Epic Records, a division of Sony Music, emerged the victor in April of 2002. Shortly after the ink dried on the recording contract, Day's management company posted a notice on his web site, telling the fans that Epic "made us feel right at home, and understand what it is that we have tried to build over the past three years, and how they can continue to help us take that to the next level."

Yeah, that was one crazy year," Day says of the early days with Epic. "Basically my whole philosophy starting out -- because the question came up, 'Are you going to sign a label deal?' before anyone was really interested in signing me -- my idea was always 'Just go out and do it yourself.' The hardest thing for [a major record label] to do is to build a solid foundation, a base, which is like the first 50,000 records -- that core fan base."

One key way in which Day laid that groundwork was by allowing -- and encouraging -- fans to audio tape his shows for their own personal use and to trade with others. Word of mouth and live show taping are, in fact, the two primary forces Hickman credits for so successfully cultivating Day's career. "After seeing Howie live, fans spread the word obsessively," he says. "Because of such a loyal fan base, Howie has one of the strongest Internet-based fan communities rivaling other more mainstream acts such as Jason Mraz and John Mayer. Just looking on archive.org and etree.org will show that Howie Day has the highest number of live shows available online for any solo act."