Apple Music and Spotify are among the biggest music streaming apps on the planet — making it all the more strange why subscribers can no longer listen to The Chronic or Doggystyle on them. One of the main draws of apps like Spotify, Apple Music, etc. is that every major song, artist, and album is available on them. Open a streaming app, search for what you want to listen to, and it should be there.
Unfortunately, streaming apps aren't always perfect. Spotify, for example, no longer has any of Neil Young's music as a result of its ongoing Joe Rogan controversy. Apple Music suffers from lacking personal playlists, Tidal is more expensive than its competitors, and so on. Music streaming is usually a great experience in 2022, but perfect it is not.
This point was once again realized in March 2022. As of Saturday, March 12, multiple users started reporting that iconic albums from Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg are no longer available on Spotify, Apple Music, and other streaming platforms. The two biggest casualties include Dr. Dre's The Chronic and Snoop Dogg's Doggystyle. The two albums used to be available on streaming apps like anything else, but for some reason, neither one is showing up anymore.
The Real Reason Why 'The Chronic' Is Missing
While some people may have hoped this was just a temporary glitch, it appears to be a conscious decision from Death Row Records — the record label that owns The Chronic and Doggystyle. Snoop Dogg purchased Death Row Records in February 2022. Shortly after the acquisition, he announced that he'd be turning Death Row into "an NFT label." And those NFT plans are already well underway. On March 14, Snoop Dogg launched the Death Row Mix: Vol. 1 NFT on the Sound XYZ marketplace. Only 1,000 versions of the NFT were available, with Snoop Dogg describing Death Row Mix: Vol. 1 as, "some bits and pieces from my friends and family for you to enjoy. Even a couple minutes for you to throw your own verse in there."
What does all of this have to do with The Chronic, Doggystyle, and the other Death Row albums no longer available on streaming services? The general consensus is that Snoop Dogg is planning to re-release them exclusively as NFTs. While nothing's been confirmed about this just yet, Snoop Dogg's made his interest in the NFT space very clear — at one point saying, "Just like when we broke the industry when we were the first independent to be major, I want to be the first major in the metaverse."
As for the future of The Chronic and Doggystyle on streaming services, it may be a while before you can listen to them again. Billboard claims that The Chronic may not come back to Spotify, Apple Music, and other platforms until 2023 (with no mention of a return for Doggystyle). The NFT focus from Death Row could be a win for hardcore fans of its albums, but for everyone else, it could be a pretty annoying future.