Artists like you and your brother made the conscious decision to avoid the corporate “mainstream” world of music, and instead focus on creating content that’s artistically satisfying even if that doesn’t always necessarily translate to commercial sales. What route should a budding musician ought to take? Go commercial, but at the risk of creating meaningless art, or stick with being independent, making great music but risking failure?

If you’re the type of artist with self-belief then you have to be prepared for the industry you’re working within to turn it’s back on you, which isn’t surprising as it wants to survive more than you do. Unless making music is purely an exercise in getting rich and famous I would of course recommend being true to yourself, whether the outcome is meaningless or meaningful. Making independent music isn’t necessarily great by default, some people are better at making great commercial music, or both, or neither.