Indie pop place to shop for new talent: Adnan Sami

"The face of today's Bollywood music is result of independent musicians who were allowed to come in. Composers, including me, are primarily those people who initially started independently," said Adnan told IANS.

"Every era has to come to an end and in order to get next generation of composers, there should be someone who you encourage. Who are you giving platform to? It is important to evolve and even Bollywood needs them," he added.

The 43-year-old composed albums like "Raag Time", "Tera Chehra" and "Kabhi To Nazar Milao" and carved a niche for himself. Later, he entered Bollywood and belted out "Gela gela gela", "Sun zara" and "Baatein kuch ankahee si", among others.

"Indie pop music is a place for Bollywood to come and shop for the new talent. When this particular phase would come to an end, where will you go shopping? What other system of recruitment will you have?" he said.

Asked if Bollywood is an ultimate dream for any musician, Adnan said: "It may be for some, but if this was the case then independent music would have collapsed by now."

However, there are pros and cons of independent album as compared to film music, says the singer.

"Independent music has a major disadvantage, it does not have the backing of a film vehicle or a producer. The advantage with Bollywood is that a film's music is financed by a producer.

"With independent music, you don't have anybody spending money apart from record label and the money can be recovered only via sale of CDs or Internet downloads," said the singer-composer who recently released an independent album after five years.

Titled "Press Play", the album was leaked online days prior to it's scheduled release date. He feels that music can be leaked through any medium.

"It could start off in many innocent ways... You don't know how it works. Regardless of where it starts, the more protection you use, the more ways these people (pirates) find out to do their work," Sami said, whose eight songs from the album although became an instant hit but he feels, he could have "managed without such shockers".

"Piracy is not a new phenomenon. It is not something that has suddenly cropped up. It has been there... Internet is just another format. Now it depends on an individual how to handle these things. These things are not in control of the artists," he said.

With "Press Play", Adnan has tried his hand at singing Sufi and Punjabi tracks.u00a0