We were discussing dark vs light themes at the office and the general conclusion is that dark is in fashion, no logical reason.

I use a light theme because I get a lot of light in the afternoon (even with curtains closed) and the glossy mac monitor turns into a mirror with a dark theme.

Easier on the eyes. When working with media you tend to stare at details for long periods of time, a dark theme makes the UI non-distracting.

Skeuomorphism is also completely out of control in the music tools business (not in this particular example, but, it's super common in VSTs and the like). Which has really dumb effects when used on a 4k laptop display, since it's rarely subject to the OS scaling, because it's got its own UI lib.

I don't know why dark and ugly is the norm in media manipulation tools. But, I find it annoying (mostly just hard to read, due to too-low contrast), and often switch to a lighter theme if it's available in the tools I use.

I think there's a subtle evocation of a "studio" context in dark UIs: Professionals tend to associate dim lighting with a control room, an editing suite, or something along those lines. I don't know why these spaces are traditionally dim, though I'd assume it's something to do with reducing glare on equipment displays.

My fault: s/Do/Does/

:-1:

They work at night