Great Academics in the Studio

A new recording label created by The South Carolina School of the Arts is giving students hands-on experience in professional production and promotion of original music. The recording label is called Audio 316 Records. The initiative represents an entrepreneurial effort to launch AU students’ careers in the music business.

“Our students are very capable musicians and quickly understand the need to practice and cultivate their talent, but many do not know about the hundreds of other jobs related to the field,” said Joe Wehunt, assistant professor of music and director of worship leadership at The South Carolina School of the Arts.

Audio 316 Records aims to close that gap in understanding. Its inaugural artists—AU students MaCayla Edwards (Worship Leadership major), Sydney Wells (Commercial Music major) and Audrey Adams (Theatre major), released their original music through Audio 316 Records last spring on all streaming platforms.

“We hope to shine a spotlight on the students’ vocal, instrumental, songwriting and producing talents,” said Dr. Derick Cordoba, director of the Johnny Mann Center for Commercial Music and assistant professor of music at The South Carolina School of the Arts. “Our inaugural artists are composing and performing at a very high level. This will give them a platform to understand how to release their music and will help launch their professional careers.”

“Audio 316 Records is a fantastic place to showcase how talented our students are both on recordings as well as behind the scenes,” Dr. Cordoba said. “The label puts into practice many of the concepts they learned in their Entrepreneurship for Musicians class. Reading about recording, producing, marketing, social media campaigns, visual content creation and a release campaign is very different from doing it in ‘the real world.’ All these students have now experienced firsthand the things that are involved in releasing and promoting music in today’s musical landscape.”