Possibly he means you can develop a following, receive no money thereby, but leverage the following to get credibility with conventional middlemen such as record labels and publishers, and from them, you can eventually obtain a career involving money.

Sounds like a feasible explanation -- maybe the only feasible one.

I doubt that Eclipse would've published their one issue of Dishman had I submitted it to them cold. They came to me once I had established a following on my own... same general principle of credibility with conventional middlemen?