Never left the music out of home

The Latino community in the US had become the first minority: there are sixty million people who speak Spanish, about twenty percent of a population close to 332 million inhabitants.

Within that group, in the state of Florida, Miami concentrates the highest proportion of Spanish speakers. From there, on a beautifully sunny morning, Puerto Rican Beatriz Ayala will chat for more than an hour with all laughs, and in Spanglish.

A music lover since childhood, Bea founded, three years ago, Musicasa: a digital platform, "in which emerging artists are linked with music lovers, to stage concerts in private homes, with the purpose of enjoying a performance within the framework of the intimacy of a home, and from this generate conversation and above all, feel less alone”.

That phrase has a deep meaning in his life.

Ayala landed in Palo Alto in 2019, after going around the world and verifying that life in the east and west became lonely. And that the only thing that really allow us to build links was music, due to its nature as a truly universal language.

So she, in Northern California, felt alone and "without a penny." Because of that, and her experience working with music since she left university in Puerto Rico, she founded Musicasa: “I use to say that I gestated this project for thirty-three years –all her life– and now I did it to meet people”.

Let's say that, in a quick trivia, Beatriz shows her skills as a human musical encyclopedia, except when we go in-depth into the most electric rock. However, it is surprising that she mentions Mercedes Sosa as one of her favorites.

Nothing surprises Gustavo Cerati at this point, but one of the central elements of our Argentine identity: "Yesterday here in my apartment there was a Musicasa and we ate Argentine empanadas," he says smiling, adding that in Miami "many Argentines make pe?as and they eat asado" -which means they play guitar and sing folklore songs and cook a kind of barbecue.

The salient qualities of Musicasa, as a platform, are based on the detail that the host can customize when lending their home for a concert: if there is food and drink, and who provides it -commercialization is not possible-; what musical genre you prefer, how many people can attend and in what way –the maximum for the platform is forty, and the maximum time is ten at night–.

Musicasa attacks the historical problem that "ninety percent of music artists are not famous or recognized and, therefore, it is very common that, in places specially set up to host live music, they are paid with food and drink, but there is no participation in the profits of the show, nor fees (...) that happens, for example, in Nashville. But all over the world, more than ten million musicians live the same reality”.?

"Ninety percent of music artists are not famous or recognized and, therefore, it is very common that, in places specially set up to host live music, they are paid with food and drink, but there is no participation in the profits of the show, nor fees (...) that happens, for example, in Nashville. But all over the world, more than ten million musicians live the same reality”.

For this reason, the platform was born as a place of intersection that focuses on the problem of those who want to make a living from music, as much as it values something that is at the foundation of the cultures that Bea met working as a publicist and communicator for big brands: people usually gather in houses and there, spontaneously, live music appears. Especially when we talk about Latinos, that is, the target that her company is targeting right now.

However, organizing such events is known to be cumbersome and poses challenges that homeowners don't always know how to manage. “Musicasa takes care of everything –explains Bea– so that whoever receives people earns money with it, the musicians too, and us, of course. We measure the time that the event lasts, we propose clear rules to preserve the place, and we create conditions to make the community grow”.

Intimate concerts, curated by Beatriz and her team, who analyze every aspect; the allowed volume, the necessary space, and the local regulations of each place. Revalidate the authentic music of each artist, and make the best match with the public. That's what Musicasa is about.

Bea gives away laughs throughout the conversation. She sounds like she lived several lifetimes, just as she transitions into the Christ age. The health crisis left her with the impression that “isolation” – self-inflicted confinement, beyond the controversial isolation policies during COVID – was wreaking havoc. Just to her, whose blood "immediately draws to the meeting, the beer, and the music."

To be clear, the site does not propose a portfolio of artists that could be chosen for a wedding, or a birthday. “That can happen, of course, but Musicasa only deals with the concert, and we put all our expertise in relation to sound, the public, and the money”.

Intimate concerts, curated by Beatriz and her team, who analyze every aspect; the allowed volume, the necessary space, and the local regulations of each place. Revalidate the authentic music of each artist, and make the best match with the public. That's what Musicasa is about.

Thus, Bea combats the shortage of places to play live music and revalues musical talent. Viewed from within the country, Ayala's project formalizes the improvisation and professionalizes it so that the performances have a concert level (which is why she herself rigorously defines the list of artists, genres, etc.), and that people pay a ticket to see these musicians in the privacy of a few square meters.

Today the platform already has around ten thousand people looking for concerts there to attend. Bea opens her eyes and is excited about the end of the talk, imagining that in the short term Musicasa will also offer theater and all live art performing.

We greet each other and the Caribbean rhythm of her voice remains floating in my studio.?

Bringing technology to life is nothing new these days.

But to make life a little bit cool, really it is.