CD Replication
- Thread starter bdemenil
- Start date
I consider a 'good deal' to be the best one i can get.
I've seen 1 company advertise about $900 for 1000 CDs - i believe without jewel case or printed liner. I think about $1200 for 1K w/ jewel case and printed liner. Seems to me, since anybody can get blank CDs for about 25 cents each, that there might be some more competative pricing out there. In any case, I don't need 1K, about 500 would do just fine. If I could get 500 for about $500, I'd be happy.
Ben
I've seen 1 company advertise about $900 for 1000 CDs - i believe without jewel case or printed liner. I think about $1200 for 1K w/ jewel case and printed liner. Seems to me, since anybody can get blank CDs for about 25 cents each, that there might be some more competative pricing out there. In any case, I don't need 1K, about 500 would do just fine. If I could get 500 for about $500, I'd be happy.
Ben
Buck62
噛んでくれ
crosstudio
New member
i've never met anyone that has had bad things to say about Oasis.
sonusman
Banned
Since when is .90 per CD, FOR THE REAL CD'S!!! NOT CDR'S!!! such a "bad" deal?
Try buying all the gear it takes to make professional CD's....
You can usually only get cheap CDR's that are often not suitable for 1X speed burning for .25 each. Then think of the time to burn that many in the first place!
The machinery and clean rooms it takes to do professional CD replication is terribly expensive. Then there is labor, general overhead, the advertising to let you know that they provide this product, etc......You can start to see that they must move a hell of a lot of CD's to earn even a okay profit.
I don't think you are going to find much deals yet then you already have. Most places are charging about the same for professional CD duplication, and until the equipment costs come down considerably, you are not going to see them too much cheaper.
Good luck.
Ed
(by the way, the CD's you get from these places is the SAME KIND of CD like you buy in a music store, NOT a CDR. These CD's are far more robust and able to handle much more abuse. Plus, the hardware they use to copy your "master" you send them is usually very good. These CD's will usually sound better than what you can burn on your computers burner....)
Try buying all the gear it takes to make professional CD's....
You can usually only get cheap CDR's that are often not suitable for 1X speed burning for .25 each. Then think of the time to burn that many in the first place!
The machinery and clean rooms it takes to do professional CD replication is terribly expensive. Then there is labor, general overhead, the advertising to let you know that they provide this product, etc......You can start to see that they must move a hell of a lot of CD's to earn even a okay profit.
I don't think you are going to find much deals yet then you already have. Most places are charging about the same for professional CD duplication, and until the equipment costs come down considerably, you are not going to see them too much cheaper.
Good luck.
Ed
(by the way, the CD's you get from these places is the SAME KIND of CD like you buy in a music store, NOT a CDR. These CD's are far more robust and able to handle much more abuse. Plus, the hardware they use to copy your "master" you send them is usually very good. These CD's will usually sound better than what you can burn on your computers burner....)
CDRs are cheap. Anyone who is paying $1 or more a piece is getting ripped off.
Supermediastore.com offers generic (12X certified) CDRs for $16 for pack of 100. If you want higher quality, you can get 100 Imation CDRs - certified 24X - capable of 730MB audio data - for $40. Check out www.PriceWatch.com for good price comparison on all computer products. (Don't mean to sound like an endorsement)
Ben
-As far as getting good quality CD replication, there is a place for this, but there is also a place for cheaper stuff. I only need about 300-400 cds, and I can't afford to pay around $1000.
Supermediastore.com offers generic (12X certified) CDRs for $16 for pack of 100. If you want higher quality, you can get 100 Imation CDRs - certified 24X - capable of 730MB audio data - for $40. Check out www.PriceWatch.com for good price comparison on all computer products. (Don't mean to sound like an endorsement)
Ben
-As far as getting good quality CD replication, there is a place for this, but there is also a place for cheaper stuff. I only need about 300-400 cds, and I can't afford to pay around $1000.
mikemoritz
New member
check out fatratpress.com
peace and chicken grease,
Mike
peace and chicken grease,
Mike
sonusman
Banned
I somehow think you are not understanding what I have written.
The services you have looked at are not printing CDR's. CDR's totally different than the type of CD that duplication services that charge about $1 per disk make. Here is a "laymans" description of how these Audio CD's are constructed:
http://www.eil.com/explore/guide/cd_making.asp
Again, the disks you get from these duplicators are much better constructed than a CDR is, and will last MANY more years.
To try to compare the disks you get from professional duplicators to CDR's is like comparing paper towels to a bath towel essentially. They cost more because they are of much higher quality. CDR's are VERY sensitive to scratch's and even when stored in a controlled environment and never played, still only have around a 15 year shelf life for the data stored on them (that 15 years I am sure has a +/- value that varies by up to 50% depending on a number of factors).
So, you don't want to pay for 1000 CD's to be professional made, with their higher quality and longer shelf life, and usually much better sound? Cool, many duplicators offer shorter runs. But, don't expect as good of a deal in the price per disk category. I have found that the price does not drop much below about $2 per disk for short fun CDR's. I have seen it as high as $3.50 per disk for runs of 100. Again, you are paying for a SERVICE, and trying to compare that, with it's built in costs to what you could do it yourself for is, well, silly! I worked at a studio that had a 4 disk duplicator and can tell you that they are not that cheap!!! Throw in labor, material, and just plain old "keep the doors open" cost on top of that and you can start to understand why they charge what they do for short run CDR duplication. You have to keep a LOT of stock on hand, and many of these duplication machines only work well with certain types of media, which is not always as cheap as you find elsewhere.
Anyway. Sounds like you should just duplicate yourself. I am sure that you have seen about as cheap of a price as you are going to find already (I haven't seen prices nation wide vary much at all for this kind of service) and if you feel that is too expensive then probably the ONLY way you will do it for cheaper is to DIY. You can do that on a computer CDR burner at probably up to 8X speed. Let's say you have 40 minutes of music to duplicate. Cool! Only 5 minutes per disk. Let's see.....add in about 30 seconds in between burning disks to pull out the just burned one and put in a new one to burn and start the software (that is IF you are right there when the last burn ends....let's just go ahead and call it 1 minute) so that is really 6 minutes per disk....let's see....times 500 disks....Wow! 3000 minutes....divided by 60 minutes to figure out hours.....50 hours!!! A nice full time job for a week!
Let's see.....CDR's about .25 each. Jewel cases about .60 each (buy bulk!!!). Well, you got a $500 price tag just in materials alone!!!! Now, why don't you go ahead and pay yourself minimum wage for duplicating it..that is fair... What is it, $6.50 an hour now? Times 50 hours.....$325!!! So, we are at $835 for materials and your time. You only got 500 CDR's, which if you intend to sell to people, they probably won't be too happy that their CDR scratched so easily and doesn't play right in their car system...don't forget that oil on your hands from handling effects the LIFE of a CDR too!!! You also probably got a CDR with a higher number of BLE's (block rate errors......) which is furthered by dropout's that will probably happen when your happy buyer handles the disk, then drops it a few times....etc.......and you still didn't get any printing on the disk either!
Doesn't sound like much of a deal to me! But hey, if you got the time to do it yourself, you save that whole $325 in labor, and maybe you save $50 on materials. Get out those CD label stick on things and make sure that printer cartridge is new, and be VERY careful when you apply the stick on to the CDR so that you don't wrinkle it, or damage the disk in the process.
hmmmmmmm...you will probably have a few bad burns. Maybe a LOT of bad burns if your burner is a cheaper one. So, add maybe 5% in materials to account for this.
Oops....Forgot that you have to have a computer, a CDR burner, and software. Let's say that your burner can burn maybe 3000 disks in it's life (I don't have any figures as to how many they are capable of burning before they start to not burn right...could be a lot more, or a few less....I DO know that when I try to burn a lot of CDR's on mine, that I have to let the unit rest after about 5 burns. We had a discussion on here about a year ago about why that was....No concensus....But almost everybody who has tried high volume burning experienced this....) So, let's just throw in the price of a NEW burner so we can be assured that the thing will make it through this all week ordeal of burning 500 disks. I'll say $200 for an average burner. You are still up to almost $700 for materials, and with the above mentioned problems with quality.
Some of this post is assuming certain things I realize. I guess what I am trying to say is though that most of these duplication services are charging prices that are pretty fair! The DIY approach to so many units is really not practical if you are only going to do this maybe once a year or less. Also, if you are selling the product, I don't think CDR's are the way to go. It is more about providing a quality product that is in line with what customers expect when they buy a CD with music on it. Imagine the surprise of some people when they find that your CDR won't play in their CD player!!! Not everybody had a player that will play any CDR type, and do you want to take that chance?
I think just under $1 per disk for duplicating is a pretty fair price in light of all this. Most of these services will print orders of 500 too, but the price per unit goes up again for this.
Good luck.
Ed
The services you have looked at are not printing CDR's. CDR's totally different than the type of CD that duplication services that charge about $1 per disk make. Here is a "laymans" description of how these Audio CD's are constructed:
http://www.eil.com/explore/guide/cd_making.asp
Again, the disks you get from these duplicators are much better constructed than a CDR is, and will last MANY more years.
To try to compare the disks you get from professional duplicators to CDR's is like comparing paper towels to a bath towel essentially. They cost more because they are of much higher quality. CDR's are VERY sensitive to scratch's and even when stored in a controlled environment and never played, still only have around a 15 year shelf life for the data stored on them (that 15 years I am sure has a +/- value that varies by up to 50% depending on a number of factors).
So, you don't want to pay for 1000 CD's to be professional made, with their higher quality and longer shelf life, and usually much better sound? Cool, many duplicators offer shorter runs. But, don't expect as good of a deal in the price per disk category. I have found that the price does not drop much below about $2 per disk for short fun CDR's. I have seen it as high as $3.50 per disk for runs of 100. Again, you are paying for a SERVICE, and trying to compare that, with it's built in costs to what you could do it yourself for is, well, silly! I worked at a studio that had a 4 disk duplicator and can tell you that they are not that cheap!!! Throw in labor, material, and just plain old "keep the doors open" cost on top of that and you can start to understand why they charge what they do for short run CDR duplication. You have to keep a LOT of stock on hand, and many of these duplication machines only work well with certain types of media, which is not always as cheap as you find elsewhere.
Anyway. Sounds like you should just duplicate yourself. I am sure that you have seen about as cheap of a price as you are going to find already (I haven't seen prices nation wide vary much at all for this kind of service) and if you feel that is too expensive then probably the ONLY way you will do it for cheaper is to DIY. You can do that on a computer CDR burner at probably up to 8X speed. Let's say you have 40 minutes of music to duplicate. Cool! Only 5 minutes per disk. Let's see.....add in about 30 seconds in between burning disks to pull out the just burned one and put in a new one to burn and start the software (that is IF you are right there when the last burn ends....let's just go ahead and call it 1 minute) so that is really 6 minutes per disk....let's see....times 500 disks....Wow! 3000 minutes....divided by 60 minutes to figure out hours.....50 hours!!! A nice full time job for a week!
Let's see.....CDR's about .25 each. Jewel cases about .60 each (buy bulk!!!). Well, you got a $500 price tag just in materials alone!!!! Now, why don't you go ahead and pay yourself minimum wage for duplicating it..that is fair...
What is it, $6.50 an hour now? Times 50 hours.....$325!!! So, we are at $835 for materials and your time. You only got 500 CDR's, which if you intend to sell to people, they probably won't be too happy that their CDR scratched so easily and doesn't play right in their car system...don't forget that oil on your hands from handling effects the LIFE of a CDR too!!! You also probably got a CDR with a higher number of BLE's (block rate errors......) which is furthered by dropout's that will probably happen when your happy buyer handles the disk, then drops it a few times....etc.......and you still didn't get any printing on the disk either!Doesn't sound like much of a deal to me! But hey, if you got the time to do it yourself, you save that whole $325 in labor, and maybe you save $50 on materials. Get out those CD label stick on things and make sure that printer cartridge is new, and be VERY careful when you apply the stick on to the CDR so that you don't wrinkle it, or damage the disk in the process.
hmmmmmmm...you will probably have a few bad burns. Maybe a LOT of bad burns if your burner is a cheaper one. So, add maybe 5% in materials to account for this.
Oops....Forgot that you have to have a computer, a CDR burner, and software. Let's say that your burner can burn maybe 3000 disks in it's life (I don't have any figures as to how many they are capable of burning before they start to not burn right...could be a lot more, or a few less....I DO know that when I try to burn a lot of CDR's on mine, that I have to let the unit rest after about 5 burns. We had a discussion on here about a year ago about why that was....No concensus....But almost everybody who has tried high volume burning experienced this....) So, let's just throw in the price of a NEW burner so we can be assured that the thing will make it through this all week ordeal of burning 500 disks. I'll say $200 for an average burner. You are still up to almost $700 for materials, and with the above mentioned problems with quality.
Some of this post is assuming certain things I realize. I guess what I am trying to say is though that most of these duplication services are charging prices that are pretty fair! The DIY approach to so many units is really not practical if you are only going to do this maybe once a year or less. Also, if you are selling the product, I don't think CDR's are the way to go. It is more about providing a quality product that is in line with what customers expect when they buy a CD with music on it. Imagine the surprise of some people when they find that your CDR won't play in their CD player!!! Not everybody had a player that will play any CDR type, and do you want to take that chance?
I think just under $1 per disk for duplicating is a pretty fair price in light of all this. Most of these services will print orders of 500 too, but the price per unit goes up again for this.
Good luck.
Ed
Ed,
Thank you for the economics lesson. Luckily for all of us, people began moving away from DIY many thousands of years ago - instead specializing, and thus working much more efficiantly. Thank God we don't have to build our own computers or sound cards.
Someone with a CDR replicator (which run a few $K) can load a bunch of CDs into a magazine, tell it to start replicating, and then just leave it for awhile till it's done. The labeling can be similarly automated. I think i found someone who does runs of as little as 100 for $1.50 to a $1.75 a CD.
These CDs are intended for promotion - not sales. I was just looking for information - not a moral lesson.
Ben
Thank you for the economics lesson. Luckily for all of us, people began moving away from DIY many thousands of years ago - instead specializing, and thus working much more efficiantly. Thank God we don't have to build our own computers or sound cards.
Someone with a CDR replicator (which run a few $K) can load a bunch of CDs into a magazine, tell it to start replicating, and then just leave it for awhile till it's done. The labeling can be similarly automated. I think i found someone who does runs of as little as 100 for $1.50 to a $1.75 a CD.
These CDs are intended for promotion - not sales. I was just looking for information - not a moral lesson.
Ben
Clearly there are different levels of 'Do it yourself'. As you pointed out, printing 500 CDs yourself with a single burner is a waste of time (and doesn't save money).
Anyway, my problem with places like Oasis isn't the $1 per CD price tag. It's that you have to print at least a thousand to get this deal. But I fully understand that it is not worth their while to do smaller runs. That's why I am willing to settle for lower quality CDR type replication.
Anyway, my problem with places like Oasis isn't the $1 per CD price tag. It's that you have to print at least a thousand to get this deal. But I fully understand that it is not worth their while to do smaller runs. That's why I am willing to settle for lower quality CDR type replication.
Last edited:
Hi everyone, I found a place that does cheap replication on CDRs. They will do runs of as few as 50, and their prices are quite good. They will also do an inexpensive mastering of your CD if you want. This is great for Demos, small runs, ect. Here is the URL :
http://www.globaldisc.com/
http://www.globaldisc.com/
zip
New member
Well...
I agree with Ed...
I pay about $0.80 a piece for Mitsui CDR's in jewel cases. Believe it or not there IS A HUGE difference in CDR's when it relates to dye type and quality.
Ed - the only minor correction to your position is in shelf life. Under accelerated conditions it has been proven Mitsuis' (due to their proprietary dye, coating and exceptional manufacturing process) last about 100 years. That is ASSUMING you NEVER TOUCH the surface or scratch it.
So - ya wanna go cheap? Don't bitch when people call you complaining the CDR's skip in their car...
( because the error rate is too high for the reader )
A buck a piece is CHEAP FOR REAL CD's!!! Hell - 2 bucks is cheap!!!
zip >>
I agree with Ed...
I pay about $0.80 a piece for Mitsui CDR's in jewel cases. Believe it or not there IS A HUGE difference in CDR's when it relates to dye type and quality.
Ed - the only minor correction to your position is in shelf life. Under accelerated conditions it has been proven Mitsuis' (due to their proprietary dye, coating and exceptional manufacturing process) last about 100 years. That is ASSUMING you NEVER TOUCH the surface or scratch it.
So - ya wanna go cheap? Don't bitch when people call you complaining the CDR's skip in their car...
( because the error rate is too high for the reader )
A buck a piece is CHEAP FOR REAL CD's!!! Hell - 2 bucks is cheap!!!
zip >>
Here's the best place I found for true CD replication (not CDR). They have good deals for runs of as little as 500CDs. They also come highly recomended from some people I know.
http://www.cdsonic.com
Ther problem with the other place - globaldisc.com - is that they charge alot to do inserts.
http://www.cdsonic.com
Ther problem with the other place - globaldisc.com - is that they charge alot to do inserts.
MISTERQCUE
Not Just Anutha Brutha
Re: Well...
Yo' zip, not to undermine you, but how does any-1 know if Mitsui
c/d's last for 100 years when the c/d rec'ing process is only been out, what 30-35 years!!?? Just curious!
zip said:I agree with Ed...
I pay about $0.80 a piece for Mitsui CDR's in jewel cases. Believe it or not there IS A HUGE difference in CDR's when it relates to dye type and quality.
Ed - the only minor correction to your position is in shelf life. Under accelerated conditions it has been proven Mitsuis' (due to their proprietary dye, coating and exceptional manufacturing process) last about 100 years. That is ASSUMING you NEVER TOUCH the surface or scratch it.
So - ya wanna go cheap? Don't bitch when people call you complaining the CDR's skip in their car...
( because the error rate is too high for the reader )
A buck a piece is CHEAP FOR REAL CD's!!! Hell - 2 bucks is cheap!!!
zip >>
Yo' zip, not to undermine you, but how does any-1 know if Mitsui
c/d's last for 100 years when the c/d rec'ing process is only been out, what 30-35 years!!?? Just curious!
zip
New member
Misterqcue...
It called an accelerated stability program. We used them at my old job all the time to check the stability of hair care products.
Basically the products are put in a series of controlled environment constant temperature/humidity rooms. Not sure what they do for discs but for our products the temperatures ranged from 5C to 49C with an ambient control. Other samples were put in high and normal humidity rooms to simulate humidity conditions.
Over a period of years products are pulled out of the rooms and checked against standards for various attributes vs control products. After all the data is collected it is evaluated for differences via mathmatical calculations and the shelf life is predicted. This method is "industry standard" and is amazingly accurate.
Aren't you glad you asked??
zip >>
It called an accelerated stability program. We used them at my old job all the time to check the stability of hair care products.
Basically the products are put in a series of controlled environment constant temperature/humidity rooms. Not sure what they do for discs but for our products the temperatures ranged from 5C to 49C with an ambient control. Other samples were put in high and normal humidity rooms to simulate humidity conditions.
Over a period of years products are pulled out of the rooms and checked against standards for various attributes vs control products. After all the data is collected it is evaluated for differences via mathmatical calculations and the shelf life is predicted. This method is "industry standard" and is amazingly accurate.
Aren't you glad you asked??
zip >>
