CD duplication services

T

Teach

New member
So, I'm finally going to try to get my music on CD and want some input about CD duplication services. Anyone have good/bad experiences with some internet-advertised companies?

Also - wondering how much better the CD would look with photos printed instead of just the song titles? Is it worth the extra $? Had a friend who did a CD of his classical guitar playing and he just went all B/W.....later regretted it and wished he had at least gone color.

Any tips or ideas????

ALSO - does everyone just sell their CD's on their own? I mean, when do you need to look at doing things as a "business"?
 
Teach said:
Also - wondering how much better the CD would look with photos printed instead of just the song titles? Is it worth the extra $? Had a friend who did a CD of his classical guitar playing and he just went all B/W.....later regretted it and wished he had at least gone color.

Any tips or ideas????
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I wouldn't worry so much about photos or mulicolor as much as I would worry about good design. Two fonts max (not including the actual logo) is something people hate to abide by, but things always look amiturish when there is a different font for evey letter on the damn CD. :D Another thing people screw up is space. Don't try to cram too much onto the CD. Less is more. Just a logo or a picture can speak wonders. Put song titles if you want, but you don't need to fill the whole space available. It just has to be balanced.






Teach said:
when do you need to look at doing things as a "business"?
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The second money is involved. :D
 
As far as duplication services, everybody who posts will likely suggest a different company. I've always worked with Disc Makers and will probably continue dealing with them simply because they're a full-service company and will "hold your hand" and correct anything in your graphic layout that's out of spec, and they offer an in-house mastering facility which, at least in my case, worked out pretty well (and is very inexpensive). Some of the other companies that offer cheaper duplication don't provide the same level of service (i.e. babysitting) and expect everything you provide them with to be totally up to spec and ready to go. That's fine if you work with a professional graphic designer and outside mastering facility....just depends on how you want to work.

http://www.rationalpunk.com
 
look through your cd collection and see what's simple and what works. Simple can be quite elegant of done right. the full color printing on the disc is nice but might not be necessary to get your point across. My favorite indie cd print job was a local band who made the front look like a record 78 label.

As for companies...there are a gazillion on the net. keep in mind barcoding if you're planning on retailing your product or not. most respectable places will have a package in which this is included.

Also keep in mind most smaller compaines will only duplicate onto cd-r....this use to be a problem years ago when most cd players wouldn't play cd-r discs so be aware of how they duplicate your product.

just my 2 cents worth.....good luck
 
When we were checking out these services, we looked into Oasis http://oasiscd.com/ which seemed like a very good company. By the time we were ready to give it a go the band had broken apart and everyone lived in different cities.
 
My company offers CD manufacturing assistance for bands who need someone to help them walk through it. We help for no charge, and work with a number of CD manufacturing companies to get a fair price. I have experience as a sales rep for a major CD manufacturing company, and would gladly help out anyone with these questions.

Email me at info@diymastering.com and we'll chat it up!
 
follow-up

Thanks for all the suggestions! Here's what ended up happening: Had friend in St. Louis who "sold" a bunch of CD's by letting lots of friends hear the copy I burned for her as a b-day present. Her friends all wanted them for Christmas presents, so I made the decision to get them done fast. A guy up in Moberly burns and prints labels on CD's in bulk, so I just had him do 100 CD's. Then, I bought the Avery jewel case inserts (I know, kinda expensive!) and with their software designed and printed the tray card and insert. Including the printer ink, jewel cases, tray cards/inserts, CD duplication, I figure the CD's cost me about $3.00 each. Of course that doesn't include assembly labor and studio time!!!!! A definite problem is the slowness of printing the tray cards/inserts on my printer!

Anyway - sold the first 100 and had my St. Louis friend really pressing for more (I should hire her as my sales manager)! So, I did another 150 and have about 1/2 of those sold. Now that Christmas is past, I'm sure things will slow down. I have talked with the local Christian bookstore owner (a friend of mine) about selling the CD and she wants to have me be a "featured guest" at the store one day in Jan. I guess it would be like an author signing copies of their book!?!

I thought it was best to start small and see what happens. If I end up needing more than what I have done, I think I would get one of the professional companies to do it from here.

Again, thanks for all the suggestions - I checked out several different ideas/companies and found everyone very helpful! We'll see what happens with things from here.
 
Oh, BTW - I went ahead and did all the business stuff - got registered with the State Dept. of Revenue to get a tax ID, got the local business license, etc. With the tax ID, I could buy the supplies (Jewel cases, etc.) and not have to pay tax since they were for resale. Plus, I figured that if you're going to do it, you ought to do it right!
 
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