The unchecked piracy of albums along with low standard of lyrics has shattered the album industry of Sambalpuri songs that was the source of livelihood of over 4,000 families in Sambalpur and other cities of western Odisha during the past decade.
The industry that once produced over 100 albums every year has been all but defunct over the past one year. The artistes, who were busy round the year, are now looking for other jobs.
The state government that was earning a handsome revenue from the industry seems to have turned its back on it despite the request of the POPA (Pachim Odisha Producer Association), due to which many of the production houses have been forced to switch over to other businesses, rendering a big blow to talented artistes and lyricists of Sambalpuri songs.: The unchecked piracy of albums along with low standard of lyrics has shattered the album industry of Sambalpuri songs that was the source of livelihood of over 4,000 families in Sambalpur and other cities of western Odisha during the past decade.
The POPA urged the state government to take necessary steps to make the industry functional for the greater interest of the artistes of the region. “We have produced over 150 albums over the past decade. But because of the problem of piracy, now it has become difficult to even earn the cost of production. So we have stopped album production, switching over to other suitable businesses,” said an album producer Dilip Panda.
According to sources, over 70 to 80 Sambalpuri music production houses were functioning in the region whose sole business was to produce Sambalpuri albums utilizing budding talents of the region. They formed an organization called Pachim Odisha Producer Association (POPA) to streamline the problems of the album industry. But due to lack of any strict principle, the POPA was unable to function in a proper way. “We try our level best to check the piracy of albums, but since we do not have any authority we failed to check it,” said POPA secretary Ajay Dash.
