New Tha Dogg Pound tracks featuring Snoop Dogg and October London have released exclusively on Web3 streaming platform Gala Music. Photo Credit: gcardinal
Just when you thought streaming exclusives were dead, new music from Snoop Dogg has become available solely through Web3 streaming platform Gala.
Gala Music and Snoop Dogg-owned Death Row Records shared details on the exclusive tracks today. As many know, the Shiller co-founder Snoop Dogg, who inked a far-reaching Gamma partnership deal last year, has long advocated for NFTs and the broader Web3 space.
Meanwhile, excepting livestreams (like YouTube’s “Couchella”), live performance tracks (on Apple Music and more), and spatial audio editions, streaming exclusives have for some time been few and far between. The shift towards pan-platform releases wasn’t an accident, as they reward paid subscribers across all platforms by ensuring releases are widely available.
Evidently, though, exclusive studio tracks haven’t ceased hitting streaming services altogether. Tha Dogg Pound (consisting of Daz Dillinger and Kurupt), which is set to drop a new album on all platforms on May 31st, has debuted “Finesse” and “Baggin U Up” on Gala Music.
Featuring Snoop Dogg as well as October London, the tracks are already available to play, without ads or a required sign-up of any kind, via Gala.
In keeping with Snoop’s previously noted affinity for NFTs, 100 tokens appear to have been sold (after being plugged on the appropriate Gala pages) for each of the songs. Snoop Dogg didn’t officially comment on the exclusives, which have followed the on-platform rollout of singles from Youngboy NBA, Jordin Sparks, Snoop himself, and others.
However, Gala president of music Leila Steinberg touched upon her company’s ambitious vision for the Web3 opportunities available to artists.
“Gala Music is at the forefront of ushering both established and emerging artists into Web3 and introducing them to the many opportunities that exist in the space,” said the former 2Pac manager Steinberg. “And we couldn’t be more excited to partner with Death Row Records and a legendary Hip-Hop group, Tha Dogg Pound, on their first Web3 releases!”
Admittedly, NFT sales have slowed dramatically from their peak, and music Web3 funding, owing to growing attention on AI and several different factors, has decreased substantially. Nevertheless, as the industry continues to zero in on superfan monetization – Warner Music is developing an entire app dedicated to capitalizing on fandom – it stands to reason that Web3 projects may still find takers among particularly committed supporters.
Bringing the focus back to streaming exclusives, Snoop Dogg previously pulled the Death Row Records catalog from leading platforms. And before returning the relevant works to Spotify and more after uniting with the aforesaid Gamma, Snoop and Death Row finalized a timed-exclusive pact with TikTok.
