Got 62 bucks?

[Slackmaster2K]

I've been thinking a lot about this CD thing. CD-R really does suck sideways. Very unprofessional. But it WOULD work and be fairly cheap...

But only cheap if we made 25 CD's and called it good. A CD-R with a jewel case and booklet is going to be around $3-$5 a pop (I'm guessing).

I was looking around at replication services. Found one that will make a CD with 4 color label printing for $0.69 apiece, minimum order of 500. That's $345 for a spindel of 500 HomeRecording.Comp CD's. Ahh, but there are two CD's!!! Oops. That puts a crimp in it. How about $345 x 2 then. $790

Problem? No case or insert. So I'm thinking more and more. Do we need a case? What about minijackets? What are minijackets? I'm thinking that they are those cardboard sleeves.

We can get 1,000 Cardboard sleves, 4-color printed, for $390. Now that's for one sleeve, not two like we need. But perhaps if we kept it simple we could negotiate. But assume $390 x 2 = 780

Regardless: 780 + 790 = /25 = $62.80 per person.

What about all the cool information in the jacket? Well shit, I dunno. Just stick it on the back of the sleeve. Plus we're going to do the "enhanced" CD thing anyway.

Ramble ramble ramble. I'm brainstorming here. I'm not sure if I even have 60 bucks to put in on this thing.

But shit, it sure would be cool.

The place I found was: www.erikarecords.com

Slackmaster 2000

[Layth]

Well if we did it all ourselfs and did a run of 100 we could get those doublesided jewel cases and print our own jewel inserts on inkjet printers.....

2 CDR $4.00

doublesided Jewel case $1.50?

Jewel inserts $1.00

x 100 / 25 = $26.00 per person.

This would finance our copies plus we could then sell the remaining 75 to the gang at HomeRecording and use the profits for the next compilation or reissue of this one.

I got some prices from

http://www.publishingperfection.com

Maybe we could do better on the CD price but the one's I looked at were TDK131 a good quality CDR

Just another brainstorm.

Layth

[drstawl]

Come on folks, we've got some resources here that aren't being used. $62 bucks? (hey, I bet buck62 had something to do with that) is way out of line. I make limited copies of my own CDs on my burner along with a nice inkjet color printed jewelcase insert and it ends up costing me like this:

I'll accept the 2-CD case at $1.50 each. I've seen 'em at the local superstores for that much. Two spindles of 100 CDs should cost $180. OK we go with a higher quality CDR brand and the price goes to: $280. Now the inserts can be printed faster than they can be cut out and assembled, but I can knock out a front and a back for 6 cases in an hour.
I wouldn't turn my nose up at $20/hour for this onerous chore so that works out to $3.33
per jewel case insert. Shit- I could probably farm this out to homeless loadies and keep half the money for myself if were a greedy capitalist pig. OK, applying this labor rate to the burn process: I can burn one copy (2CDs) in 45 minutes continuously, so add $15 there.

$15.00
$2.80
$1.50
$3.33
________

$22.63/ copy. Not bad for a rare double CD.
If a commercial service can't beat that, we're getting HOSED! And this assumes two 74 minute CDs. The shorter ones burn faster.

And the idea that a CDR would detract from the professional look of the CD: I don't think so. It would be nice if the copies played as universally as commercial CDs, but at $62 I'll take my chances. My CDRs have been known to not play in some decks, but EVERY last one of them plays in my old SONY CDP-C325. I've never burned one that wouldn't play there. And I've never gotten a complaint about those I've mailed all over the planet.

Oh yeah. Since this is a multimedia disk with some data files as well as .cda files, has that been hashed out with the duplication service as well?

[Slackmaster2K]

Did anyone even read the damn message? I'm not talking about CDR, I'm talking about CD. The real shit. Glass master stampin CD's. That's why it was so damn expensive. It was just a thought anyway, not even a real suggestion. Something to think about though.

Ok, I reread your comments and I guess you got my drift. The problem with CDR is...well, have you ever scratched one? They have a much shorter lifespan. Also, we can't silkscreen (or however they do it) the backs of them.

I'm just talking "coolness" versus "what do we need". A CD that looks like a CD would be cool...but, as I said...I'm not even sure I could afford it. Though we could sell them for $20 a pop.

Slackmaster 2000

[S8-N]

You can still silk screen a cdr... Its pretty easy and cheap once you burn the screen...

[Slackmaster2K]

How? Where? lemme know before you die!

[Jon X]

I like the idea of having them professionally duplicated, and don't mind paying $60. Of course, if people here know how to make the inserts look great doing it themselves and it saves money, that's even better. I've tried to print out jewel case inserts and tray cards myself, and it's not in the same league as an independant CD I just worked on that was pro duped. It looks incredible. Like Slack, I've also noticed that CD-Rs are more delicate than standard CDs made on quality media.

We have 25 people, let's decide (vote on?) how much money we want to spend on this thing, then see what our options are after that. If people don't want to put more than $10 into it, then we'll do what we can with $250. I'm fine with whatever we do.

[Dondello]

Maybe you have, but I'm suprised nobody has brought up the idea of using mp3.com. It would be perfect. They do the (very high-quality) printing, copying, liner notes, administration, etc. All we have to do is get the songs on there.

Or is all this effort for the sake of true CD (uncompressed) quality?

[Slackmaster2K]

Yeah, we beat the MP3 thing to death a couple months ago. 128kbps quality ain't so great. Thanks for the suggestion though.

Slackmaster 2000

[Dondello]

So, am I much too late to have anything to do with the compilation CD? Oh well.. I wouldn't give $60 to see my name on Time's Square.