You're talking about an empire (the big three) that have so much control over the production, distribution, and how we consume music in the first place. A good semi tin foil take that a guy on Twitter had was that as children the people growing up in the eighties listened to what their parents listened to, now they start off with music for children, then Disney and so on. The music industry's prime objective is to maximize profit, and making real good music is very, very expensive.
As far as the independent artists are concerned, you're trying to access a pool of consumers that one way or another already have their minds made up. Right now the trap/cloud sound is running the game, if you don't have that you need a cosign of a legend(Drake and Nicki with Wayne, Cole with Jay Z, Gunna with Young Thug(Wayne), and Kendrick with Dre). A lot of independent artists mimick these sounds because it's what's hot, some like Griselda, Gibbs, and The sLUms etc. have managed to carve out a niche audience, but breaking through they have to commercialize their sound.
To abandon the big three's grip on the industry you have to go beyond music, and that's an entirely different conversation that may be controversial. The entire entertainment industry is parasitic and shady as hell...not to mention unbelievably fake and manufactured. But as long as poverty exists people are going to take those shitty contracts, because for one they don't know any better, and for two they'd do anything to escape their reality. I know it sounds corny but to change things within the music industry we have to change the environment and things that cause them to be the way it is in the first place. Having everyone wake up and stop supporting them is an idealistic pipe dream.
