Quality graphic design is expensive and can be time consuming. Thats why we at CD Duplication Ireland offer this service free of charge. In fact we are the only cd manufacturing company that design your album or single artwork free of charge.
In order for us to re-create your unique design we will require the following
1) Choose what you want designed.... Supply High resolution pictures and indicate what your cover picture should be etc
2) Write the design brief... any specific details - type of font to be used etc
3) Email us your track listing / credits and make sure spellings are correct
There is are quite a few good reasons as to buy your music on cd or vinyl, one in particular is quality but here is interesting article published just this week by cnet - which debates this issue...its definitely food for thought
The fact is, no one has to buy recorded music any more. Most of it is available when and where you want it on YouTube for free. You could also pay for a Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, or whatever subscription. It's basically a rental, which is really convenient, but also has its downsides.
Based on my very unscientific polling on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, the folks who buy and collect music are more likely to spend time listening without multitasking. That makes sense to me -- they loved the music enough to buy an LP, CD or download, so their interest was more than casual. They have a deeper connection with music.
Another reason to buy music on LP, CD, or Bandcamp is to support, financially, the bands you love. Many of the collectors who talked to me are adamant in their beliefs that subscription services are cheating artists.
Rock icon Peter Frampton, for example, isn't exactly cleaning up with streaming services. He tweeted this in August of this year: "For 55 million streams of, 'Baby I Love Your Way', I got $1,700. I went to Washington with ASCAP [American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers] last year to talk to law makers about this. Their jaws dropped and they asked me to repeat that for them." A lot of musicians and composers feel cheated by the subscription companies.
Another collector reinforced that point. "As a musician, it's a huge difference between what we make from the sale of a CD, or even a download, let alone vinyl, versus a subscription, which is streaming. The difference is an order of magnitude. If you want to support an artist, buy the physical media, or buy an actual download, preferably from their website or Bandcamp."
In 2018 bands still record music, but its prime function is to promote the band for live shows, which are generally more lucrative. If they're not famous, they probably have little or no expectation of making much income from recorded music. So they record less and less. The band's legacy isn't what it could be.
Another friend tweeted, "I still own the first CDs I bought back in 1992. With streaming, your favorite recording might be deleted overnight. CDs allow you to decide exactly how to build up your library. With streaming you must wait for the service to make a deal with a label, which might never happen."
Someone else said, "...it really comes down to a sense of physical permanency, a footprint of my musical history. That being said my listening now encompasses digital download and streaming as well as CD/vinyl."
When you stop paying for your music subscription, you have nothing. Buying a worthwhile music collection has intrinsic, lasting value. Many of my LPs and CDs are worth many times more than I paid for them. Think about it, a $10-a-month subscription adds up to a $120 a year, in five years that's $600! You could have bought a lot of music with $600.
No doubt subscriptions make sense for a lot of people, but if you really love music enough to see it as something you want to have a long term relationship with, consider buying it. You also get the added benefit of supporting the bands you love by buying a piece of their recorded legacy
1. Don’t print lyrics unless you have sufficient space
Are you thinking of cramming the lyrics to 12 songs onto a four-panel digipack? Where are you going to put the album credits, copyright info, and crowdfunding thank-yous? Who’s going to be able to read that tiny font anyway? Lyrics in the album packaging are great – if you can read them.
2. Don't include social media URLs
Remember when everyone put their MySpace addresses in their album art? How 2005! Social media sites come and go. Even Facebook may soon be yesterday's news. So, consider not putting your social media URLs in your album art. It'll date you. Instead, you absolutely should put your own website's URL in the album art. That will never go out of style; your web address is eternal.
3. Envision your album cover as a thumbnail
The majority of people who encounter your album will do so online. They’ll see a smaller version on digital music platforms like iTunes, Spotify, and Amazon, or on review sites and blogs. Often it will appear as small as a thumbnail. Before you commit to an album cover design, shrink it way down. Does it still capture your attention? If so, you’ve got a winner. If not, try a different approach for your album cover.
4. You might not need your artist name or album title on the cover
Conversely, because most people will see the album online (where retail stores, blogs, and review sites will display your artist name and album title next to the cover), it's less important that your band name and album title appear in bold on the cover art – though that approach worked wonders for The Black Keys. In fact, you might not need them there at all, especially if your CD or vinyl package comes with a sticker on the shrinkwrap that does have your artist and album name. You can let the internet (and that sticker on the packaging) do the magic of conveying the facts, and then use that extra visual space for some great design.
5. Design in CMYK and not RGB
A big no no is design your artwork in RGB. CMYK is the print format that should be applied to all cd / vinyl artwork - we have more on this on our blog.
6. Get your fans to interact with you online
Putting your website address in your CD booklet is fine (and you totally should do that, of course), but if you can offer a little something extra, you'll increase the chances that someone who bought your album will go online and check out your site. Make sure the text in your album art mentions that visitors to your website will get access to an exclusive download, essay, PDF, etc. – in exchange for an email address.
7. Album covers with faces get more attention
We don’t really have any hard data to back up this claim (though it'd be interesting to look into), but for many of us at CD Baby who see hundreds of new album submissions every day, it seems like album covers that feature actual human faces draw more attention to themselves than ones that have... something else. Maybe it's just that feeling of personal connection which comes from seeing someone's eyes, or that you can get an instantaneous sense of the artist's musical style and aesthetic based on his or her fashion, posture, the setting of the photo, etc. But something about those covers (when done well) seem more immediate and engaging.
8. If you’re not going to feature a human face, make sure your design is striking and original
Your album design shouldn't just look cool. It should convey something about your musical style and even your personal beliefs. For a great example of a record that breaks the rules and sends a message with its album art, check out Aphex Twin’s Syro, where the cover shows an itemized list of every expense that went into creating and marketing the record (instrument costs, promotional meet-and-greets, advertising, etc.).
9. Minimalism is in
This is probably related to number three and number four above, but the starker the image, the more it seems to capture our attention. Maybe the modern sensibility is, "Things'll get shrunk, so things should stay simple." After all, it'd be really difficult to make out all the faces on the cover of Sgt. Pepper’s when reduced to a thumbnail.
10. Print your artist and album name clearly on the spine
Imagine your CD is sitting on the shelves of a radio station library. Can you find the disc among all those other albums? Many DJs are still heavily reliant on CDs, and they need to be able to pull your disc off the shelves quickly. It's for this very reason that many stations don’t even accept albums sent to them in thin sleeve packaging. So if you’re serious about a radio promotion campaign, you should consider packaging your CDs in digipacks or jewel cases, and then be sure that the writing on the spine is big, bold, and highly legible.
MP3 is a file format. It is a digital object which contains data. That data can be read by a program and interpreted as music, speech, or other sound. Fun! There are many different files which can store sound, each with its own respective parameters, strengths, and weaknesses. MP3 is among the most common because it is compatible with many different programs, it compromises fidelity and quality for speed and size-efficiency, and it is a generalized tool rather than a specific one (meaning it is useful in more places for more people and thus proliferates). MP3s, like many other audio formats, can be put on a CD, whether for storage or playback.
CD is a physical format. It is a physical medium (an optical disc, to be more detailed) that stores digital data which can be read by a device and interpreted as all sorts of things. This commonly means programs (games, antivirus suites, graphic design utilities, music or video, etc), but nearly any sort of file can be written to a CD—text documents, pictures, proprietary work project files, business card information, and so forth. In some ways, it is like a tiny portable hard drive, unlike MP3 which is a way of organizing information in a self-contained way on something like a hard drive.
Audio CD is a CD (physical medium) which is designed for audio, or is pressed or burned with audio data. Formally released audio CDs will generally meet particular industry standards, ones which surpass your run-of-the-mill blank CDs. Those blank CDs can also be burned with audio data and play similarly to CDs which were pressed by a factory, but most burning processes will not follow the same exacting standards of professionally created audio CDs. The term “audio CD” is often useful in situations where multiple kinds of discs or disc content are included in a product or it is not clear what form certain content will be taking.
So, digital files and physical formats are different because they are different kinds of technologies serving different purposes. They are related insofar as they can work together for us to meet particular goals, like playing some music while driving, but they are independent tools and different types of objects.
Audio CDs are a particular kind or use of CDs. Sometimes it means that the disc is a special kind of disc which is designed for or mostly limited to burning audio, other times it simply indicates that a disc contains audio (as opposed to video, a program, or other data).
One final thing to mention is that audio CDs should contain lossless audio sources (usually burned as WAV files)—putting MP3s on a CD means you are losing out on quality and versatility. If MP3s are all you have, you can still put them on a CD, whether for archiving or to make a playable disc, but it is better to get the original files or highest quality copies desired when putting audio on a CD. This is particularly true if you are wanting to play something through a speaker system, sell a product, or share audio files with someone who will be using them for something more than just listening (such as composing music or doing forensic analysis).
The compact disc is a miracle of modern technology. Here are some facts:
They are made principally of injection-moulded polycarbonate.
The diameter is 120mm.
They are 1.2mm thick.
They contain up to 680 megabytes of data. This is the equivalent of 250,000 double-sided leaves (500,000 pages) of A4 text (which would be 83 feet high and need 8 trees to make).
The music on a CD is imprinted in the form of pits of varying length on a spiral track 3.52 miles (5.66 kilometres) long.
There are approximately 16,000,000,000 pits 0.11 micro-metres deep.
The largest pit dimension is 3.054 microns; the smallest is 0.833 microns.
The width of the pits is half a micron -- which is the distance a human hair grows in two minutes and a fingernail in seven minutes. It is 700 times smaller than a pinprick.
The space between tracks is 1.6 micro-metres.
Read by a red-light laser beam, the CD plays from the centre to the edge, rotating at a speed varying from 400 times a minute at the beginning to 250 times a minute at the end. This is equivalent to flying round the earth one inch above the surface, up to 400 times a minute, counting every blade of grass on the way.
Your CD is read by the laser beam and makes over 44,000 arithmetical calculations every second in at least two dimensions. It is adding up columns of numbers ('digits'). But many of the numbers are missing because there are thousands of errors on the average CD. Therefore the numbers are added up laterally as well as vertically, enabling the CD-player to fill in the missing numbers by cross-checking them. This is all quite normal and is called 'error correction'.
When a disc is inserted into a CD player, the disc’s track is scanned by a low-intensity infrared laser with a 1-micrometre-diameter focal point. In order for the laser to maintain a constant scanning rate, the disc’s rotation rate decreases from 500 to 200 revolutions per minute as the light beam spirals out from the disc’s centre. (Some CD players use two additional lasers to help control the disc’s rotation and the scanning laser’s focus.) When the light beam strikes a land, it is reflected back to a photodiode, and an electrical pulse is generated. When the light beam strikes a pit, however, no electrical pulse is generated. This is because light reflected from the pit, which has a depth of approximately one-quarter the wavelength of the scanning infrared beam (0.78 micrometre), is out of phase with light reflected from the adjacent separation track, and thus the reflected light is reduced below the level necessary to activate the photodiode. Each “dark” pit on the track is interpreted (based on its length) as a sequence of 0s in binary logic, and each “bright” land is interpreted (again based on its length) as a sequence of 1s. A device known as a digital-to-analog convertor is necessary to translate—and correct for data misread because of minor surface blemishes on the disc or imperfect laser alignment—this binary information into audio signals for playback (see alsodigital-to-analog conversion). The standard CD will hold more than one hour of music.
The laser scanning method employed in compact disc playersAn infrared laser is focused onto the metallic reflective layer of the disc, where a spiral track of “pits” and “lands” represents the zeros and ones of digital signals. The return signal is converted by a photodiode sensor into a digital electric signal, which is converted to analog form for reproduction of the original recorded sound. Optical recording, introduced by Sony Corporation and Philips Electronics N.V. in 1982, allows accurate reproduction of sound over virtually the entire range of human hearing.E
One of the most common questions we get asked at CD Duplication Ireland is, how come the names of the tunes dont appear on my CD .... here lies the answer
It's important to do the following:
Upload Your CD Metadata to Gracenote
Gracenote is a free service that maintains and licenses an Internet database of album content and information. It is through Gracenote that services like iTunes and Windows Media Player have your album info and share it with millions of users. Below is a step-by-step guide on how to upload your finished project using iTunes to the Gracenote database.
NEEDS:
To upload, you will need a physical copy of your album (ideally a final pressing), iTunes, and a reliable Internet connection.
UPLOADING VIA ITUNES (v10):
Place your CD into your computer’s disk drive.
When iTunes opens up, DO NOT import the CD into your library. Simply click “No” in the dialog box.
Select your first track then right click and select “Get Info”.
Fill in all the information in the “Get Info” tab, then click “Next” and continue the process until all the tracks have information.
Now, within iTunes, select the “Advanced” tab and click “Submit CD Track Names”.
Wait 2-3 days. Gracenote has many servers around the world, and sometimes it can take a little while to make it to all of them. Then, place the CD back in your drive. Now go to “Advanced” and select “Get CD Track Names”.
The album information is now coming from the Gracenote servers.
The steps are similar if you are using earlier versions of iTunes. For example, If you are using v1, follow the guide below:
Gracenote may think that your album information has already been uploaded. If this is the case, simply hit “Cancel” on the dialog box and continue with steps 1 and 2 from above.
Go to “Options” and select “Submit CD Track Names”.
A new “CD Info” box will pop up. Fill that with the applicable information and then hit “OK”.
An “Accessing Gracenote” scroll bar then dialog box informing you that your information has been uploaded to Gracenote.
Wait 2-3 days. Place the CD back in your drive and go to “Options” then select “Get CD Track Names”.
The album information is now coming from the Gracenote servers.
If there are any issues with your upload, please contact Gracenote support to diagnose your specific issue.
Below is a link that provides a similar step-by-step guide and answers to general FAQs that you may come across.
1. CDs sound way better than a digital file (usually). So many people are obsessed with these super-compressed file formats, but sometimes music just needs to breathe. Don’t believe me? Find a quiet place, grab a pair of really good headphones and listen to a downloaded version of a song then listen to the CD version. I’m talking over the ear studio-style headphones here, not those in-ear buds. Any person who considers themselves an audiophile should be able to tell the difference immediately. Sure, not every release by every band is available on CD but if you have the option then a CD should be a no brainer.
2. Digital files have no resale value in the market place. Even when you “buy songs” on iTunes, you don’t own the files but are merely just paying to license them for personal use. CDs can still be sold to a third party, legally. If you are caught selling digital music files, even if they are ones that you ripped directly from a CD you purchased, you are subjecting yourself to legal action as a “copyright infringer” or “pirate”, at least that’s how it is here in good ole ‘Murica. You can’t sell a digital music collection on eBay, but you CAN sell your CD collection (if you wanted to). Granted, the average market price for used CDs has gone down a bit since the digital revolution, but they’re still worth more than MP3s.
3. It’s technically two-for-one when you get a CD. The reason for this is because you already get a digital copy of the album when you purchase it. Not only can you “rip” it to your computer as digital files, but a lot of music retailers such as Amazon and Bandcamp are now including a free digital version of the album when you purchase a CD.
4. There is a sense of satisfaction with a large CD collection. One thing I definitely miss having is a huge CD collection. Regretfully, it was sold off in chunks over the years for reasons I’d rather not get into. However, there was a sense of pride with my CD collection, a vast library of multi-genre audible escape forged by nobody but myself. I was proud to show it off to friends and acquaintances. You don’t really get that with a hard drive full of music. Saying “I have a collection of over 1000 CDs” means something….it’s an accomplishment. But saying “I have over 20,000 songs in my iTunes” is just lacking in the wow department. These days, you don’t even know who purchased their music and who pirated it. So, to applaud someone with a large digital music library just seems unnatural to me.
5. Liner notes, pictures, and lyrics….oh my! This is cool if you really like the band and want to know who wrote each song and see exclusive photos and artwork. Sometimes you get the lyrics too; which is great for fans of Metal bands whose vocal deliveries may not be that comprehensible, as awesome as those bands may be it’s nice to actually know what they’re saying. Sure, you can probably just look up the lyrics online and sometimes you get additional content with an album download that has all the stuff in the CD booklet, but it’s just not the same. It’s so much easier to read a CD booklet on the shitter than it is to try and poop with a computer on your lap. I guess a tablet on the toilet wouldn’t be too bad, but not everyone has those. There is always the phone, but you put that up to your ear and near your mouth….do you really want to be touching that while you’re pooping? I sure don’t.
6. You can hold it! On the surface this may not seem like a big deal, but for some reason there is a greater sense of satisfaction when you can hold a CD and its packaging in your hands after you buy it. At least for me, there isn’t really anything you can see for your money after downloading an album other than the tracks being listed in your media library. You can’t hold a bunch of digital coding in your hands. Well I guess you technically are doing that with an iPod, but one iPod isn’t as impressive as 500 CDs when it comes to having a “collection.
To Replicate or Duplicate? What is more cost effective:
When bringing a project to the final stages of completion, the decision to replicate or duplicate must be made and there are many factors that can affect that decision.
Some of the factors influencing that decision are:
1. Quantity of the project.
2. Number of project masters.
3. How often will project code change.
In General, with the recent downturn in replication prices, if a project is the same master and requires more than 1000 pieces, it is probably most cost effective to have the project replicated. The added advantage of replication is it also includes quality silk screening to each piece giving it a store bought appearance. However, each project is different and in some cases duplicating the project is the better solution.
If you have a project that requires less than 1000 pieces or has many different masters, then the most cost effective method is to have the project duplicated. With duplication, you can dupe as few of each master as needed. With the recent advances in blank media surfaces and media printers, it is now possible to print quality graphics onto the surface of the blank media. You can also have the blank media silk screen or digitally printed prior to duplication.
If you have a project that will require code changes after so many copies are released, then duplication is they way to go because you can control the exact quantity that you produce. With replication, typical runs are a minimum of a 1000 pieces.
Give our Dublin, Kildare office a call on 014433116 or our Galway, Mayo office on 0949027722 or fill our our form and let our experienced staff help you decide on which method is the best way for you to produce your project.
If its replication or duplication is the answer to successfully completing your project, we have the equipment and experience to get the job done.
What is the minimum order I can place ?
Depending on your package selection, the minimum order can be as low as 10. Please note however this varies on printed inlay and cardboard parts but please contact us for more details.
How do I pay for my order ?
We accept Credit Card, Bank Draft, Bank Transfer, Personal Cheque & Paypal.
Do I send you the Master CD/ DVD ?
Master CD/DVD's should be sent to us via registered post - always create a backup disc and hold on to this. You may also send us Data files if you are creating a Data CD via email: sales@duplicationireland.com
Graphics & Art Work FAQ ?
We will Design your On Body Print Free of Charge. If you have photos text requirements etc that you would like on your CD - we would recommend you sending the files etc to us via email sales@duplicationireland.com- jpeg format for photos. Please contact us if you have any special requirements. Once our designers have finished your design we will email you a proof for your approval.
How much music can I put on a disc ?
The discs we use have a maximum capacity of 700MB or about 80 minutes of music. Some of this space is used up with space between audio tracks on audio discs or indexing information on data discs. To add up the total time of your audio tracks, add the time of all the individual tacks together and then add 2 seconds at the beginning of the disc and 2 seconds between each track to your total. For data disks, a general rule of thumb is to allow about 10 to 15 MB of space for indexing. So the maximum total size for files on our data discs is about 685 MB. In the event that the source files you submit to us do not fit on a disc, we will contact you.
What Copyright issues are involved with CD DVD Duplication ?
Duplication Ireland only duplicate your cds/dvds when you own a license to reproduce the information on the cd/dvd disc. We do not and will not duplicate any material that is copyrighted or is not your work.
How do I contact CD DVD Duplication Ireland ?
From Ireland: Tel: 094 90 2 77 22 - 087 68 77 501 Text: 087 6877 501 email: sales@duplicationireland.ie International: Tel: (00353) 94 90 2 77 22 - (00353) 87 68 77 501 Text: 00 353 87 6877 501 email: sales@duplicationireland.com Text us your details and we will telephone you back
What exactly is a Cardboard Case Album (Digipak) ?
The cd cardboard case album or Digipak is a packaging made from 280gsm board. This CD / DVD package is presented in either a 4 panel / 6 panel or 8 panel tray which has a gatefold package.
The digipak is made out of paper or card binding with one or more plastic trays to hold the CD inside.
This type of packaging has become the new alternative to the old jewel case and has many advantage over the cd case.
The cardboard case can be finished in either a gloss or matte finish. Its durable and will not break
It is more eye catching to the audience
More packaging gives more room for the artist to promote themselves
More environmentally friendly for the environment with the package material as it uses less plastic
CD Duplication Ireland | DVD Duplication Ireland | Media Replication - CD Duplication DVD Duplication Ireland, affordable prices with the highest quality and service!:
