Carefully Choosing A CD Manufacturing Company
Pressing your own CDs: what to check before choosing a duplication or manufacturing company.
From the archive. This post first appeared on the earlier music blog at this address and is kept as it was published, apart from the design. Names, prices and links may be out of date. All archive posts.
When it comes to choosing a CD duplication company to handle the pressing of your bands CD, be that an album, a single or simply a promo CD, you need to make sure you’re not only looking for the company who’ll offer you a great price but who will also deliver a fantastic service. Whilst you, of course, want to make sure you’re receiving the best price possible; you shouldn’t be solely driven on price when choosing a suitable company and should do a little bit of research before placing your order.
First things first; you need to do a bit of research into the company who you are considering. Take a look at their website and see if they have any testimonials from artists you recognise or from major record labels. If they’re undertaken work for ‘named’ artists and labels then there’s no doubting that they offer the quality you would expect and that you’re finished products will end up looking fantastic.
Once you’re confident that a company will be able to deliver the goods which they say they can; you need to obtain a quote. You should always be aware that the cost per disc will be significantly less as you order more units and, in many cases, there may not be much difference in price overall between 500 and 1,000 units due to a lower cost per unit. It’s standard economy of scale and it’s always worth purchasing as many as you can in order to take advantage of higher quantity discounts.
When it comes to pricing; try not to be driven solely on price. You’ve probably heard the saying ‘you get what you pay for’ and when it comes to budget CD manufacturing, it couldn’t be more true. A budget manufacturer will generally use much lower quality discs and you’ll often find that their reject rate within your order is much higher. It’s well worth paying that little bit more to an established and quality company who use the highest quality discs to ensure you get nothing but the finest quality.
All in all; shop around a little bit and do your research. It’ll mean that you end up with far superior products in the long run and you won’t be having to send out duplicates to your fans who’ve purchased a copy which doesn’t work!