You may start on creating your band’s own t-shirt by deciding on what your shirt should look like. Decide on colors and images to put on your shirt. You can print your t-shirts either in front, back or on the sleeves. You can do anything possible with your band shirt, just make it sure it’s unique and eye catching. But remember not to over do your shirt design so that it won’t be an eye sore. Create something that you will be proud to wear and show off, something that would best represent your bands attitude and groove. You can also put your band’s logo in your t-shirt design, or even the picture of your entire band. Or you can go for the more popular vintage band shirt look, to please the younger crowd.

The most common color of the t-shirt use in printing your design on is black and white. Since the designs have two or more colors and image, it will look great on a plain neutral t-shirt. But if you prefer other t-shirt color, like maroon, yellow or blue, you should use minimal colors on your design; if possible using one color is enough. This is to prevent your shirt on looking like a mess.

Band T-shirts are very versatile and it can help you greatly in your bands promotions. You can wear this during your gigs or you can even use this in a band camp. Of course since the main purpose of having band shirt is to promote your band, you should initially give it to people free of charge. What’s great about this is that you can use it to raise some funds. If your band, lets say, has gained enough attention and fame, you may start selling your shirts. You can sell your band shirt and gain a little profit and use it for your band expenses. Or you can divide the profit within your band members. You can also sell your band shirt and use the profits for a good cause, like helping other people or giving free music lesson for the less fortunate kids. There are lots of things you can do with profits.

So, to be able to create your band’s logo, you can seek the services of a professional Graphic Artist or if you are highly artistic, you can do it yourself. Before deciding on how your logo should look like you can help yourself by browsing the internet for logo ideas. This is not to copy from those ideas but to see what colors and images is appealing for you and your band.

Next is to discuss your ideas with your band mates. Do some brainstorming, write down any ideas that you discussed. Make sure that all the members participated in your brain storming, for your logo will represent all of you as a whole. Decide on what color your logo should be. Always remember that the color should represent your band genre and image. For example, red and black looks powerful and bold, while bright colors like orange, blue and white looks more refined. Combining colors can even make your logo more dramatic and appealing.

Next, you should also decide on what font should you use. Fonts are important in giving your band logo attitude and appeal. It can make your logo stylish, trendy and artistic. Choosing the right fonts can make your logo stand out from the rest and create an identity for your band.

Choosing whether you would like an image or picture to be an element of your logo, is the next thing to do. The images that you should incorporate with your band logo must convey the image you want to portray. Don’t be afraid to experiment, just always remember that this picture will be part of your bands identity so make sure that the color, fonts and the picture should go well together. It must be unique, eye catching and artistic, it should be easy to remember and must leave strong impact to your target audience.

After all of the brainstorming with your band members, you must discuss your ideas with a graphic artist, if you want your logo to be done by a professional. If not, you can do it yourself although it’s not as easy as it looks. Make sure you have the proper software like Photoshop or Illustrator to render your ideas. Make sure you are well verse with that software and you can do your magic.

As Jack Black says in School of Rock “just because you’re not in the band doesn’t mean you’re not in the band. Enter the street team, a group of fans you can use to hand out fliers for your show, stickers, buttons, your cds, or whatever merchandise and promotional items you may have. Tons of companies do the same thing, think about all the stands you see at malls trying to get you to try some new product.

So how do you get a street team? One way is via your website. You’ll see many artists who have a banner that says “Join our Street Team!” somewhere on their site. Do the same. It obviously works or else artists wouldn’t bother. Also at shows, you can leave a sign up sheet by your merch, or mention it during your shows.

The thing about having a street team is that you have to be the boss. Like a good boss, you have to reward those who are doing well, and get rid of those who aren’t. Since these people are working for free, you want to make them feel that you’re thankful for the work that they’re doing. There’s several ways to do this such as mentioning them at your next show, hanging out with them, giving them some of your free merch, etc. Thanking them in a show may even inspire new members to join your street team.

Remember, you want to assemble an A-team to promote your music (Mr.T would be brilliant to promote my music). As you get more and more popular, more people will want to join your street team, in turn promoting your band even more and more. It’s a snowball effect.

So, if a musician or band would like to try band web blogging, one should register on web blogging sites, like WORDPRESS.com or Blogger.com, or you can also build a website of your own, specially created for your band blogging. Just like any other website, setting up your own web blog begins with creating the title or name of your blog site. It could be your band name or something that best describe your band. Make sure that your site name is not too long or complicated and it must be related to your band so that people will remember it and find it faster.

Next is choosing a template that will best suit your band. There are different templates you can choose from, if you know some basic code editing, you can personalize your template so it will support your needs and suit your band perfectly. Of course putting contents to your site, like your band information, pictures, demo songs, promo videos, upcoming gigs schedule and your blog entries will be the next step. Your followers should have something they can subscribe to, like your latest blog post or newsletters. Your blog topic can be anything under the sun; it will showcase your ideas, your life and yourself. Your blog site should serve its purpose well, that is to grow your fan-based and connect with them through your site. Furthermore, your blog site can serve as online showroom of your music, meaning you can use this site to promote and sell your CD or your songs.

So, you have created your blog site, and it’s now up and running. What the next best thing you could do? Well, the next best thing is to surf the internet and sign up for those social networking site like myspace.com and facebook.com. Of course you can promote your blog site in these said sites. There is a lot of potential audience on this kind of networking sites.

And finally, you should update your blog site almost everyday. You should make it a point to always post new and still hot blogs and news. Since this is a blog site, this should serve as an online diary and organizer of your band.

To start with, you must focus on how you can get your music to the radio… and of course for this you must have the right music and of course good demo. But not just any ordinary burned demo, your demo should look professional and it should have some basic information about you or your band. Of course your demo should contain your best and strongest songs… After that you must determined, who are the right people to give your demo to, should it be the DJ or music director or the station manager? You can not go and just give your demo to anyone, you should give your demo to the one who controls and decides on what should go on Air. You should also put in mind that your demo should drop on the proper station, if your genre is hip hop your music should not land on country radio stations. And of course, getting your music to prime radio station is a risky business. If you want to make sure that your music will be heard, try the “open-air” radio stations, like the college radio, that are more amenable to new, budding and independent musicians.

Furthermore you should always remember that every radio station is bombarded with lots of music demo everyday, so you should make a statement and be remembered. It would be best if you build rapport with the DJ as they are the one who push out your music to the public. But of course, don’t forget to talk to the music director or station manager in very professional manner for they decide about music rotation for the station. And never forget, you should always follow up on your demo status, I know, it will be irritating to the radio staff if you do so, but they will also realized that you are really serious about you’re music and they might give in and give it a try.

To start out, try by playing some open mic nights, or talent shows, something of the sort. The trick is to make sure you don’t put too much pressure on yourself. If you starting out and you book a gig with 500 people all focusing on you, chances are you’re going to be intimidated and get nervous. Start low key and manageable.

After you’ve developed your confidence a bit, try some local venues for some paying gigs. Contact local venue owners by phone and explain who your are, your band, and how many people you are certain you can attract. Keyword: certain. Don’t lie because it will reduce your credibility, and can even get you blacklisted by other venues. Be honest. If you get rejected, it’s ok try again a bit later. Also if they tell you they will call you back, wait patiently for the time frame they give you. Don’t be annoying and call 2 days later when they said they’ll call you within a week. If they take longer than the time they tell you, call them politely and explain that you had been expecting a call from them. Sometimes a venue manager will just get work piled up and forget.

Get out there and play some shows. Seriously, there’s nothing like it for getting fans and getting your band out there. Go book some shows right now!

Being the visual creatures that humans are, the importance of a good band photograph cannot be understated. Its a really great investment to make.

When you’re taking your band photograph, make sure to take a lot of pictures. This way you’ll have more variety to choose from. Believe me, you don’t want to settle when picking out your band photo, find one thats just right. If not just go back and take more photos.

Find a nice location for your bands photo. An old abandoned church, whatever fits the bill. Just don’t use a cheap background off a computer software. Also don’t worry about getting pictures of your band playing. Look at a major artists band pictures. On 95% of them, you’ll see that none of the players are actually holding an instrument.

Don’t manipulate your photos with photo software, other than a bit of touching up if necessary. Don’t try frilly borders or any of that nonsense. It looks really amateurish and unprofessional.

For gig photos, make sure they are good quality and show off your professionalism. Don’t show photos of fans only, instead focus on the band rocking out or really putting on a good show. Remember, Record Labels want professionalism more than anything. Make sure your photos reflect that.

Now go out and get some great pics!

2. Don’t hype yourself up. It makes you sound like an idiot. Your listeners and record labels can decide that for themselves.

3. Keep your bio short and informative. Don’t worry about writing 3 pages, because no one wants to read that. A couple paragraphs at most will do.

4. Make sure to list your band members. Don’t go into details writing individual biographies on each band member. You can add some bits of humor if you’d like, such as mentioning that your drummer also plays the spoons.

5. Use your bands letterhead when writing your bio. In fact, make sure all your band information is written in the same letterhead, including any text in your band logo. It makes it look professional.

6. Use bits of humor if it fits your image, but don’t be offensive. The key is not too much, or it’ll make your band look like a joke.

7. List your bands influences. Similar to tip #1, influences can help a record label identify what your music is like. Make sure to differentiate between Influences and Music You Like.

8. Write multiple versions of your bio depending on who you’re sending it to. A club owner wants to know you’ll attract attention, a record label wants to know who you are.

9. List your major accomplishments, such as education and awards.

10. Look at other bands bio’s and see if there’s something you like about it that you can replicate. It can help make your bio better.

11. Dont empahize your shortcomings. So many times you’ll see a bio that says something like “we haven’t played many gigs yet…” If its something negative leave it out! Focus on the strengths of your band!

12. Write a line or two about how the band got started, or how songs are written, but don’t dwell on these subjects.

13. Always put the following on everything you own: Name, address, URL, email, and phone number.