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 if you want to join songwriting competitions, you should be prepared. You should have a free-following and creative mind; your ideas should be limitless. If you are a good songwriter, you must be able to write about anything under the sun. Songwriting competitions have different categories. You may send different entries for different categories but there is a small fee for every entries that you send, so prepared to spend some dimes.

Songwriting competition opens up outstanding opportunity for amateur writers and bands. So this is a great way to stage your talent and be known by record label and record executive. Since most contests, songwriting competition is all over the internet, making it available for everybody all over the world to submit their music entries, you must be prepared for a head-to-head competition.

For your music to be able to make the cut, there are some important things you must put in mind. First, you must create a great and catchy chorus for song that delivers your message well. You must keep your listener hook ed In your music by making melodic verses. You can also apt for a story-like lyrics, that make the listeners think and imagine. Just make sure that your lyrics are fresh and original.

When it comes to instrumentation, chose the one that will make your song lyrics stand out and not fall down. If your lyrics is a ballad then piano or guitar is enough. If you want kick-ass rock and alterative music gear up with your band but make sure not to drown your lyrics, for it is the most important part of your song.You must not go for long inteludes and introductions, although classic and long intros like Hotel California and Stairway to Heaven are catchy, today’s song opt for short intros; direct to the point and no time wasting. If you are a band and you want to showcase your members extra talent, you may do so in the middle or ending part of the song; not in the introduction.

When joining songwriting competition there are lots of work to be done; music, lyrics, artistic rendition and more. But always remember two things why you join this kind of contest; because you’re in it to win it and you want be heard and be recognize.

Recording a demo, whether songs or video, need not to be expensive. What really matters is that it should sound good and make your music sound even better.

So, to start with, pick your best songs that should be included in your demo. The first song in your demo should be a really great song, so that you can capture their attention and make the music executive listen to you. It should contain three to four songs and it should be something that best describe your band and your genre. Your demo should contain the best of the best and all original songs because it will be something that will if you will be a deciding factor if you will be known or not.

Next, decide where you should record your demo. Should you record at home or in a studio? Whichever venue you pick to record your demo, make sure that you have the proper equipment and set up. This is to make sure that you will capture the sound of your band perfectly. . If you want to spend less than $500, you can record in a home studio. It is best if you have the right software for it, like Audacity or other pro tools. Make sure that you have the right hardware; like microphone, mixer, amplifier and lot of cables, and set up those hardware properly.

If you want to record your demo in a more professional manner, you can record in a studio. But be prepared to spend more; at lease $100 per song. If you want you can look for a small studio that can give you a better deal. Recording in a studio may cost a lot but you can definitely get a better, more professional recording quality this way

There are things you should consider when you record your demos. First, make sure that you have prepared yourself and your band for the recording session. Take a good sleep, eat well and of course you should practice and rehearse your groove days before your recording, so you won’t waste time on those unnecessary retakes. Make sure that you coordinated well to the studio owners, visit the studio first and feel its vibe before making a deal with them. And make sure they won’t release the master copy of your demo to anyone. The most important thing is to make sure that you listen to your own demo before you send it to the third party recipients. You’ll be the judge to your own band, be true and honest, if you think there’s something not right with your recording be free to change it. You’ll be the best critic to your band because you know how exactly your band should sounds like.

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.

If you want something more, there are sites designed to give you a free website designed specifically for your band. Here’s a list of some of the better ones:

http://www.darkjam.com/

http://www.bandcage.com/

http://www.mrband.com/

http://www.givefreebandsites.com/

http://www.indiesites.net/

There are tons of other websites, feel free to use google to find them.

Some advice to bands is to build as many free sites as you possibly can. The reason for this is that they will all gain traffic, some traffic that you might have not had unless you had set up that free website. You can then link them all to your main website, and it’ll increase the amount of views your getting significantly.

Good luck with your sites!

Here’s a video on the importance of picking a manager that’s right for you, and how to do so.

Here’s a great video where John Braheny explains how to write better songs.

First of all you’ll want to train your songwriting talents to further your understanding of music. This step is really essential in becoming a songwriter. Make no mistake, Bob Dylan and John Lennon didn’t write hits right off the bat. They took years developing their craft in order to be successful songwriters. You should do the same. If possible, take some music lessons, and not necessarily in songwriting. By learning different instruments, you can become a better songwriter as well just by learning which part they play in making a song. For example when learning guitar, most of my compositions would be very lead focused and lacking in rhythm. After learning bass my rhythm composing became much better. By playing multiple instruments, you can do the same. You’ll want to listen to music consistently as well and analyze what each artist is doing. By doing so you will gain influences, allowing you to recreate parts of music that you like. Also if you haven’t done so, check out our Songwriting Tips page. It has some helpful tips to help develop your songwriting talents.

After you feel comfortable writing a song, record your best songs on a demo tape. If you are unable to perform them yourself for your recording, find someone who can. Once you have a recording, you’ll want to copyright it, and submit your songs to record companies, music publishers, or artists together with your resume and biography. Don’t stop there though! Becoming a great songwriter is a neverending path, and you’ll always have something more to learn. So keep writing songs!

Here’s a video explaining how to make an electronic press kit.

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.