Where to manufacture small quantity of pressed CDs ?

folker

New member
Hi guys,
i am in the process of finalizing my album, which will sell through Spotify, Itunes atc. I would like to have physical pressed CDs too,
just few pieces, like 20 maybe, to gift them to my friends. Now, i knew some site that did pressed CDs for 1$ piece, without minimum quantity limits. But i forget where it was, most of these online services have minimum quantity of 100CDs or similar.
Would some of you guys be able to point me at the right direction ?
Thank you.
 
well. actually just found out kunaki does cd duplication not replication (pressed disc)
Does this mean there's no such thing as no minimums cd replication ? :eek:
 
It costs a lot of money to make the master for a pressed disc and so the minimum pressing is about 500. Per CD costs go down the larger the order. A 500 CD order is not much cheaper than a 1000 CD order. It's all because of the cost of making the master.

The CDr's from Kunaki are excellent. You won't be able to tell the difference. There is no master CD to make and so they can fill small orders. The printing is good too. I use them because I found that trying to print on my own can get expensive due to the ink.
 
CD-Rs are fine. Most of the players that can't handle them have stopped working by now.

Exactly.

Like Chili, I've been using Kunaki for a while now and it's a good product for the relatively low cost. IMO there really isn't a better, more appropriate solution for a small market musician. CD Baby costs too much.
 
Yep, Kunaki. Only drawback is they do not offer Eco-paks, only plastic jewel cases.

Electric Cat Studios has an ad in the current Tape Op for 'short run CD & cassette duplication' in cardboard jackets starting @ $1.75 ElectricCatStudios@gmail.com I don't know anything about them.
 
Thanks for all your replys, guys. Actually, lowest amount of pressed cds they all do is 300 pieces, which is still overkill to me. But i am not interested in burned CDs at all. First, in quantity i want them (20pcs) i can burn them myself. Second, i have found that burned discs are not readable after few years, while pressed CDs last forever. I guess i rather opt for no physical discs at all.
Thank to all of you anyway !
 
I was looking at USB flash drives. Per item, they are still a little expensive, but I can't bu think there is some supplier out there selling 512MB bulk rates for cheap.

That would be cool to put your songs on them, some videos, maybe some HTML pages....
 
i have found that burned discs are not readable after few years, while pressed CDs last forever. I guess i rather opt for no physical discs at all.

Not sure where you're getting your burned disc longevity info, as there really isn't much available scientifically.

Theoretically the pressed discs will last longer, but how long they last ("forever" is inaccurate) compared to burned media will vary greatly on the quality of the medium used (the discs). You can have poorly stored pressed discs last only a few years, and properly stored burned discs last decades. Blank disc brand X may last 7 years until there's significant material degradation, while disc brand Y may last 23 years due to a superior metal layer and plastic substrate. Brand Z might use ultiminium and last 346 years. Since this technology is still new in the sense it's been around for less time than itself is expected to decay, only now are we starting to see the effects of time on discs made in the 1980s.

There's a lot of material available on google if you're interested in educating yourself and changing your mind. None of the discs will last forever. The odds are our music will be passe, and at best archived digitally, long before even most burned discs bite the dust. Hopefully that digital archive gets saved to a medium less prone to decay. This is really only likely for the bigger acts/most notable performers. The rest of us only need to worry about the here and now, with hopes of ever making it big enough to be one of those timeless artists cherished decades after our deaths.

How Long Do CDs Last? It Depends, But Definitely Not Forever : All Tech Considered : NPR

[fwiw, I'm not discussing bad discs - there are plenty of bad batches/makers out there, but a simple search for product reviews will reveal the brands of blanks to avoid]
 
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Hopefully that digital archive gets saved to a medium less prone to decay. This is really only likely for the bigger acts/most notable performers. The rest of us only need to worry about the here and now, with hopes of ever making it big enough to be one of those timeless artists cherished decades after our deaths.

The hope is to get everything in a properly RAIDed and maintained cloud archive by some company that retains everything forever for data-mining/advertising purposes. (i.e. Google or Amazon or the Chinese equivalent), and hope that company never folds. :D

As to the original question, I've never seen small-run CD replication.
All I've seen are CD-Rs for $2-3 a piece.
 
There's no getting around the fixed costs of pressed CDs. That is, the necessary setup work has a substantial cost even before the first disc is replicated. If you only make 20 discs that cost can't be spread across many units.

I just looked at prices for replication. The minimum order of 300 was about $300. An order of 1000 was about $400. That suggests you're paying about $258 for the setup and $0.14 for each copy for 300 units. If you could get them to do a run of 20 they would likely have to charge at least $261.
 
Yep, Kunaki. Only drawback is they do not offer Eco-paks, only plastic jewel cases.
They seem to only offer a 2-panel insert, which I take to mean front and back. I design most of my "packaging" for 4-panel "single fold" inserts, and since the only real argument I can make for pressing physical product is to have the physical book...
 
Thanks for all your replys, guys. Actually, lowest amount of pressed cds they all do is 300 pieces, which is still overkill to me. But i am not interested in burned CDs at all. First, in quantity i want them (20pcs) i can burn them myself. Second, i have found that burned discs are not readable after few years, while pressed CDs last forever. I guess i rather opt for no physical discs at all.
Thank to all of you anyway !

I have CD-Rs burned more than 15 years ago that still play fine. The difference in getting them at a place like Kunaki is that they print artwrork on them, and provide the inserts for the jewelcases, too.
 
One thing to note about CDRs and longevity (as well as playability across as many devices as possible)... burn the disc as slow as your burner allows. The slower the burn, the deeper the etching. This helps overcome finicky older players with weaker lasers, as well as requiring any deterioration or scratches to be rather epic in nature to cause the laser to not read.

Looking at the bottom of a Kunaki disc it appears they use strong lasers as the etched material looks very consistent and deeply ingrained.
 
They seem to only offer a 2-panel insert, which I take to mean front and back. I design most of my "packaging" for 4-panel "single fold" inserts, and since the only real argument I can make for pressing physical product is to have the physical book...

Yes, 2 panel means front and back of the front insert, and there is the rear cover insert (1-side) as well. CreateSpace (which is associated with Amazon) offers 4-panel front inserts, and the rear cover inserts are 2-sided (the disc tray is clear), but their cost is much higher - $4.95/cd for up to 49, 50-99@ $3.96, 100+ @ $2.97 - I've used them because its an easy way to get your CDs (not just downloads) on Amazon.
 
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