Tune.FM says: “Unlike major streaming platforms, where artists must wait months for royalty payments, Tune.FM ensures real-time micropayments for every second of a song played, dramatically increasing artist earnings.”
The San Francisco-based company raised $50 million in funding last September, bringing its total funding to date to $80 million.
Tune.FM says it pays artists 90% of their streaming revenue through its JAM token. This stands in contrast to industry giants like Spotify, which distributes “nearly 70%” of its music revenue to rightsholders, money which is then distributed to artists, songwriters, producers, labels, publishers and others.
Tune.FM says it aims to change this model by directly rewarding artists for their work.
Beyond streaming his music catalog, Snoop Dogg’s Tune.FM partnership will include fan experiences, VIP giveaways including private events, and merchandise drops. Tune.FM says the rapper’s vision also includes expanding the platform’s marketplace to integrate unique artist-fan interactions, digital collectibles, and NFT-backed ownership models.
Tune.FM hinted that it is actively talking to major labels and distributors about bringing additional content to its service. Billboard says these labels include Universal Music Group and Sony Music.
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