Gone are the days when city residents were spotted at music stores to buy CDs for traditional Chhath songs. Today most of the people are downloading traditional Chhath songs sung by Sharda Sinha, Anuradha Paudwal and Manoj Tiwari.
Music store owners of the city are facing losses because of the ‘e-concept’ but local regional artists are not much affected. “Most of the old CD shops in Main Road remain closed during the season of chhath. You will hardly find one or two customer in these shops who come for purchasing chhath songs. It is because of the availability of internet on laptops, tablets and mobile. Anyone can download regional songs,” said Ghosh Music owner Sapan Ghosh near Albert Ekka Chowk.
Similarly, an audio-video editor for regional songs at Tharpakhna said he suggests his friends the links through which such songs are downloaded.
“It is not possible to go out and search shops for CDs of Chhath particularly. So, we ask our daughter to download songs of album Chati Mai ke Mahima, Kaanch Hi Baans ke Behangiya and Aaho Deenanath,” said beautician Sunita Prasad.
Popular singer-couple Bulu Ghosh and Mitali Ghosh said, “It is a good sign that the concept is emerging. No one wants to pay for easily accessible music these days. Earlier, it was a challenge to sustain by singing regional songs. But, today the popularity of regional songs is on demand on the internet. Also, the stage shows for such festivals are increasing.”
Notably, till last year, CDs of Chhath songs were sold like hot cakes. “We earned good revenue from last year’s selling. This year it is not even ten percent of the sale,” a music store owner at the main road said.
Some of the residents who were seen purchasing such CDs felt one needs to have a “techno savvy mind” for download. “Every year Chhath is celebrated at my home. I prefer buying a CD from shop instead of downloading from internet. It is a time-taking process,” SK Singh of Morhabadi said.
Remix versions of Chhath songs seem to be a yet to be launched thought. “When the original versions are not sold much in shops, remix versions will obviously fail to attract customers,” Sapan Ghosh added.