Putting out a split

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Scrubucket7

Scrubucket7

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Pretty soon my band, and my girlfriends band are going to be recording a split cd, and we figured it would be cheaper to duplicate ourselves rather than having a company do it for us. We only want to make 200 copies of it, so i was wondering what everyone would recommend to me. How i would do it, what i would use..ect. I already did the artwork and i plan on doing everything black and white. I figure i can just get copies made at office max on matt paper for about $.12 a copy or something. Then ill just cut it out myself (along with the help of about 7 other people) Ill also buy some of those high gloss cd labels and put those on the cd, along with buying white cd-r's and cd cases. Tell me if you think i have this whole thing covered or if theirs any other more cost effecient methods of doing this. thanks - kevin
 
John & Yoko: Double Fantasy!

So,... who's gonna be John & who's gonna be Yoko? ;)
 
Well if you are just making cdrs you may want to go with a different way. Where you planning on duplicating the cds yourself too? With discfaktory you can get cdrs with the little insert and printing on the cds. You have to consider you time in this all too. Plus if you were going to print the cd lables consider the price of ink cartridges. Just suggestions.
 
Stick-on CD labels are horrible......... first off, they change the balance of the CD, often causing the CD to become unreadable by some machines.... or worst, the labels often come off and jam inside the CD player - particularly car players, where the top of the CD sruface usually comes in slight contact with the CD slot....

You should really consider getting them duplicated by a Duplication House..........
 
I'll add,...

I've found sometimes that heavily ink-printed cd labels may corrupt the cdr data emulsion below,... after about a year's time. Something I've seen a few times. :eek:
 
Spend the extra couple dollers to make a decent prodect - read this post for more info -

http://www.homerecording.com/bbs/showthread.php?t=161858

Remember this old but ever so true saying: You never get a second chance to make a first impression.

What you hand out today is what they'll see in you tomorrow. If you give them a cheap crappy CD with stick-on lables (Which will bleed and fade if they get wet or left in sun) then they'll see you as not serious enough to spend a little extra to get it done right.

The artwork could be worthy of the Louvre in France, but if the canvas is toilet paper it won't see the walls... if you catch my drift.

And just a note here: A few years ago I have a CD with a sticky lable a friend gave me tear my drive head off my CD Reader - those disks spin at like 1500rpm if the label's starting to dry out the wind can cause it to fly up and grab everything in it's wake. Since then nothing with a sticky lable goes in ANY of my drives. I'm sure I'm not the only one this has happened to....

- Tanlith -
 
You might be suprised how long it takes to duplicate 200 cds and how boring it can be! Say it takes 5 minutes to burn a cd (I know it's probably faster). At 200, that's roughly 1,000 minutes or 16 plus hours. And that doesn't include the time you spend cuttingand folding inserts. Duplicating your own project works well for small quantities (10-20) and you can do some really creative things with artwork, packaging, etc. But for 200? You might have more fun getting a job at McDonalds!

Regarding cd labels, my vote goes with the previous posts. I would round up some cash from your bandmates and splurge for some pre-printed cdrs. Take a look at Mixonic.com. They do short print runs using high resolution inkjet printers and a lamination process that makes the disk basically waterproof and scratchproof. (I can vouch for their durability since I've tried to scratch and submerge their disks!). The cost is not cheap (about 1.78 per disk,black and white and 2.38 for full color @ 100-249 total disks) but it's much less than screen printing and their are no setup costs.
 
Maybe you could even name your album after one of the 5 Inch designs like 75 degree template (see attached jpg)
 

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I get pissed after 10 or so. You really do not want to do 200.
It took me hours to do 30. That includes burning the CD, printing on the CD, printing the two sided jewel case inserts, assembling the jewel cases and "shrink" bagging the bastards.
I'd send out for them.
 
ok, here is what i have to say -- and i openly admit that i differ with most folk here yet my experience is limited!!!

i recently came upon the same cross to bear --

finished up a few songs that I want to get out there so people will knwo me a little. i decided to do it myself @ home.

so, i did the following:

1. designed my label and cd cover (which was "fun" for me, so i didnt mind how much time it took)
2. saved this document onto jump drive and took it to work, where i made 100 copies of it and a flyer (which minimized my cost)
3. burned 100 cds at home this way: i burned 50 and my "partner" burned 50 -- in a days time we were finished. yes this took a while, but i figured: start early in the morning, set up the computer to run automatically -- every 3- 5 minutes i popped inthe room and put in 3 more cds (i have 2 cd burners on my desktop n 1 on a laptop)
4. cut out the jewel cases, labels between me n my partner
5. ready to hit the streets so to speak

**i especially "lucked up" in that i chose a weekend where the weather was horrible, so i wasnt gonna miss too much "outdoor activity"

personally, i have been buying "unknown" artist's cds for several years. i have not had any problems with artists whose cds are cdr, stickyfaced.

HOWEVER, I CAN SEE EVERYONE'S POINTS ABOUT OUTSIDE DUPLICATORS AND CUSTOMER PERCEPTION. MYTHING IS: I BUY CDS BECAUSE I AM CURIOUS ABOUT AN ARITST'S MUSIC. IF I LIKE WHAT I HEAR, I GIVE A SHI-T IF IT IS ON THE MOST PROFESIONAL CD MEDIA. FOR ME, I WOULD HAVE THOSE EXPECATIONS ONLY IF I SEE THAT THE ARTIST HAS BEEN PUTTIN OUT CDS FOR SOME TIME, IS DOING SHOWS, ETC.

I DONT EXPECT AN UNSIGNED, INDEPENDENT, RELATIVELY NEW ARTIST (SOLO, GROUP, BAND, HIP HOP, R N B, ROCK, ETC.) TO HAVE EVERY DAMM THING LINED UP BEFORE THEY STEP OUT INTO THE WORLD AS AN ARTIST WITH A SONG TO SING!!!!

HONESTLY, I HATE FOLK WHO HAVE UNREALISTIC EXPECTATIONS LIKE THAT. THOSE ARE THE "CD BUYERS" WHO PHUCK UP THE MUSIC GAME

you now have permission to hate me!!!
 
i recommend SNS digital for cdr's they have multiple options for a package... my band only got 110 printed for $99... includes jewel/slimline case and thermal print on the cd...

then you just print out some covers and blam.. you have a nice looking cd for cheap!!

i think cost wise it is very effective, plus thermal print looks a lot better than stick-on labels.

i agree with gullyjewelz... in that its all about the music getting out there, but a nice looking/low cost package can sweeten the sales

gl
 
Here is a plan:

Step One:
PUt two songs on 100 cds and sell them for $1.00 - $2.00
Step Two:
Take the $ from these to purchase the SNS DIGITAL $99 PACKAGE (now you can put 5+ songs on this package and sell for more $ . . . $2.00 - $5.00 even
Step Three
Put these "more professional" copies into a few stores and sell "hand to hand . . where u can"

Feel Free to shoot holes in this plan!!!!!!
 
thanks for all the advise everyone...we decided were gunna only do 100 cd's for now. I have 3 burners at my house, and like, 5 other people with cd burners, so that wont be a problem. All the cd label packages say "100% safe bla bla bla" and i have never had a problem with a cd with a sticky label on it.
The other thing is, proffessional look doesnt matter at all, its punk music, we like to do things DIY but i do plan on checking out some of the places you guys listed because im a pretty lazy guy. (but then again im a pretty poor guy, i wonder if those two work in tandem) anyways...thanks again for all the advice, and ill let you know what i chose to do (it will mostly be based on price seeing as we dont really care about the look yet, well save that for later in our bands "career")
 
I see you pretty much made up your mind, but I feel I have to throw in my two cents from experience. A few years ago me and my buddy decided we were gonna put out a crappy little album and do everything ourselves and yada yada yada. When the time came to figure out how, we crunched some numbers and realized that it was actually cheaper to get them made by a duplication company short run (100 cd's at first). I designed all the artwork myself and sent it in and in two weeks we had a pretty damn good looking album. We sold the first 100 in two days for $5 a piece, so after costs ($250 I think) we had profited $250! We ordered 200 more using out profits plus a credit card and within 2 weeks, BAM, we had sold them and were now $750 above the red. This went on for about another 6 weeks until I moved away and never got back into the swing of things alone (my buddy was the aggressive salesman), but from experience, If you plan on selling the cd's, it is definitely worth getting them made professionally.

Also, if you design it right, you can get them professionally duplicated to look like you DIY. I may be weird, but I'd much rather buy a nice looking shrink wrapped album than a homemade one. Plus if you go through a company, most offer free barcodes which comes in handy if you plan to sell them in stores.

I'd run it by your bandmates to see what they think. If you all chip in it'll be dirt cheap for each of you for what you get.

Hope this helps,

-Springfield
 
DIY is fine, however.....DO NOT USE STICKY LABELS!

I have had three disks get stuck in my cars stereo this way. Trust me, "tweezering" them out is not fun.
 
yea i've had to unjam so many cds from my friends cd players. sticky labels are an absolutely terrible idea.

check out www.furnacecd.com, lots of punk labels use them
 
hm furnace just changed their site.. its kind of confusing now. last month they were pretty much the cheapest out there, especially if you want some sort of silkscreened design on the actual cd
 
treymonfauntre said:
hm furnace just changed their site.. its kind of confusing now. last month they were pretty much the cheapest out there, especially if you want some sort of silkscreened design on the actual cd
Click to expand...
All right, I don't really want to go through their whole quote process right now. Can you tell me what the prices were for about 100-200 discs with a single insert (jewel case) with a black and white disc? If you have any idea about any of that stuff I would really appreiciate it. Thanks a lot!
 
I wouldn't do it on your own, especially with the number of companies who do shortrun stuff now. www.diskfaktory.com comes to mind...

Spend your time making music, not manufacturing it. That can easily be hired out.
 
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