>>832999It's not really about culture, the issues are 100% practical.
Studio space is expensive, so western indies rely on record labels or robust personal software to get the job done.
Software is primarily made for studios and record labels because they're where all the money is. The indie market is too small to be profitable
Studio software isn't user friendly and is difficult for indies to learn-- most of the notable western indie mixers learned their shit by dicking with MIDI trackers in the 90s/early 2000s, and since those are now old hat, the pool of talent has become very small and cult-like.
This won't change anytime soon because big labels enjoy a comfortable monpoly backed by the state and actively campaign to keep these tools out of people's hands, and smaller labels who have the tools and know-how to support indies are full of egotistical shitpipes more interested in cementing a cult of personality in the scene rather than helping it.
It's an ironclad mobius strip of material and financial issues and to break it you'd need something to sink the record lobby or a cultural phenomenon to erupt and create a mainstream music-mixing and independent track creation community overnight, and then wait patiently as all the grifting 'content creators' and onlyfans troggs take their oppourtunity to cash-in for a while and then lose interest in the fad.
