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“You don’t even need a label. You have so many amazing tools like YouTube and TikTok”: Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G explains how the landscape has changed for aspiring guitar players

June 2, 2026

For decades, signing with a record label marked the moment at which you ‘made it’ as an aspiring professional musician. Doing so often led to more dependable, sometimes handsome income, as labels could call upon hefty budgets to pay for album advances and decked out rolodexes to ensure music was successfully promoted.
But the landscape has changed.
With the rise of social media platforms like TikTok, YouTube and Instagram, it’s never been easier for a musician to cultivate a large audience without any input or help from a traditional record label.
On the flip side of that argument, the fact it’s easier than ever means more people are doing it, meaning the increased competition makes it no less difficult than before, perhaps, but I digress.
Record labels are very much still a thing, and can offer tremendous benefits for a budding artist signing the right deal, but established artists are increasingly questioning whether signing to one is even necessary anymore.
Recently, Avenged Sevenfold – one of the biggest bands in metal today – announced they’d become a fully independent band, after purchasing back the masters and rights to their 2016 album The Stage from Capitol Records. Indeed, frontman M. Shadows has displayed scepticism over the place of traditional record labels in the modern music landscape on numerous occasions, saying in 2024, “You’re going to take 24 cents on our dollar and that’s all you can do, come up with a f**king fake viral TikTok moment?”
And it seems former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G shares a similar sentiment.
In a new interview with Blabbermouth, the guitarist reflects on how different the music business is now compared to when he was first coming up.
“When people ask me, ‘What do you suggest to someone [about having a career in music]?’ I said, ‘It’s very different.’ When I started, we made demos in the studio. We paid for the studio, put it in an envelope, and sent it to a label, hoping someone would call back.
“Now, it’s not like that. You don’t even need a label. You have so many amazing tools, like YouTube. You can reach everyone through that. You can reach everyone through your socials, your Instagram, your TikToks.”
Gus G posits that the dynamic between artist and label has flipped, and that labels look to sign artists with pre-existing fanbases, rather than sign unknown artists with the intention of building their fanbase for them.
“It’s the other way around: a label will approach you when you already have your own global fanbase, and you’re already generating online buzz,” he continues. “A lot of those guitar players, I’m watching the YouTubers, they’re not really concerned about the live industry.
“Some of those guys don’t even have to go out and play. They don’t know what it is; maybe they don’t have to worry about it because they make their money from views or sponsorships. It’s a different landscape. That’s how I see it.”
But despite his realisation that the music world has changed, Gus G says there’s no substitute for getting out on the road and paying your dues.
“The whole thing has changed and shifted. I like that I come from a bit more of an old-school, traditional way, where I still believe in hitting every town, hitting the local venue and playing for the people who want to come. I’m a firm believer in that.”
Gus G recently released his sixth solo album, Steel Burner. View a list of his upcoming tour dates at his official website.
The post “You don’t even need a label. You have so many amazing tools like YouTube and TikTok”: Former Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Gus G explains how the landscape has changed for aspiring guitar players appeared first on Guitar.com | All Things Guitar.