Please take a few minutes to read the following from the creator of the Earn It Yourself (E.I.Y.) philosophy, Sarah Saturday:

EARN IT YOURSELF: THE PHILOSOPHY

"Earn It Yourself" is the idea that one must earn one's successes in life the right way, without compromising his integrity, ignoring his instincts, or turning a blind eye to his values. He must earn every dollar in his pocket by means of his mind and his will-not by means of others' pity for him, or by begging for alms. It is not a philosophy for those who make "fame" or "fortune" their goals; rather, this is a philosophy for those whose goals are tangible, and have substance and meaning.

I have been practicing the Earn It Yourself philosophy since the days when I was in a band in rural Wisconsin. I dropped out of college and quit my job in order to focus all my time and energy on booking and managing my band. I had been in bands for 6 years before that, but it wasn't until I was in a position where I was completely responsible for the business side of my band that I realized the value of earning my success, one phone call and one basement show at a time.

I came up with the name "Earn It Yourself" (E.I.Y.) after years of struggling with the infamous "Do It Yourself" ethos of underground punk and hardcore music. I had been practicing D.I.Y. since the start of my last band: booking all our shows myself, releasing all our albums with our own money, distributing our CDs online and by touring, handling all the management and booking of the band, and even screen printing our band t-shirts by hand. We were heavily involved in our local D.I.Y. punk scene, and had a reputation for being the hardest-working band in the region.

As time went on, my band started to gain a following. We began touring, and lots of people started hearing our music. We were getting asked to headline regional shows, and were offered guarantees to play. Suddenly, we were winning contests on the radio, getting reviewed, and landing opening spots for national acts. All my hard work was finally paying off, and I was able to pay my bills and the band's bills. I was proud and excited, but surprised to find that the very people who had befriended and supported us in the beginning were now proclaiming that we were "selling out."

At first I was crushed. I couldn't understand how it was OK to work hard using the D.I.Y. work ethic, but not OK to reap the benefits of all my hard work. I spent several months trying to understand how such a contradiction could exist.

The answer was E.I.Y.-an all-encompassing philosophy that allows a band, company, or person to set his/her own goals and reach whatever level of success he/she desires, so long as they have achieved their success by sticking to their values and learning what it takes to reach their goals through a hands-on, do-it-yourself approach.

In 2003, I had reached a crossroad. I was frustrated with my bandmates and trying to decide what to do with my life. I called one of my mentors, Kevin Lyman (founder of the Warped Tour), to ask for advice. As it turns out, that was one of the most important calls I would make in my life. Kevin had been looking for a new person to work full-time in his office, and he offered me the position in California. Three weeks later I was moving into my first L.A. apartment-I was 23, broke, terrified, and exhilarated.

Over the last 3+ years, I have met and worked with hundreds of bands, both big and small. I have worked with almost every record label in some way, and have gained a perspective on the music industry that I never dreamed I would have. I now have the kinds of contacts in the industry that I would have killed for five years ago. But none of it has affected my E.I.Y. perspective-if anything, my experiences have only strengthened my point of view and ignited my desire to teach the next generation of bands and industry hopefuls how to earn their success-the right way.

EARN IT YOURSELF: THE WEBSITE

At the end of 2004, I launched SarahSaturday.com, "The Best of the Best of Underground Music." Its purpose was to promote unsigned and upcoming bands by showcasing songs, reviewing albums, and promoting new releases from talented, hardworking bands. The website also listed dozens of helpful links to booking websites, record labels, promotional tools, merchandise companies, and books that bands should read. I published two issues of E.I.Y. (The Zine)-a handmade magazine featuring interviews and "How to..." chapters-and regret not having had enough time to publish any more issues since.

Through SarahSaturday.com, I was able to discover a handful of great bands (including Single File, who became the first self-proclaimed "E.I.Y." band that I worked with and recently signed a deal with Warner Brothers / Reprise Records), and I was able to launch the E.I.Y. philosophy online. But the task of keeping the website updated regularly become overwhelming, and the site fell dormant except for random news and review updates every couple months.

I launched my own consulting company at the end of 2005, with the Vans Warped Tour and Taste Of Chaos Tour as my first two clients. I went on to work with some big website clients during the next year, and while I was making good money and building an impressive resume, I couldn't shake the sense that I needed to make the Earn It Yourself philosophy a reality. In the summer of 2006, I started to build a full-fledged EarnItYourself.com website - in my mind. I knew I would need to enlist the help of my brilliant friend and business partner Wyatt Glodell (who had built SarahSaturday.com), but I also knew that I needed someone from the D.I.Y. community to round out the E.I.Y. team. That's when I approached Ernst Schoen-Rene of the infamous Book Your Own Fuckin' Life website and online D.I.Y. community.

My first email to Ernst was an invitation to sort of "team up" with BYOFL.org to make a super-community for D.I.Y./E.I.Y. bands and kids. But once we got to talking and brainstorming, we both realized we shared a lot of the same values and ideas regarding music and bands, and we decided to partner up on EarnItYourself.com.

Since then, Wyatt, Ernst and I have put a lot of time, conversations, sweat, and lines of code into this project. It has taken us almost a year to reach this point, but here we are: EarnItYourself.com Beta.

EARN IT YOURSELF: THE PURPOSE

We made this website because we are all musicians and music-lovers who have a logical outlook on the future of music. We can see where the industry is failing, and we can see where there is a need for this new approach to achieving success in the industry.

We want to see good music thrive, and shitty music get trampled. We want the bands and people who know what their values are, and who stick to those values, to be rewarded for their integrity. We want people who feel isolated from their fame-and-money driven peers to find sanctuary here, among other people that know who they are, know what they believe, and know when something is right and when something is wrong. People who live their lives by the code of values they have set for themselves and who do not compromise those values or their integrity for the sake of anything that is not earned rightfully and honestly.

Earn It Yourself is for anyone who understands that starting a band in today's music industry means starting your own small company. It's for those of us who don't enjoy being handed things for free, or as a favor, but prefer to get what we want by proving that we deserve it. It's for those of us who refuse to beg, refuse to bow down, refuse to cheat, and refuse to steal.

Earn It Yourself is a philosophy that empowers people to take their dreams into their own hands, to take control of their own destiny and purpose in life, and to achieve their goals with a clean conscience and absolute conviction that they deserve every penny and every success they earn along the way.