duping CDs at home

Jack · March 2008

Hi all,

Just casting about for opinions about home CD duplicators like these. I'm thinking of investing in something to produce short-run releases and wonder if anyone has had experience with anything similar...this one is the bottom of the line, but it might be enough for what I've got in mind. Some of the more expensive ones have an integrated printer and some other bells and whistles, but I'm not sure I'd need them...

thanks,
Jack.

Bob Holo · March 2008

I've had a few friends face this issue and they've all opted to go with companies who do the whole thing for them (i.e., for a thousand bucks they'll burn a couple hundred CDs with silkscreened labels - and put them in jewel cases with a basic printed label and shrink wrap them)

However, the prices of these "DIY" burners keep on going down and the functionality just keeps going up. At some point they'll be worth it for people who are able and willing to do their own labels and stuff their own CD cases. At $500 we're either to that point or darned close. Oh, and another consideration is which type of CD label printer you want. I think you can get wax printers now that do a fairly decent job of printing simple professional looking labels on the CDs themselves - which look a lot better than sticky labels and/or inkjet labels. I don't know which printers are integrated with the highend burners so YMMV.

One thing is for sure, Jack - doing small runs of CDs on a normal PC is a PITA. I've done it before and hope never to do it again.

OK, break's over - back to work

Stackabones · March 2008

Do you think the burner prices are going down due to CD sales sloughing off? I still buy CDs, but everywhere you surf you read articles on the death of the CD.

:?:

hotclubofspokane · September 2008

I think as long as there are live shows, some kind of recorded media for sale at the show is going to survive.

In my opinion, a steady release of material in small doses is the best, particularly if you're doing a lot of local live music (but even if you're touring, I think this makes a lot of sense). You have something to sell at the show (perhaps an EP of 5 songs for $10), and you have a constantly growing catalogue of downloads online that folks can find via the label of your EP. Save money by going the cardboard sleeve route - most of your fans will go to your website to see photos of you, and youtube to see vids anyway, so no need for a highly produced, full color insert in a jewel case. CD rep companies often have deals on the sleeves ($890 per thousand in one catalogue, or 89 cents per disc, plus shipping).

Another option I've been spying: USB drives. Of course, you'd need a culture that is into bringing their own USB drive to your gig. However, if you have the cash to buy one of those multi drive copiers, you can have 10 going at once, and people have your mp3s and photos put directly onto their own storage device (anything that plugs into a USB port). No need to replicate CDs at all with this option, and you still have something to sell at your live show. But again, this all depends on your guests actually bringing a USB drive to your event.

If you have a few extra cell phone USB cables on hand, I suppose you could copy your EP or album or whatever onto the portable memory of a cellphone, too. That might actually be the ticket, since almost everyone has a cell phone with mp3 capabilities nowadays, or will soon.

Just a few random thoughts. I did one run of 300 diy CDs and that was enough for me. At this point, I would rather not have a CD to sell than go thru all the labor and headache of putting them together myself. I have other more valuable ways to spend my time, and I definitely need the practice on my guitar...