Marketing and promotion is a fact of any musician’s life. Yes, making music is personally fulfilling and the joy of it can be felt when playing or singing alone at home. But if you want to earn a living at it so you can devote yourself to music full time, you need to have fans. Fans are the people who pay for your band’s music career. You could be the most creative musical genius but if you play in an empty club, you’ll never be full-time performers.

But most bands just starting out do not have a lot of money. So you need to get creative and market your band without breaking the bank. The first thing to do is talk about your band. Word of mouth is still a powerful tool. When you run into friends, tell them about your band and let them know where you’ll be playing next. Tell your family and ask them to tell their friends and associates.

Next, build a killer web site. There are all sorts of tools and widgets available now that let’s even the most modestly computer savvy person build a great website. It will cost you less than $100 for build a site, host it and add a bunch of bells and whistles. Once up and running, add videos of performances, information about the band members and upcoming performances, offer ringtones and you can even set up a chat area for fans to social network with one another. Have one or more band members blog. The more often you update and add fresh content, the more people will visit the site.

It may sound old fashioned but legwork can reap big benefits. Invest the time to go meet people in person. Introduce yourself to club owners, booking agents and others who can give your band’s career a boost. Obviously, the best tool to hand out is a demo CD. But if you don’t have a demo yet, hand out a business card with your band’s website on it.

College radio shows and community access TV shows are a great way to promote your band for free. Similarly, use Social Networks to promote your band through posts, tweets and uploaded video. If you’re willing to put in the time and effort, you can successfully market your band and still have money left in your pocket.