…Only to realize that there are exceptionally few of them to be found, please rest assured that this is normal.
In general, every locale will already be at filled to its saturation point with recording studios that specialize in music. This will be more or less true whether your town has 0 studios or 500 of them. If you want to work in music, it is your job not only to find work, but to create it. That is where the true value lies.
If you’re having trouble doing so, you might consider devoting many of your working hours to other fields where you can make more money, which you can then invest in the time and resources you need to get started. You can even finance a project that inspires you and helps build the kind of portfolio you’ve always dreamed of.
It’s a dirty little secret of the music industry (and of the arts in general) that the initial funds for many brand new creative projects are paid not by the return on investment of other profitable projects, but by money made doing something other than music. This is actually something of norm in almost any sort of new business, so we shouldn’t be surprised that it stands true for our own.
Sometimes this kind of initial financing is provided through a day job or a related career, sometimes it is through an inheritance. You do not get any extra “purity points” for being resentful of either of these realities. You’ll only get an ulcer.
In this way, and in so many others, running a studio really is just like running any other business. Let’s not fool ourselves into thinking it’s something altogether different.
If you want to find work, go where the demand is.
You might have an easier time breaking into the studio world these days by finding work in post-production or in audiobooks, both of which have been swiftly growing markets. If you’re committed to music and won’t settle for anything other than getting started in music studios then figure out what studio owners or musicians don’t have enough of, want more of, and don’t think that they can do more cheaply, effectively or efficiently themselves.
I can’t tell you exactly what you should be doing. No one can. But if you think along these lines, you’ll find a lot more meaningful and fulfilling work than you otherwise might.