Raquel Rodriguez

As an independent artist, I’ve embraced the opportunity to connect directly with my audience, through marketing. Combining offers between all of my projects, "The 310,” "Sweet Side” and now "Housewife," (music + recipes), I’ve built a career on defining success my way. Through targeted marketing, I’ve given away over 1000 CD’s with a very successful international FSH campaign and have driven sales for my new music, including over 300 vinyl and 450 CDs for Housewife.

Trainings Completed:

Tell us about your Promotional Calendar:
As a newer student, I started Indeprenuer in April and then joined the Founder program officially in August. Since then I’ve run promos about once every quarter. In anticipation of my new album, I not only ran ads for Pre-Orders, but I directly communicated with my email list to share singles before they were available as well as other exclusive content. I also created multiple new products throughout the year that coincided with anniversaries, milestones or new music. Throughout the 6-7 months of consistently running promos, I generated about $38k.

Tell us about your FSH funnel:
As a newer student, I started Indeprenuer in April and then joined the Founder program officially in August. Since then I’ve run promos about once every quarter. In anticipation of my new album, I not only ran ads for Pre-Orders, but I directly communicated with my email list to share singles before they were available as well as other exclusive content. I also created multiple new products throughout the year that coincided with anniversaries, milestones or new music. Throughout the 6-7 months of consistently running promos, I generated about $38k.

Through this funnel, I was able to give away hundreds of free CD's to over 1000 customers with my first bump being a $7 EP. Eventually when those were sold out, I pivoted and used my new album "Housewife" on CD as the first bump at $15. Through the funnel I also offered my new album as a bundle with CD and vinyl or either of those separately. The last step in the funnel was a vinyl bundle of two Limited Edition vinyls, one of which is a live record with only 300 copies made as well as my debut album "Sweet Side" on a limited edition coconut color vinyl.

The link to the original FSH is: https://www.raquel.la/fsh2024new

The new FSH is: https://www.raquel.la/fsh2025

Tell us about your album launch:
I didn't run an official album launch necessarily but I did release a new album with build up to the release with a pre-order campaign. I also offered cooking recipes in the artwork of my new album in order to stand out from the standard music only albums.

Tell us about your product launch:
I had multiple new products last year. My new album “Housewife” was pressed in 3 different color options. I also did a CD with a 20 page booklet. Both CD and vinyl came with a recipe booklet. I also made a new tshirt where the design was the photo of one of my singles from the album.

One of my favorite product launches I had was for a song I have about "mary jane" called "GREENS" and it tied into the grocery and recipe aspects of the album title "Housewife" - I marketed a tote bag (with matching shirt)as a grocery bag that had a cartoon drawing of a bunch of kale that looked like it was smoking. Underneath read "Raw Kale Rodriguez" - a play off of my name as well as an attempt to brand the weed, food and name of the album.  

In addition, I repressed my debut album Sweet Side in a coconut colorway. I also pressed the Sweet Side Live Vault that has exclusive live recordings that are unavailable for purchase or download anywhere else.

In addition to including these all in certain funnels across the board, I also sold a lot of this at shows/on tour. I’ve sold about 400/700 Housewife vinyls, 650/1000 Housewife CDs, 150/300 Sweet Side Coconut Vinyl and 180/300 Live Vault vinyl.

Tell us about your physical merch sales/strategy:
When new products launch, before I run any ads, I usually inform my full email list before sales are made super public. After that I usually start the ads in conjunction with organic promotion on my socials.

In addition to that part of my strategy, I was able to set up worldwide sales by shipping some products to a warehouse in London to fulfill orders. It wasn't my full line of products but it was the main items people tend to buy. That company also produced a lot of my new merch in order to fulfill them directly and the remaining inventory was sent to me in the US to fulfill orders here.

Tell us about your digital merch sales/strategy:
This is something i'm going to focus on more next year, but digital sales (aside from iTunes, Amazon, etc...) were exclusively through Bandcamp for now.

Please give us a brief overview of your music revenue over the last 12 months:
I think it’s important to note that these numbers are only from the last 5 months of 2024 as I was a newer student and didn’t start running ads officially until later in August. 

On Shopify my sales are at $38,988

My Bandcamp sales are at: $1,845

My overall touring income was about: $13,000

Merch sales from tour about: $7500

Please describe the highest performing revenue drivers:
I think my FSH funnel is my highest performing campaign by far. It's one of the biggest ways that i've gained a lot of new fans and have introduced my music to people that had never heard of me before. It got me excited to see that there really are people out there that appreciate my style of music. I just had to make the effort to find them and market to them. this has ultimately gained me more visibility across the board and is allowing me to level up in every aspect of being an independent.

Gross and net revenue:
This is based upon Shopify sales alone. Not including touring or cash sales. Unfortunately, I don't have accurate information for that although it's something I hope to fix next year.

Gross: $38,988
Net: $27,544


Lastly, please tell us why you think you should be a finalist for the Money Maker Award:
After struggling for many years as an indie artist, living "paycheck to paycheck," I finally have had a financial breakthrough. I've made the most money from my music than ever before and I'm excited to continue and grow.