As soon as upon a time it was the dream of bands in every single place to get signed to a label. It was typically the primary signal that you just had ‘made it’. Now, the web has enabled self-promotion, main many to query whether or not they want a file label in 2026 like they’d have performed years in the past.

In 2024, M. Shadows, frontman of one of many greatest metallic bands on the earth, Avenged Sevenfold, questioned the legitimacy of file labels and what they’re in a position to provide artists.

“You’re going to take 24 cents on our greenback and that’s all you are able to do, give you a f**king pretend viral TikTok second?” he requested.

Now, AFI frontman Davey Havok has shared a number of the unusual recommendation given to the band after they’d signed to Dreamworks within the mid-2000s.

“The writing of Decemberunderground was a depressing interval,” he tells Metallic Hammer in a brand new interview.

“We had signed to Dreamworks, however they offered it to Interscope… Out A&R man was hellbent on making an attempt to get [Interscope boss] Jimmy Iovine – who had expressly claimed within the press that rock is useless – to concentrate to AFI, and so it was urged that we collab with Jimmy’s nice love on the time, which was 50 Cent.”

He continues: “I’ve nothing in opposition to 50 Cent, however what does that even imply?!”

However Havok says the worst recommendation got here across the time ringtones began changing into common.

“Even worse than this was the period when ringtones have been the brand new know-how craze. I really like this man and I nonetheless see him as soon as a month as a minimum, however this motherfucker says to me, ‘What in case you have been to be the primary band to jot down a ringtone album?’”

Whereas sure tracks from 2006’s Decemberunderground have been made obtainable as ringtones, the band by no means made a full-on ringtone album – nor have they ever collaborated with 50 Cent, so it’s protected to say they caught to their artistic weapons…

Sam is the Affiliate Information Editor for Guitar.com and MusicTech. Totally immersed in music tradition for almost all of his life, Sam has performed guitar for 20 years, studied music know-how and manufacturing at college, and likewise written for the likes of Guitar World, Complete Guitar, Metallic Hammer and MusicRadar.