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Geek Culture / Buying CDs

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Code eater
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Posted: 8th Jun 2012 23:23
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Hey there!

My band are trying to produce a small EP. We want to produce 100 CDs to start with and are obviously looking to find the lowest price.
I have found two possible options but cannot choose between them.

For £16 we could buy 100 memorex CDs from Amazonhttp://www.amazon.co.uk/Memorex-M00285-CD-R-Pack-Cakebox/dp/B00008OIJ3/ref=sr_1_3?s=computers&ie=UTF8&qid=1339186367&sr=1-3

or for £11.95 we could buy 100 unbranded CDs

I would assume the fail rate in CDs from memorex would be lower than the fail rate of the unbranded ones. But would the lower price compensate sufficiently for this?

The amazon one's have an average star rating of 3.5 stars. With many reviews claiming 100% sucess rate, while some claim as low as 30% sucess rate.
There are no reviews for the unbranded ones.

What do you think?

If pots and pans were "if"s and "and"s there would be no work for programmer's hands...
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DeadTomGC
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Posted: 9th Jun 2012 06:33
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Well, the price difference isn't even that much. I'd go with the memorex. If 90% of the other ones fail, who will you go to?


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zeroSlave
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Posted: 9th Jun 2012 08:17 Edited at: 9th Jun 2012 08:18
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You might take a look at this?:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/AmazonBasics-700-CD-R-Spindle-Pack/dp/B001TOD7MY
Looks like the reviews are mixed, but it's also got 3.5 stars and is a few bucks cheaper. £13.99 and also has Super Saver Delivery.

Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid.
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Nateholio
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Posted: 9th Jun 2012 09:00
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Or you could do a bit more professional. Don't disregard first impressions (the case and CD itself).
http://www.mixonic.com/cd-duplication/

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Code eater
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Posted: 9th Jun 2012 13:57
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Quote: "Well, the price difference isn't even that much. I'd go with the memorex. If 90% of the other ones fail, who will you go to?
"


I think I have decided to stick with branded products to be safe. It is true that for each pound of difference in price, the cost of each CD only increases by a penny

@Zeroslave
Thanks for pointing that out. I will read some reviews

@Nateholio We had looked into that sort of thing, but having looked around, unless we order thousands of CDs, the cost per unit turns out as about £2 or £3 which is far more than we want.
Instead what we are doing is buying blank card CD wallets and some sticky paper. We will print album artwork to the sticky paper and cut that out and stick it on the front. The album artwork is going to be simple and minimalistic.
We will also buy CD labels to print to stick on the CD. Hopefully this will make it look somewhere near to professional quality.
This way we can produce them for around £0.40 per unit which is much more in our price range.
As a punk band, this DIY process appeals to us

If pots and pans were "if"s and "and"s there would be no work for programmer's hands...
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BatVink
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Posted: 9th Jun 2012 18:20
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I would certainly take note of the comment on first impressions, you can't take them back. Don't forget the "outside view", it's not just about your CD. It's about the pile of CDs that the recipients have, and what yours looks like alongside them.

First Impressions is actually what's known as the Halo effect. If the CD looks naff, then the contents will be assumed to be of equal quality, even before listening.

If you can't afford the CDs then maybe think differently. Make it available for download, print 500 or 1000 leaflets for less than the price you would pay for the CDs and offer a prize draw for anyone downloading.

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Code eater
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Posted: 10th Jun 2012 14:01
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I have worried a bit about first impressions. But I think if we take our time to make them correctly - e.g. make sure the sticker lines up with the case, I think we could make a product that looks like a respectable CD.
I think we are planning on putting posters up as well stating that you can download our EP.

If pots and pans were "if"s and "and"s there would be no work for programmer's hands...
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Kevin Picone
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Posted: 10th Jun 2012 16:37
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Quote: "I think we could make a product that looks like a respectable CD. "


Before jumping in, sit down and build some high quality prototypes. See how much effort is required to get something customers are happy with.

How much are you going to sell them for ?


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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 10th Jun 2012 16:44 Edited at: 10th Jun 2012 16:53
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I don't trust Memorex. My fail rate with Memorex has been high. Verbatim are the best, but they must be blue/purple on the back. Amazon have some fakes flying around.

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maho76
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Posted: 11th Jun 2012 14:25
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i would suggest to get a barcode-license (not that expensive when not selling over 50.000 units/year) and sell it on amazons digital mp3-store/itunes, would be better than trying to get money out of a homeburned-cd without cover.

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Code eater
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Posted: 12th Jun 2012 01:16
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@Kevin Picone - We will be selling them for little over cost price. Around 50p. The idea is to get people listening. Not to make money.
Also to use as demos.

@Pincho Paxton
Cheers pal, I'll keep that in mind when I order

@maho76
The point is trying to sell them in the street and at gigs. I believe it would be easier to sell someone a physical copy than giving them a code or whatever with a "promise" that it will work.
Furthermore, it will have a cover.

If pots and pans were "if"s and "and"s there would be no work for programmer's hands...
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nonZero
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Posted: 12th Jun 2012 11:00 Edited at: 12th Jun 2012 11:03
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Quote: "Verbatim are the best"

Yes, Verbatim are the best. If you want to sell them at gigs then I highly, highly recommend you go with Verbatim because you'll never get write-fails (well I haven't ever at least). Besides, if you rather get 50 high-quality CDs you can always make more if they start selling well. I assume you live in the UK so I dunno what your lives are like but here in South Africa, merchandise such as caps and t-shirts sell much better at lives than CDs do. Pretty dumb when you think about it but that's an SA consumer for you, lol.

Seriously, if you gonna make an investment in that many CDs, go for a brand you can trust. If it's too expensive, buy less. If it sells well, there's always next time.

Other ways to promote your band:
* You can also do a couple of tracks and distribute them under a Creative Commons Licence (There are different ones and some still give the copyright holder a certain amount of control over their work) on Jamendo (www.jamendo.com).

There's also the self-promoting route like having free web albums and having commercial paid-for albums, making music videos, etc ot top of your lives. Here's an example of a band who distributes stuff free online, but also has paid-for albums:
http://http://machinaesupremacy.com/
(Warning, the site may take a second or two to load.
They sell merchandise too (everyone's a sucker for merchandise). Their music's pretty good too (If you're into that - like me).

Anyway, just things to think about too. Maybe it'll be useful, maybe not, hopefully it will.

[EDIT] By "lives" I mean gigs, live performances, etc.[/EDIT]

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Seppuku Arts
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Posted: 12th Jun 2012 13:58
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Quote: "I assume you live in the UK so I dunno what your lives are like but here in South Africa, merchandise such as caps and t-shirts sell much better at lives than CDs do. Pretty dumb when you think about it but that's an SA consumer for you, lol."


I think it depends. With a band I'm already a fan of, I buy the merchandise there, usually a t-shirt or a hoodie. If it's a band I've never seen before and I really like it, I'll probably buy the CD. Most of the time I see people buying the merchandise here in the UK. Most of the time I think people already have the CD if they know the band. Sometimes if there's a support act you've never heard of or listened to or if you're just going to see a band you don't know much about, you're more likely to pick up a CD if you liked them.

I think with bands I already like I'll only buy the CD if it's a limited edition tour only EP, like Forever Never's 'I can't believe it's not metal' where they've covered a load of pop songs, like this classic. That was money well spent, even if I only like 3 of the tracks they covered.

But most of my wardrobe is made of band t-shirts, in fact, I'm wearing one right now. Usually they're good tokens for reminding you of a great time you had.

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nonZero
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Posted: 13th Jun 2012 12:50
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Quote: "like this classic"

Well, it's certainly better than the original

Quote: "But most of my wardrobe is made of band t-shirts, in fact, I'm wearing one right now. Usually they're good tokens for reminding you of a great time you had."

Oh, I agree. My problem is that whenever I buy a band/movie/game branded T-shirt, I wear it once or twice on a special occasion but then put it away because I'm scared I'll damage it
Oh, it gets better, a year ago I had to place all my stuff in storage and give away everything else. I took a suitcase containing practical wear and small mementos. Then my immigration papers got messed up and I got stuck in Durban - The worst city in the world - without anything but regret of not actually just enjoying my stuff more. Haha, jokes on me but I learned a valuable life lesson: nothing lasts forever so enjoy your stuff and when it breaks, it breaks. I also learned not to trust cheap, small businesses with immigration and to rather just pay the extra 5k to established people who know what they are doing.

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