also calls out the writers strike exploitative status quo, etc
"It's not working for the artist right now and I just want to speak to that. That's fucked up," he said. "The writers are striking because with streaming, they can't get paid."
What the fuck lmao how have i never heard this? How have they managed to keep this scam going, surely it ought to have collapsed by now :agony-acid:
The focus solely around the writers and actors when it comes to media is always pretty annoying, there are other super important support roles too that don't get scaling pay even when their work is just as necessary. A good actor and a good script doesn't mean much without the technical skill to make it into a movie like the music, the lighting, the editing, etc etc etc
It's absolutely wild. Either everybody should get scale, or nobody should - this kind of two tiered system is the kind of thing they introduce to union contracts in order to make the members lose solidarity with one another.
Wait a minute.
Remembering the :citations-needed: episode about how Hollywood’s portrayal of the corrupt union mob is a direct result of anti-union sentiment among producers. The extent these people went to not have anything to do with union labor was mind boggling. Iirc there was a producer who wouldn’t use union contractors for construction on his home because he thought it would give his actors the wrong idea.
VFX artists work for measley salaries on films that make billions, its truly despicable
Shit, they're just throwing VFX artists at every possible aspect of production they can.
Too expensive to make four costumes or literally even a single set? Just slap your actors in a mocap suit in front of a green screen and their faces can be the only actual in-camera aspect of production. Then have a bunch of VFX artists in the global south make everything in blender and Bada Bing Bada Boom, you got an Avengers flick.
Swear to god, we're a couple years off from minimum wage mocap actors doing all the actual acting and then they just deep fake somebody famous's face in and use an AI voice generator for every blockbuster film. Half-billion dollar Blockbuster films where the total budget for wages is $30,000.
Swear to god, we’re a couple years off from minimum wage mocap actors doing all the actual acting and then they just deep fake somebody famous’s face in and use an AI voice generator for every blockbuster film. Half-billion dollar Blockbuster films where the total budget for wages is $30,000.
:lathe-of-heaven: :NOOOOO:
Corridor Digital pioneering the destruction of their own industry
420% agree with this. Every thing that gets streamed requires tons and tons of highly skilled labor. It's just vile that workers are forced fight over a percentage of a percentage. Workers should each getting their own pies rather than this marketplace Mortal Kombat over crumbs.
Snoop brings up the idea of physical media at least makes sense "If you sold a million copies at $9.99, nine million dollars, you get this percentage that's what it is. If I sell nine million streams how much money do i get? It's not being translated and it's not working for the artist right now.... are streaming millions and millions and millions and millions of fucking streams and they don't got no millions of dollars in they pocket". I very much agree with him, physical media sales at the very least made sense, I think the percentage is kinda fucked up but at the very least we could all pretty easily see that X amount of sales lead to Y amount of payout for creators.
Dude has a very real point. Writers, artists, producers of things that get streamed, all of them have got a totally raw deal. It's all so very obfuscated. From the artist to the writer and everything in-between and beyond, they aren't getting their money. Snoop is directly pointing out that creators are the ones that bring value to these platforms, but get infinitesimally small return for that value.
Producers of stuff that is streamed and those that contribute/support those producers (I can't think of a better terms) are the ones that bring all value to these streaming platforms. It's utterly unjust that producers of content's pay per play starts a $0.0001-$0.003. It's digital rent seeking pure and simple.
Snoop has been in the record and entertainment industry a long time, and I genuinely salute this brotha speaking on this shit. Especially considering the music industries well documented history of raking in zillions of dollars and artists, producers, writers, etc. get like a buck twenty-five for their work (also uniquely bad for black artists) .
I always feel bad for young katz in all industries that are introduced to something that sucks ass as normal. Older folks should be the ones pushing for/making sure the new guys get a better deal. I know I do on my job, at the very least I try to show new people how to skirt "The Man™️" as much as possible.
Also really R E A L L Y hate how dude is bringing up these very real very direct points and these ghouls just let out some light laughs and applause.
Physical Media is yours. You own the thing. Steaming is an overly elaborate version of renting.
I mean, I like piracy. I don't have space in my house for a bunch of plastic discs, though.
Snoop got taken for a ride by the NFT fad, but I still respect his takes regarding musicians getting fucked over by :porky-happy:
The :cryptocurrency: NFT stuff :cryptocurrency: is but the tip of the iceberg of Snoop's very strange and absurd (often kinda funny) financial ventures. The dude is a hustler (in the nicer but still some negative connotation of the word), but he seems to the type of dude who wants help other people get they hustle on too. Which is problematic of course, but in the abstract he seems like his heart is in the right place even if his wallet is there too.
I very much agree with him, physical media sales at the very least made sense, I think the percentage is kinda fucked up but at the very least we could all pretty easily see that X amount of sales lead to Y amount of payout for creators.
Yeah, I mean, whether the percentage was good or not (usually not), it was definable and that makes it much simpler to negotiate from a standpoint of a) precisely how badly you are getting ripped off and b) what can easily change.
whether the percentage was good or not (usually not), it was definable and that makes it much simpler to negotiate from a standpoint of a) precisely how badly you are getting ripped off and b) what can easily change.
Exactly! with streaming it's a total mystery box. Creators put in their work and labor into the question mark covered cube and just have to hope they get some coin.
a) precisely how badly you are getting ripped
I would also imagine because of how obfuscated it is, not only are you getting ripped off, you are totally unaware of what a good deal is. Much like regular people's wages, I would imagine that sort of hidden knowledge would make it super hard to find a good rate/deal for your work.
I may make something that gets 10 streams and only get $.01 out of it but you may do something similar and get a payout of $10. It's really just show how plainly capital wants labor slugging it to drive down the going rate, or just keeping as many people in the dark as they can to make easier for them to utter siphon every drop of value.
physical media sales at the very least made sense, I think the percentage is kinda fucked up but at the very least we could all pretty easily see that X amount of sales lead to Y amount of payout for creators.
On the retail end, what you're purchasing is a "license" to the content. So the end user is being told that what they're getting is equivalent to a ticket to the Movie Theater. On the advertising end, what you're purchasing is "views" of the ad media. So the advertiser is being told that what they're getting is equivalent to an individual set of eyeballs for a set amount of time.
So we can quantify the media for the viewer. We can quantify the media for the buyer. I guarantee you that the internal accounting department at the studio is able to quantify the cost of a stream versus the quantity of revenue it brings in.
How is it that the folks producing the media are out in the cold? Its almost as though management is explicitly denying these artists access to the information around their own sales.
Snoop has been in the record and entertainment industry a long time, and I genuinely salute this brotha speaking on this shit. Especially considering the music industries well documented history of raking in zillions of dollars and artists, producers, writers, etc. get like a buck twenty-five for their work (also uniquely bad for black artists) .
He's been on both sides of it. He's seen his forerunners and peers get screwed. He's learned the value of holding your own label and distributing under your own brand. He's also acutely aware of what age and fashion can do to a brand, and how long you have to really cash in on your media before you're no longer at the center of that big engine of commerce. No better source than lived experience, and he's got it in droves.
Everything works that way, that's capitalism. It feels more directly exploitative when it's something like artistic talent having most of its revenue peeled off by middlemen, but literally all labor sold works this way. He's not wrong, just missing the forest for the trees.
Sure, but he also has a point about the increasing amount of layers of distance between the art and the consumer when it comes to streaming. People don't buy hand printed CDs from artists at venues anymore, they buy a subscription to Spotify, which gets music from a label, which hires producers, who exploit musicians. It's just another example of the extreme commodity fetishism we've become accustomed to over the years.
Steve Albini once said that he'd rather swim through a river of shit and razor blades than try to sign a major label deal as a band and honestly, I don't think he was exaggerating that much.
Someone made an effort post about it a while back. He's like acrually a degree sicker than the run of the mill pedophile. Just beyond gross.
Someone .ade an effort post about it a while ago. And it's like.. wowee beyond even like run of the mill pedophilia. He was enjoying the fact that the kids were suffering and made that super clear.
usually i'm not surprised when someone who's an edgelord gets called out but somehow this is even worse than i thought.
His Wikipedia article is utterly scrubbed of the slightest mention of any of that. :sus-soviet:
