Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg, two of the original Death Row Records artists, performing live. Photo Credit: Jason Persse / CC by 2.0
About one year after the Death Row Records catalog was removed from streaming services, Snoop Dogg has officially announced that the famed body of work – including Doggystyle – has returned to Spotify, Apple Music, and other leading platforms.
The Long Beach-born rapper, who bought Death Row Records in February of 2022, just recently took to social media to reveal the news. In explaining the decision to make the ever-popular catalog unavailable to stream via traditional apps, Snoop Dogg (a longtime NFT and Web3 proponent) criticized said platforms’ decidedly low royalty rates.
Also worth noting is that snippets of select Death Row tracks became available exclusively on TikTok in February, at which point Snoop Dogg disclosed that a full-scale return was imminent. “I reached out to the folks at TikTok to make more history…enjoy ya’ll…and for all the fans that are wondering [the] Death Row Records catalog will be back on streaming services real soon,” Snoop Dogg communicated at the time.
Additionally, while Dr. Dre’s The Chronic was initially taken off Spotify and others, the Death Row release was reuploaded via Interscope Records last month. Dr. Dre reportedly sold a portion of his catalog (after obtaining the appropriate rights at 2023’s beginning) to Universal Music and Shamrock in January.
“Yessir. Heard you. Death Row Records catalog is back streaming everywhere,” Snoop Dogg tweeted about the long-awaited development. Death Row itself likewise penned a tweet about the news, and in a subsequent message, Snoop Dogg went ahead and encouraged fans to enjoy the works at hand specifically via Apple Music.
And on the latter front, it bears mentioning that Snoop Dogg and Death Row were revealed two days ago as partners of Apple-backed “artist focused multimedia platform” Gamma. The copyright information displayed on Spotify for Doggystyle attributes the 1993 album to Death Row and Gamma alike.
On social media, a seemingly substantial number of fans are voicing support for Death Row’s streaming comeback, which is “just tha beginning,” according to WME-signed Snoop Dogg. The 16-time Grammy nominee (who has yet to take home the award, however) previously rolled out Death Row wine as well as a namesake cannabis brand.
Besides partnering with Gamma and bringing the Death Row releases back to streaming platforms, Snoop Dogg this week unveiled his role as co-founder of a new Web3 livestream platform called Shiller.
“Shiller is a platform for web3 enthusiasts to connect, collaborate and educate through interactive, real-time video and audio broadcasts,” the London-headquartered startup indicated of its role in the contemporary entertainment landscape.
