Singer Palash Sen is unhappy with what music has been reduced to today, which, according to him, is “like a condom”. He adds: “You go buy it, use it and throw it. I think the whole system has made music like a condom,” says the 56-year-old.

He adds that it is not about merit anymore. “If you can buy a radio spot, Facebook ads, radio ads, media space, you can be way ahead of somebody who actually had a better song. That is something of great worry. Why do you think India has only Bollywood music? It is because Bollywood has the maximum money. Eventually, it is not good music, but the only music you get,” rues the Maeri singer and member of the band, Euphoria.

Sen feels Bollywood has “run out of ideas”, and is hence only coming up with recreations and rehashes of old classics. “Even the songs being made sound the same. It is all about the number of views, 500 million and what not. How these 500 and 800 millions views happen... It is all about the money. Recently, one artiste spent Rs. 25 lakh on the first day of the song. It is a sad state of affairs,” he reveals.

Talent, thus, is not getting enough chances to trump the power of money, feels the Dhoom Pichak Dhoom singer. He adds, “Somebody else, who might have a better song, which should reach the people, will never reach them, and some crap will. Advertising space has been bought. The problem is, I might be sounding like a prude or a very traditional guy, but I eventually feel things like music or writing books are art, and hence, sacrosanct.”