As cool things go, having a band you love play in your living room is pretty near the top of the list. Cape Town-based music teacher Gerhard Maree always thought so. In 2010, his fantasy became reality. Maree recalled: "At the time, live music venues were closing everywhere. I knew artists weren't making money from album sales either so I started monthly house gigs with friends."Three years later, Maree got three friends on board. They added muscle from industrial engineering and social entrepreneurial backgrounds and melded the house gig concept into Secret Soiree. Today Secret Soiree falls under the umbrella of City Soiree. City Soiree operates in five cities and includes the offshoot of Drawingrooms, which turns homes into pop-up art galleries.City Soiree offers crowd-funded events backed by social media networks overlapping and intersecting. The concept is this: someone pitches online to host a band. They submit photos of their living room and estimate how many people they can squeeze in. City Soiree makes the hook-up with bands and artists, and fans start pledging. Ticket prices range from R90 to R130. First pledgers are core fans and their tickets are cheaper. Once the minimum of 30 pledges is reached, City Soiree confirms the gig and opens up for more online pledges with a cap of 60 tickets per gig."We cap it because this is an intimate experience. It appeals to people who want to listen to live music that's not staged in a bar or a concert venue. They want that up-close feel," says Maree.Keeping things small means no major sound equipment is needed, keeping artists' overheads contained. There's a bring-your-own-booze policy, so hosts do as little as possible and there are no licensing issues.They also offer Drawingrooms, events at which people pledge to see an artist's work. First pledgers receive a postcard-sized original artwork from the artist, then general tickets are sold. Most of the pledge money is pooled and won by one person on the night of the pop-up. The money must be spent on the artists' work.There are wins all round: fans get to see their band or artists, bands get paid, artists get guaranteed sales and City Soiree makes its cut from creative entrepreneurship. Past events have included hosting Black Cat Bones, Buckfever Underground, Koos Kombuis and Stelth Ulvang of the Lumineers.Maree said: "We're genre agnostic, it's whoever people want in their homes and artists who want that connection with fans."For Jaco van der Merwe, front man of electro rap group Bittereinder, living room gigs hit the spot. He said: "The City Soiree ticketing model is great, attendance is guaranteed and people are there for the music or experience, so the artist-audience chemistry is almost guaranteed - it's magical."Check out City Soiree events on www.citysoiree.co.za..