We were lucky to catch up with Caity Gyorgy recently and have shared our conversation below.
Alright, Caity thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. Have you been able to earn a full-time living from your creative work? If so, can you walk us through your journey and how you made it happen? Was it like that from day one? If not, what were some of the major steps and milestones and do you think you could have sped up the process somehow knowing what you know now?
I am so fortunate and thrilled to be earning a full time living from being a musician! My income comes from many different places, which helps me to live my dream lifestyle as a recording artist and touring musician. Most of my income is passive and comes from my streaming royalties, and additional income comes from performances/touring and a bit of teaching. The passive income from royalties has really changed my life in the best way.
When I was still in college for my undergraduate degree in music, I began to release music independently. When I first started releasing my recordings I didn’t really have any idea what I was doing, but through reading articles and forums online and trial and error, I figured out a marketing and release strategy that worked for me and in November 2019 I was added to my first Spotify Editorial Playlist. I released my next single “Postage Due” in April of 2020 – right at the beginning of the pandemic. The lull in in-person performance and out-of-home activities gave me the time to execute creative marketing strategies. When pitching my music for playlist consideration I made a point to outline how I would be promoting the release. When someone pre-saved “Postage Due”, and signed up for my email list, I would send them a handwritten card in the mail (if they wanted one!). I realized that posting “please pre-save” on my social media was not enough to entice people, who at that point in time were experiencing a global pandemic with endless online content to scroll through at home. I needed to incentivize the pre-save, and that’s exactly what I did with my post cards. The cards related to the postal theme of the song, and they gave me a chance to connect with my “fans” (most of whom at that time were college friends and family) in a personal way. I sent out dozens of post cards and “Postage Due” was added to many popular jazz playlists on Spotify. I repeated this process with a few other singles, receiving the same results and support from Spotify.
At around the same time my own music was doing well, I caught the attention of New York based record label La Reserve – who had been following my instagram because I had posted some videos of myself singing instrumental solos that I had transcribed from some of their artists. La Reserve reached out to me and asked if I would want to take a meeting to discuss any plans for upcoming releases. I was hesitant, because I had been successful on my own, but ultimately I realized that being associated with a US label could be a great opportunity for me to expand my fan base. I took the meeting and though still skeptical (and frankly still pretty clueless about the industry) I realized that the two owners of the label were incredibly supportive of the artists and cared about the music that they were releasing. It also helped that I had a fully mixed, mastered, ready to go EP of all original music that I arranged for my 10 piece ensemble. I sent them the music, they liked it, I signed the contract, and we’ve been releasing music ever since! La Reserve was able to get my music to. more listeners on platforms like Amazon Music, Tidal, YouTube Music, Spotify, Apple Music, Pandora and many more. I’ve been consistently releasing music with them since 2021. We just released my first full length LP “Featuring” on November 4th, 2022, and my next album of Jerome Kern repertoire called “You’re Alike, You Two” will be released on June 9th, 2023. My catalog has been streaming very well and has allowed me to not take a part time job that would prevent me from being able to travel whenever the opportunity arises.
The rest of my income comes from performing and touring. After winning the JUNO, I have been able to book many more shows and festivals – mostly in North America. This past year I sang in Alberta, British Columbia, The Yukon Territory, Ontario, and Quebec with my own group. I also toured in the United States for a month with Postmodern Jukebox. In 2023 I have shows in Canada, Mexico, The USA, and Japan. Having the passive income from streaming has made it easy for me to pack up and leave to tour internationally without having to book time off of a stationary job. The recognition from the JUNO, streaming services, and social media followers has also allowed me to charge a fair rate for my performances and give me the opportunity to pay my musicians really well – which is important to me as the show wouldn’t be very good if they weren’t there!
I don’t really think I could have sped up the process of getting to this point in my career, nor would I have wanted to. I’ve learned a lot by making mistakes, and those were important mistakes to make. So much of the music industry is about “right place right time” and who you know – and you can’t rush those sort of things. It takes time to build meaningful relationships, it takes time to make a beautiful album, it takes time to release things properly. Being in this field requires you to trust a lot of people – your musicians, your label, your booking agents – and I know that whenever people are rushing me and putting unreasonable amounts of pressure on me, I don’t react well – so why would I want to rush the people that I trust?
There are so many more songs I want to write, and albums I want to record, and people I want to play with, I don’t want to rush those experiences.
Caity, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?
My name is Caity Gyorgy and I am a Canadian vocalist, composer, arranger, lyricist, and band leader who creates and performs music in the style of swing and bebop music. I’ve always been passionate about music and took singing lessons as a child but didn’t really get into swing music until I was in my last year of high school in Calgary, Alberta. I attended Humber College in Toronto, Ontario where I received my Bachelor of Music with Honours, and McGill University in Montreal, Quebec where I received my Masters of Jazz Performance degree. I got into the field of performing and releasing music through trial and error. While at school in Toronto I was playing at bars and clubs and going to jazz jams around the city. I learned a lot through these experiences. I also got to know a lot of wonderful people on the Canadian Jazz Scene.
After I started releasing music I began to gain more notoriety in the Canadian Jazz Scene and I received a JUNO award in 2022 for my record “Now Pronouncing: Caity Gyorgy” which I released on Brooklyn, New York based record label La Reserve.
When thinking about my career, I am most proud of the fact that I am touring internationally and singing my own original songs and arrangements to people all across the world.
In your view, what can society to do to best support artists, creatives and a thriving creative ecosystem?
I think that one of the best ways to help artists and creatives is to provide more outlets for us to have our art reviewed and showcased. In the music industry it’s incredibly important for artists to gain reviews from top magazines and reviewers, but there aren’t as many music media outlets around anymore, so it’s more competitive to get the limited amount of review space. The (good) reviews legitimize the music and provide us with press quotes to demonstrate to potential listeners that the music is worth listening to. I should mention that It’s also important that folks read and support these publications. The streaming industry has made music more accessible than ever, and there seems to be an infinite amount of music to listen to on the streaming platforms. The challenging part is getting people to listen specifically to your music. Having more media outlets and folks supporting said media outlets and actively listening to what is recommended would be hugely beneficial to artists.
Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?
My creative journey is largely driven by the fact that I have so much music that I’d like to share with the world. I’m constantly inspired by movies, books, my own life experiences, and other peoples music, and I use that inspiration to create more of my own music. I’m also driven by the energy I receive from performing to live audiences. It’s challenging to deliver a lyric in a way that is both meaningful to me as I sing it, but relatable to the audience member, and when done successfully it’s one of the most rewarding feelings. It’s even more special when I sing the lyrics to a jazz standard and make them. my own. Singing my own lyric is easy, stepping into someone else’s lyric is where it gets challenging, but it’s a fun challenge, and one I enjoy conquering.
Contact Info:
- Website: caitygyorgy.com
- Instagram: @caitygyorgy
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/caitygmusic
- Twitter: @caitygyorgy
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCfvRUCz3etSvga6E6qG5dxA
Image Credits
Black and white photo performing with microphone: credit to Ariane Laget Photo with JUNO – credit to Jacob Wutzke Photo with pianist – Credit to Leya Russell Black and white with microphone in studio- credit tt Tieran Green Album Art: credit to Teddy Kadonoff (photo) Matilda Armstrong (design) Pink photo: Credit to Caity Gyorgy Blue dress photo: Credit to Cynthia Fay Marhue