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 curat
