Musicasa is bringing the concert to your house, and getting you paid for it

By Riley Kaminer

Extraverts rejoice: There’s now a way for you to host fun gatherings with top-tier musicians – and end up with some extra cash in your pocket as a result. That could be an exciting prospect for the average American party host, who spends upwards of $1,400 a year on party planning.

Miami startup Musicasa is flipping the script on house-partying, hoping for hosts to get paid that sum, which they would otherwise be shelling out.

“We’re building the largest small venue network in the world, and we’re doing that by transforming homes into the entertainment and cultural centers or venues of the future,” Musicasa founder Beatriz Ayala-Muñiz told Refresh Miami.

Through Musicasa’s platform, people can offer to rent out their living room as a concert venue. Musicasa connects these hosts with local musicians. The host then has the option to either cover the artist’s costs, or sell tickets to the public. The revenue is split between the musicians, the host, and Musicasa, which takes a 26% cut.

“Regular people like you and me are going to benefit from being the spokespeople for culture, music, and the arts,” Ayala-Muñiz explained.

The startup, which was founded in November 2019, is currently active in Miami and Ayala-Muñiz’s former home of Puerto Rico. Currently, Musicasa considers itself pre-product, as the startup leans on third party tools to organize its events. But the five person team is in the midst of launching a fully-fledged platform of their own, which will enable users to manage all aspects of the event in one place.

Already, Musicasa has facilitated upwards of 250 events with 9,500 paid guests. Ayala-Muñiz was particularly proud to report that 40% of hosts end up organizing more than one event. “We even have one host who has hosted 17 times in 14 months,” she said, noting that this host now has a following of fans of her own.

Trust is central to the platform. Attendees, musicians, and hosts all have the ability to rate each other. The startup currently interviews each host and musician before letting them onto a platform. While Ayala-Muñiz admits that this approach is not scalable, she said that this will play an important role in enabling the platform to curate the kind of positive environment it wants to have from the get-go. “We want to build on a strong foundation before we expand,” she explained.

While Musicasa’s user base is diverse, Ayala-Muñiz highlighted a particular popularity among women between the ages of 30 and 55. “They tend to be cultured, successful, well-traveled,” she said. “They love planning and hosting, and have a strong power to bring people together.”

Up to now, Musicasa has raised $950,000 of pre-seed funding. The startup is currently in the process of raising a seed round, having secured half of its target of up to $4 million as of writing.

Miami has played a central role in Musicasa’s growth, said Ayala-Muñiz, who moved here in July 2020. “Miami has all the resources you need to grow a company, and a great combination of OGs and new blood. It’s the incredible, perfect storm becoming a major hub for tech innovation.”

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Riley Kaminer

I am a Miami-based technology researcher and writer with a passion for sharing stories about the South Florida tech ecosystem. I particularly enjoy learning about GovTech startups, cutting-edge applications of artificial intelligence, and innovators that leverage technology to transform society for the better. Always open for pitches via Twitter @rileywk or www.RileyKaminer.com.