On October 1, 1949, at the proclamation ceremony of the PRC, the military band played in its debut appearance to a huge crowd in Tiananmen Square, playing for the first time the National Anthem (March of the Volunteers), and as the musical accompaniment for the first military parade in the PRC's history.

In 1959, as part of the 10th anniversary of the People's Republic of China, the massed bands (of which the central band was among) consisting of one thousand musicians wearing olive-green uniforms opened the ceremony with the song The East is Red, which was timed to the arrival of Chairman Mao Zedong and Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev at 09.45 on the grandstand.

As of 2012, the Chinese People's Liberation Army Central Military Band has successively performed at 14 National Day military parades since the founding of the People's Republic of China and the 2015 China Victory Day Parade as part of a 1,000+ joint-military band contingent which was first conceived by Mao in 1950.

[6] In the 2000s, the band moved into the Music Hall of the People's Liberation Army on Changzhi Road in Beijing's Haidian District.

[7] On 30 May and 1 July 2011, in order to celebrate the 14th anniversary of the reunification of Hong Kong, the band made its first performance at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium with the Hong Kong Police Band and held a large-scale symphony orchestra concert there.

[15] In March 2015, Yue Hai, the then-conductor of the PLA Band, described the playing of the national anthem at settings such as weddings and funerals as "blasphemy" and suggested that the national government put more regulations on the anthem in an interview with the Huashang Bao newspaper.