CD duplication - cost effective small run distribution

Pinky

Pinky

and The Brain...
I've been mostly doing digital distribution for the past few years, offering CDs as lightscribe prints that I sell through bandcamp. My soon to be released latest album will feature artwork by a collaborator and I'm thinking it deserves proper treatment in a full CD package.

There are several online print-as-you-go sites (cdnow, amazon, etc) but I find the rates too high for what most people are willing to pay nowadays for a CD. I don't need a lot of liner notes, so a simple folded insert will be fine. Lyrics will be made available online for those who wanted them.

For those who've done this recently, what do think are my best ordering options for a ~50 count CD printing? I'd like to keep the disc at $10 or less shipped. I suppsoe I'm open to doing the printing myself, but I hate CD stickers and lightscribe isn't pro enough quality for what I'd want. Do printable CDs actually look good?
 
Try Kunaki. Can't beat the pricing. The front insert is only a single piece of glossy paper, though, not a folded one. Your first 'proof' is even free - try it out!
 
I like this line in their Q&A section.

Our service is designed for 21st-century, intelligent, independent publishers who prefer to deal with a cold, efficient, and reliable machine that is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

:D
 
miroslav said:
I like this line in their Q&A section.

Our service is designed for 21st-century, intelligent, independent publishers who prefer to deal with a cold, efficient, and reliable machine that is available 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.

:D
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It's true. Their system is free from human fuckup. It's almost like some self-aware machine that pumps out CDs.
 
Looks like a great suggestion (site looked familiar, so I've likely come across it before in prior searches or threads). Thanks!
 
I found Kunaki printed the CD Artwork a lot darker than the original I uploaded to them - so I would test out a few resolutions of different brightness to get it just right. The CD's are cheap enough to test out but the only issue is waiting for the sample to get back to you so you can check the color. BUt overall I'm sticking with them...
 
I would love to do Kunaki for my next release but I don't think they do double albums at all.

(yes I know I could do two single albums)
 
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Go big time and get proper glass master replication.... 500CDs that play in all devices, and have quality modern packaging and artwork and are something that you're proud to have your name on and show people..."Look Ma, I'm famous!" - kunaki is a jewel case / single piece of paper / duplication and kunaki's not primarily a music CD maker, although many here use them and like the results. They have no options for anything other than their standard product.

I found having boxes of CDs everywhere which cost me $1500 a powerful motivator to sell them and get my money back, which I have.... :D
 
mjbphotos said:
Try Kunaki. Can't beat the pricing. The front insert is only a single piece of glossy paper, though, not a folded one. Your first 'proof' is even free - try it out!
Click to expand...

So you get a single one sided insert for the front of your jewel case, and does the CD itself have printing/label on it ? Could you make your own insert for the back ? Has anyone found that the Kunaki replications don't play in some CD players/drives ?
 
PDP said:
So you get a single one sided insert for the front of your jewel case, and does the CD itself have printing/label on it ? Could you make your own insert for the back ? Has anyone found that the Kunaki replications don't play in some CD players/drives ?
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The CD is printed and there's nothing stopping you from replacing all the artwork with our own, if you wanted to and had access to a quality means of production. But you do get a back insert anyway, with kunaki... so no need. I reckon with a new booklet printed properly for the front it'd be indistinguishable to most from a replicated CD.

Can't help you with playability however.. sorry.
 
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PDP said:
So you get a single one sided insert for the front of your jewel case, and does the CD itself have printing/label on it ? Could you make your own insert for the back ? Has anyone found that the Kunaki replications don't play in some CD players/drives ?
Click to expand...

The front insert is 2-sided: your coer art on the front, your 'liner notes' on the inside. The jewel case has a black insert, so the back paper insert is one sided, again your cover art, song list, whatever you want. The CD is printed. I'll try to remember to take some pics to show you what you get.
They give you templates for sizing.
Agreed that they print a little dark (compared to Amazon CreateSpace anyway).

All new CD/DVD players will play CD-Rs. A player that is old may not (my 28-year-old Fisher CD player won't play them - I'm amazed it'll play anything at that age!)

Armistice said:
Go big time and get proper glass master replication.... 500CDs that play in all devices, and have quality modern packaging and artwork and are something that you're proud to have your name on and show people..."Look Ma, I'm famous!" - kunaki is a jewel case / single piece of paper / duplication and kunaki's not primarily a music CD maker, although many here use them and like the results. They have no options for anything other than their standard product.

I found having boxes of CDs everywhere which cost me $1500 a powerful motivator to sell them and get my money back, which I have.... :D
Click to expand...

Hey, if you can sell 500 CDs, all the power to you, go for it! I've given more CDs away than sold, and still count it in the dozens.
 
I had a real good experience with bcduplication.com... the thermal transfer printing on the cd looked great. and the cover art came out good too (though a tad bit darker). they give you a bunch of options for cover art layout, and I ended up paying about $5 a cd for a run of 50. although the cd's are still blueback, I haven't encountered any playablility issues. worth checking out for sure!
 
Click on my CD Link and it will take you to Kunaki. Click " more info" on a CD of mine and (without buying it) look at the front, back, sides CD etc.....
 
mjbphotos said:
The front insert is 2-sided: your coer art on the front, your 'liner notes' on the inside. The jewel case has a black insert, so the back paper insert is one sided, again your cover art, song list, whatever you want. The CD is printed. I'll try to remember to take some pics to show you what you get.
They give you templates for sizing.
Agreed that they print a little dark (compared to Amazon CreateSpace anyway).

All new CD/DVD players will play CD-Rs. A player that is old may not (my 28-year-old Fisher CD player won't play them - I'm amazed it'll play anything at that age!)



Hey, if you can sell 500 CDs, all the power to you, go for it! I've given more CDs away than sold, and still count it in the dozens.
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You don't need to sell 500 to get your money back, only about 100 at $15 AUD, and there were two of us... there are still several hundred left. :D We've given about 5 away in total, including GFs and wives, and excluding a few promo copies to radio stations - I just refuse to value our work at $0 for anyone.
 
Armistice said:
You don't need to sell 500 to get your money back, only about 100 at $15 AUD, and there were two of us... there are still several hundred left. :D We've given about 5 away in total, including GFs and wives, and excluding a few promo copies to radio stations - I just refuse to value our work at $0 for anyone.
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Wouldn't sell many CDs in the US for $15! I didn't make my mom pay for the 2 copies she asked for ... :p

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There are a couple of comments about darker images. The most likely cause is the computer monitor. The default settings will be a bit brighter to make the screen 'pop' more and impress you. So, you adjust your images to look good on the monitor, but they print darker. Very much like mixing in an untreated room and erroneously tweaking the bass.

The trick is to calibrate your monitor with something like a datacolor spyder. Also, whiteness of the printer paper is important. we don't know what a place like kunaki would use, I'm guessing it's pretty white and not racist.
 
Chili said:
There are a couple of comments about darker images. The most likely cause is the computer monitor. The default settings will be a bit brighter to make the screen 'pop' more and impress you. So, you adjust your images to look good on the monitor, but they print darker. Very much like mixing in an untreated room and erroneously tweaking the bass.

The trick is to calibrate your monitor with something like a datacolor spyder. Also, whiteness of the printer paper is important. we don't know what a place like kunaki would use, I'm guessing it's pretty white and not racist.
Click to expand...

Calibration of monitor-to-printer is not to be overlooked, however in the case of Kunaki, they simply do print darker, as compared to the same files used with CreateSpace-Amazon.

My current monitor is pretty close to correct, judging by printing from it to workplace laser printer, but if I'm printing to my ink printer at home, I'll lighten up the whole image a few % first.
 
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