Mark Roberge tells independent musicians to stop waiting for discovery and build their own infrastructure instead. You need fans, revenue streams, and a strong brand so that when industry gatekeepers notice you, you already have leverage. The goal is self-sufficiency, where partnerships become optional rather than desperate.
The greatest mindset shift any independent artist can have is the mindset shift of no one is coming to save you, right? So you need to have that understanding. I speak to so many artists that have this notion that someone is going to discover them at one of their live shows, that in the middle of this bar nowhere with 10 people there, that someone's going to find them and change their life overnight, or someone's going to find them online or find them, you know. And obviously there's all these like stories of, of these very outliers, so situation. So everyone's basically chasing the lottery, right? And even if you look at a lot of these situations, they're not really factual. There's a lot more to them. Um, and ultimately the RSAC I discovered was actually been doing this for 10 years and maybe made a transition or had somebody that they knew already because of what they did prior in another project. But ultimately it takes years and years of building an infrastructure. And so I tell everybody, go at this with the mindset that no one is coming to save you. And if you were stranded on an island right? Someone flying over that island ain't gonna be able to see you, right? You need to build an infrastructure so big and so bright that when they do fly over, they can see you. And then that's when you get their attention ultimately, right? And but by that time, you might not even need to be saved. You want— you don't want to be saved because you've built such a great life for you on this island, and you're thriving, and ultimately you don't need anyone, right? And that's the position you want to be in in the music industry. You want to have such a great foundation, such a thriving fan base, and having revenue streams all thriving at the same time, to the point where your business, as you know, itself, it doesn't need anybody else to come and save it. Now, you might want to come in and partner with certain labels or certain distributors or management companies, right? But you're in a position where you can leverage that and, and pick and choose who you want and make the deals that you want. You don't ever want to be in a position on the opposite where someone can come in and take advantage of you, and you know, you have no leverage in the deal. And the only way to have leverage in that deal is to build an infrastructure yourself, have a fan base that's thriving, have revenue streams that are growing, and ultimately not need those deals, right? So that's what I tell all my artists. That's the mindset shift you need to have. No one is coming to save you, all right? There you go.
