Burning CDs from your desktop computer can be leaned in less than 5 minutes. Heck, almost anybody can do it! Aside from that, the prices of CD duplication equipment (aka CD burners) are also going down, down, down that almost anybody can buy it. Buy some cheap CDs and cases, borrow a decent printer, you’re good to go. Or…you’re bad to go. LOL.
If you think doing it yourself is that easy and is the wisest thing to do, how come there are still CD duplication houses? There must be a reason aside from mere convenience. There must be a reason professional artists seek professional CD duplication companies to make their CDs. There must be some things that their machines do that your friendly desktop burner can’t.
I’ve seen so many new indie artists do it to cut expenses and they regret it in the end. If you really, really want to make copies of your album at home, be prepared to:
1. Spend lots of time waiting. Yes, you should wait for each disc to burn successfully so you can take out the disc and replace it with a blank CD. If you need to make 500 copies, then you wait and do that boring routine 500 times. I’m telling you, it’s not easy especially if you’re in a rush and you’re the impatient type. So if you have a tight schedule (and you’ve announced the release date of your album), better let the pros do it.
2. Do lots of research. You’ll encounter lots of issues and you will surely have lots of questions while burning your discs and printing your CD cover. No amount of reading can replace the experience of those who are doing it day in and day out. If you work with a CD duplication company, you need not do much research since they already know what they’re doing.
3. Spend more. You read that right. Why? Because you’ll just buy a few number of discs and other materials, the price per item is higher compared to what CD manufacturers get. And of course, you have to buy good-quality printers and burners which are rather expensive especially if you want to achieve pro quality. And the reason you wanted to do this at home in the first place is so you can save a few hundreds of dollars? Ha.
4. Feel anxious because you have no guarantee on quality. CD duplication companies, especially the more popular ones, give their best service to every client because their reputation is at stake. They have a team who will check each of the discs, cases, and artwork so they won’t be shipping bad goods. One bad disc could mean one bad review. If you’re burning your discs at home, then there is no assurance that all of the discs and CD covers are good unless maybe, if you play each disc and check for errors and pay someone to make sure the CD artwork is trimmed perfectly.
5. Have no time to do CD promotion. Making 1000 copies of your CD at home will leave you exhausted that you will have no time to do online and offline CD promotion. But isn’t this the crucial time for marketing your disc- just when you’re about to release it? Spend your energies (and all your time) in marketing your album. Doing the dirty work just to save a few cents is not the best way to become a successful artist. Let others do it for you so you’ll have time to do what you’re supposed to do.
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