Mark RobergeFounder, Artist Strategy, Make Our Music · Your A&R. Without the Gatekeepers.

Independent Artist Growth: Build REAL Fans, NOT Shortcuts! #shorts

10 Feb 2026 · 1 min

Watch on YouTube

1:22

In this short, three speakers discuss a practical roadmap for independent musicians seeking sustainable growth. They argue that true success comes from cultivating genuine, dedicated fans one at a time rather than chasing quick, viral shortcuts. Using a mountain‑climbing metaphor, they stress the importance of incremental steps and patience, warning that waiting for a “one‑click elevator” will leave artists stranded while peers advance. The conversation cites the band Lansdowne as a real‑world example: by building a grassroots, rabid fanbase over years, they were able to take a multi‑year hiatus for life events without losing momentum, whereas casual, fair‑weather fans would have vanished. The speakers conclude that authentic, hard‑earned fan relationships endure even when the artist is inactive, whereas shortcut‑focused strategies produce fleeting numbers that disappear the moment a more authentic act appears.

Chapters

Ultimately, this is our guide to help you as an independent artist, get to whatever level it is that you want to be at.
So I'd like to add that the information is really important, but there really is no skipping the line. And a lot of the artists we talk to don't even subscribe to the idea of having one incredible fan at a time. They just seem to want it all right now, and it doesn't work that way. So one step at a time. If you're going to climb the mountain, don't look at the mountaintop. Look at your feet and take one step, step. Every time you take one step, you get closer. There's no rush. The journey's all right. You.
Know, and, and if you, if you keep waiting for the elevator that only shows up for a blip and a full moon or whatever, you know, you might still be, you might still be standing there in six months. And, and now the person that started climbing is already halfway up the mountain and you're still stuck at go because you're waiting for the, for the easy way.
But they're making fans too, that'll die for them. And if you're trying to skip the line, like, your fans don't care, your numbers aren't real. They'll leave you in a second for somebody who is doing it for real. That's the truth. And.
Like an, like, you know, for, for Lansdowne, like, because we built that grassroots following for years, you know, we were able to take a, you know, we took a hiatus for a little while when all of us were, you know, getting married and having kids.
Or starting businesses, where we.
Totally stopped for a couple years. And the numbers grew during that time because the fans were so rabid. They never disappeared because we built them the hard way. That lasts. Versus building casual, you know, fair weather fans. That wasn't our game. That wasn't ever our goal. We built long lasting fan relationships and fans that stuck with us. Even not doing anything with music, not putting any posts out, not doing anything.