$15 for a bar code? Don’t be fooled. This isn’t YOUR bar code. It’s someone else’s. Your own REAL bar code is going to cost you around $750.
Soundscan
Record stores ’scan’ the bar codes when they sell records. A firm called “Soundscan” tracks the sales of the records. Companies who “loan” their bar code to you for cheap, may be getting credited for sales when your record is scanned with their bar code.
We have to deal with all sorts of messed up graphics files when people submit their artwork. One drawback to the do-it-yourself era of computers, is that people try to do their own artwork who have no idea what they’re doing and what programs to use. In their efforts to save money they either end up with a horrible looking product, or end up having to pay a real graphics professional to fix or redo their job.
Our best advise is to hire a pro if you don’t know what you are doing or haven’t designed CD/DVD artwork before.
Programs which you should NOT use to create your CD/DVD artwork
Recommended programs for creating CD/DVD artwork
Duplication & Replication - Whats the difference?
Many people use the two terms Duplication & Replication interchangeably. However, in the world of Disc-Media they are two very different processes. The purposes of both processes are similar in the fact that they are used to put data, video, or audio onto a disc.
In general terms, CD Duplication (a.k.a. Burning) is a process where lasers “burn” pits into a dye that is manufactured inside the disc. Burning is the process used by the drives in virtually every home or work computer used today. CD Replication on the other hand, is an injection molded manufacturing process that makes use of a “glass master” and stamps the image (’pits’, read as zeros and ones for data or ‘waves’ for video and audio) into the extruded poly.
So what does this mean to the person tasked with publishing content onto a disc? What do they need to consider? The primary differences between these two processes comes down to the efficiencies each process has at various volumes.
Because of the extensive project-start-up-costs and the low per-unit-cost of replication, this process is most efficient (and therefore economical) at volumes of 1000 units or more. In contrast duplication has a very low project-start-up-cost and a somewhat higher per-unit-cost. So Burning is most efficient (and therefore economical) at volumes below 1000 units.
There is a transition period from 700 units to 1500 units where either process will cost roughly the same depending on other factors such as turn around time.
Welcome to the first Speedisc blog post. This blog is intended to be a resource for people who need information on CD/DVD duplication, replication, packaging, graphic desing, print etc.
I’ll be posting information regularly so check back soon!