Alexbt said:
Our album was duplicated on high-quality silver CD-Rs. They're indistinguishable from pressed CDs and a fraction of the price.
They can't (quite) be indistinguishable. By definition, a CD-R has some extra data encoded into the inner portion of the disc that tell players that it is rewritable media, indicate the track width (I think), etc.
You can also tell by reading the human-readable text printed on the solid silver flood just outside the clear plastic center portion of the disc. CD-Rs will always be identified as such, along with a company name and (generally) lot information so that defect reports can make it back to the manufacturer of the materials.
That said, probably a third of all computer software sold comes on CD-R, so you're definitely in good company. I'm curious about the comment about them being a fraction of the price, though. Last time I checked, the price for 500 burned CD-Rs was about two-thirds of the cost of 1000 pressed. Per unit, it's not so good, or at least it wasn't a year ago. Prices do change, though, so I could be wrong.
Of course, if all you want is 200, you can't do pressed media anyway, so it's a bit of a moot point. (Most stamping factories won't touch anything under a lot of 1000, though a few will do 500, IIRC. The reverse is also true; good luck finding a duplicating company that will do over 500.)
