Question about CD Duplication? Outsource or DIY?

[MK25toLife]

I want to press up 1000 CDs and found a very reasonable price of $600. On the other hand, I was also thinking about buying a burner for $1800 and taking the DIY approach.

I'm really concerned about spending that much on a burner and the extra costs involved such as CD, ink and sleeves. However, if I decided I wanted to print more than 3000 CDs, the burner would probably save me money in the long run, but take up way more time and be way more of a hassle. What are your thoughts?

[ianbryn11]

depends on how many and how easy you want it... Ive burned cd's on my laptop... 30 at a time before gigs or events or whatever.... Print sleeves, put them in the plastic sheets... write the name of the cd on the cd using sharpies.... (usually to scribbly to actually read.....) Its pretty time consuming.... But its cheep...

If your time is worth more than what you can make back in the time spent to do it yourself.... then maybee get em printed and have a cup of cofffeee....

In general, this is one of the reasons why i chose to go mainly digital distribution....

[Johns]

It's very time consuming. $600 is a good price if you can confirm the quality is there.

[Strut78]

Hi, I Just thought I would share my experiences as I run a mastering studio but also actively release CD's with my own bands.

There is a fairly big difference between pressing CD's and burning CD's. If you are looking at producing 500 or more you really should have it pressed from a good quality controlled master disc or DDP image, This is one of the reasons mastering studios exist.

Burning can lead to an incompatibility with some players and can introduce errors into data. I have had many situations where clients have burnt CD's themselves and found that they wouldn't play in many CD players, the ones at radio stations seem to be on of the worst culprits here.

On the other hand if you press a CD from a quality master, you have the quality control applied to the disc at the mastering studio and then again at the manufacturing stage, which can ensure that your CD's are a high quality copy and very rarely have any problems playing.

If you are selling your CD, it really is worthwhile ensuring that what you are selling will play, otherwise you may waste more time sorting out problems with your customers.

[uncle duncan]

In other words, getting a run of 1000 from a duplicating place means they're stamped on a machine. Getting a smaller run means they're burned by a burner. As the above post notes, burned CD's are much less reliable than stamped CD's.

[Roland]

At $600 I doubt they are pressed (replicated) CD's.

The issues with burnt (i.e. produced from recordable) CD's range from poor quality blanks, high levels of BLER (block error rates) to the fact that some players have trouble tracking them. Add in the factor that the coatings do break down over time, particularly if exposed to intense light/sunlight (ie. not put away in a case).

If you plan to sell your product for money, I think that you should spend the extra and get it properly done, complete with correctly printed booklet, not some cheap laser copy and on-body inkjet print. If it's a freebee, then whatever is cheaper, unless you think it's going to compromise your image, only you can decide that.

Regards


Roland

[24-96 Mastering]

Originally Posted by MK25toLife

I want to press up 1000 CDs and found a very reasonable price of $600. On the other hand, I was also thinking about buying a burner for $1800 and taking the DIY approach.

I'm really concerned about spending that much on a burner and the extra costs involved such as CD, ink and sleeves. However, if I decided I wanted to print more than 3000 CDs, the burner would probably save me money in the long run, but take up way more time and be way more of a hassle. What are your thoughts?

Unless you're looking for a new hobby (to replace an existing one), don't do DIY. It takes significantly more effort and produces more cost than most assume.

[therealbigd]

Originally Posted by Roland

At $600 I doubt they are pressed (replicated) CD's.

At 1000 units, relicated is usually cheaper.

That said, as you've said, if the OP is going to sell these to people, they need to be of a good quality. I would expect to spend closer to $1000 on a decent run of replicated CDs.

If they're demos, it's even more important. Label / publisher / promoters' offices receive so many demos that if it doesn't play first time, it'll get binned straight away!

[MK25toLife]

Great thank you for everyone's input. I think I will be taking the outsourcing route. What are some of the key questions I should be asking to ensure that the quality of the CD's is up to par?

Here is a link to the company and the deal I found, would love to get your thoughts: Get Pricing for CD Duplication, CDs in paper sleeves with window

[Roland]

Originally Posted by therealbigd

At 1000 units, relicated is usually cheaper.

That said, as you've said, if the OP is going to sell these to people, they need to be of a good quality. I would expect to spend closer to $1000 on a decent run of replicated CDs.

If they're demos, it's even more important. Label / publisher / promoters' offices receive so many demos that if it doesn't play first time, it'll get binned straight away!

A good trade price (if you have an ongoing deal with a plant) would be around $800, I assumed that because he was talking $600 it had to be CDR's as plant's margins these days are very tight, it costs a plant around $150 to produce a stamper then there are all the other costs involved in printing, plating, packaging and of course the all important elements of labour and profit. There are those that will produce CDR's for less money, blanks can be had for around $0.30 a unit, if there is no print or packaging involved $600 is doable.

Roland