Singing River Records, the university’s student-run label, is back in full swing and will be promoting Rachel Wammack as their feature artist this semester.

“Singing River Records is a legitimate independent music label run by students,” said Janna Malone, adviser of the record label and instructor in the Department of Entertainment Industry. “Every year, we give our students an opportunity to propose music projects that (if selected by the entertainment industry faculty) would developed as the students work as a record label. Last year, no one brought us any pitches, so we took a year off.”

Students who participate in the selected project determine what job they will do for Singing River Records and how they will develop the artist they have selected during one semester, while receiving course credit, Malone said.

“We allow them to make mistakes, so long as they don’t do anything that will harm them or burn the building down,” she said.

Rachel Wammack, a sophomore, said she was recently selected as the label’s artist and is excited to work with other students to help her establish her career as a singer-songwriter. Her debut album, “Pass It On,” was released in May. The label’s job will be to help promote her career.

She said that this project was perfect timing for her, since she disliked the stress of promoting her music career by herself when she was releasing her album.

“This is like the perfect situation for me because (the students running the label) are doing my social media and booking,” she said

The president of Singing River Records is junior Emily Davis who said she knew of Wammack from work. Davis said she had also seen Wammack perform at the Entertainment Industry Student Association talent showcase in 2012, which Wammack won, and at the Miss UNA Pageant in 2013.

“I’d been wanting to find a way to work with her, but she already seemed to be so established and then this opened up,” Davis said. “We wanted someone that was like Rachel, who was already established enough to where we can (help her develop) her career.”

One important aspect of the student label is learning how to develop the artist into a “package” that will sell in the music industry, Malone said.

“The days of going out and just finding an artist that can sing (are over),” she said. “(Record labels want an artist to have) the look. They want the songs. They want them on Youtube. They want them to be on social media, they want (the artist) to have a buzz about them and have fans already, which makes our job as a record company easier. You’re finding more labels now, especially indie labels, who are doing partnerships, as opposed to just signing an artist and basically owning and dictating what an artist does.”

Singing River Records and Wammack are working to have this type of partnership, Davis said.

“We want to take all of the stress off of the artist so that they can be creative to their full potential,” she said. “(We don’t want her) to worry about social media. We don’t want her to worry about taking up money for merchandise at the end of (a show). We just feel like the artist needs to be creative and needs to be an artist and have control of what they want their sound to be and their image to be.”

Wammack said she feels blessed to have an opportunity to work on her career with the help of other people.

“The faculty and the students are so supportive,” she said. “I can’t even think about (this opportunity) for too long because I get so overwhelmed.”

Event times and merchandise for Rachel Wammack are available on her website www.rachelwammack.com.