Los Angeles [US], May 4 : Amid the ongoing strike of Hollywood writers, rapper Snoop Dogg has expressed his views.
"(Artists) need to figure it 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 platform, it's not like in the box office, Snoop said during a panel on Wednesday with Shirley Halperin, Variety's executive music editor, and Gamma's Larry Jackson, his co-panelist and business partner.
"I don't understand how the f**k you get paid off of that s**t. Somebody explain to me how you can get a billion streams and not get a million dollars?... That's the main gripe with a lot of us artists is that we do major numbers... but it don't add up to the money. Like where the fuck is the money?" Variety quoted him as saying.
More than 11,000 members of the Writers Guild of America (WGA) began strike on Tuesday, claiming they aren't paid fairly in the streaming era, CNN reported.
"Though we negotiated intent on making a fair deal ... the studios' responses to our proposals have been wholly insufficient, given the existential crisis writers are facing," said a statement from the union leadership.
"They have closed the door on their labor force and opened the door to writing as an entirely freelance profession. No such deal could ever be contemplated by this membership."
The Alliance of Motion Pictures and Television Producers (AMPTP), which is negotiating on behalf of studio management, responded by saying it was willing to improve on its offer but was not willing to meet some of the union's demands.
"The primary sticking points are 'mandatory staffing,' and 'duration of employment' Guild proposals that would require a company to staff a show with a certain number of writers for a specified period of time, whether needed or not," said the statement from management's negotiating committee.
"Member compes remain united in their desire to reach a deal that is mutually beneficial to writers and the health and longevity of the industry, and to avoid hardship to the thousands of employees who depend upon the industry for their livelihoods."
The strike comes at a time when both sides say they are feeling financial pain.
The multi-employer contract is between the WGA and AMPTP, which represents Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), CBS (VIAC), Disney (DIS), NBC Universal, Netflix (NFLX), Paramount Global, Sony (SNE) and CNN's parent company, Warner Bros. Discovery. Many of those compes have seen drops in their stock price, prompting deep cost cutting, including layoffs.
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