Now My Selectah builds a playlist just for you

Aswaad Peters was born into music. He is the son of popular composer and arranger Len “Boogise” Sharpe. Peters has also crafted his own name in the music industry as a DJ and a former programme director at SLAM 100.5 fm.

And he is now using his musical experience to bring music directly to those who want it and he is doing this through his new service called www.nowmyselectah.com.

His app is not a streaming service but directly creates personalised playlists for any event or want.

All anyone has to do to access this service is visit the website
www.nowmyselectah.com. Individuals can even have voice-overs added to their playlists by known local voices such as Jason Williams, Ken Simmons, Major Penny and DJ Dani.

Peters said what separates his site and soon-to-be-app from streaming sites is that it lets the patron be in control of what they want.

“We will definitely have music inspired by the Caribbean Diaspora in terms of the reggae, dancehall and the soca. But instead of relying on algorithms you basically tell us what you want,” he said.

He said most of the time the algorithms don’t necessarily have much of a narrow search because a lot of the artistes and songs may not be available to be streamed.

To access the service, an individual visits the website and is then encouraged to select the type of playlist he/she wants.

The playlists vary from a birthday party to a wedding reception to a private and even to a baby shower.

When the playlist is selected the individual is then prompted to choose from available genres.

He said there are four genres for now, and more will be added. The available genres are reggae, dancehall, soca and hip hop. He said when the type of genre is chosen, there is a search or comment box where the individual comments on what particular artiste they want to hear from.

He said if someone wanted a playlist with Beenie Man and Machel Montano, they would just select soca, type in Machel Montano and then select dancehall and select Beenie Man.

To add to the listener’s experience, the voice talents are previewed on Now My Selectah’s website where people can hear the different voices. This gives them an idea as to how the talent’s voice would sound on their playlist.

The prices for the voice talent will also be attached, he said.

“Basically, what this platform has done is repurpose entertainment. Because we know that the pandemic is not going anywhere any time soon, we know people are still second-guessing going out into the big crowds still and a lot of them more or less stay amongst their crowds.

“Birthdays are still being celebrated, children are still being born and people are still graduating. And we know music helps us to live. Without music, there would be no life,” Peters said.

Peters said his site and eventual app will seek to encourage musical diversity by adding an artiste’s or new music to the listener’s playlist.He also plans to bring his ten years-plus in radio programming into introducing new songs to the site’s users.

He has a team of DJs or curators who are also a part of the project. In the future, he hopes it will become a mixture of artificial intelligence (AI) and live curators (DJs).

“Eventually what I plan to do with this platform is to go into musical therapy, where I do have certified music therapists on my team but, of course, as the numbers grow then I can get more funding to then focus a lot more on this.”

He added that the site is not going to focus only on party, party but also motivational playlists from popular voices that he hopes to announce in the near future.

The site was launched last year November but the idea came to him about three to five years ago.

He then said, “Why haven’t we modernise the way we listen to music? Yes, we have in terms of the streaming platforms. But to me, I found it was kind of, there was just one lane to it.

“There isn’t a lane where people directly tell you what they want to hear,” he said.

People would go to the streaming sites and put on random mixes and it would not necessarily be what they want to specifically hear.

When people have gatherings or are going for long drives they might say put on a soca playlist or reggae playlist because there is nothing else and they usually gravitate to DJs mix tapes but that too was not what the individual specifically wanted to hear.

Peters meditated on what would make someone want to pay for the service for a while before deciding the way ahead. He then tested it and did some playlists for bachelor and birthday parties. He found a web developer, created and tested the website, tested the e-commerce of it as well as the turn-around time to get the product to the listener.

And that was when Now My Selectah was born.

Like many others, the pandemic pushed him to follow his idea and vision.

“It was an idea pre-pandemic and then when the pandemic hit, I was like, ‘Whey boy, no kind of money to fund this…”Being a DJ was his only source of income and working on the radio.

To make his idea real, Peters took loans and also found investors.

He began working on it in July 2021 and launched on November 24.

It takes no longer than 72 hours to deliver a playlist to a client.

There is also a rush order if someone wants a 24-hour turnaround time, he said.

He said the playlist will be e-mailed to the client anywhere in the world. Once they go to the website a profile is created and once the pay order is made, within 72 hours the client could log back in to the site, and have the file available for download.

The client would then be able to use that playlist “forever and wherever,” he said, whether that is on a phone, laptop, car or even a tablet.

The service provides a combination of both client-recommended songs as well as his recommendations.

In the future, Peters Now My Selectah wants to offer video, PBX services, call waiting and store-front audios as well.

The app is also in works and he hopes to have it completed within three to six months.

Since the launch he has had more than 50 to 60 orders and, at the time of interview, was in the process of securing his first corporate client.