DIY CD packaging

Our drummer just emailed me to say he thinks that people will just put the cd on their computers and not really look at the packaging that much, so he either wants to do something totally minimal that doesn't create much waste, or something "special" that will prevent people from just tossing the case once they've burned the cd.

tape some cds between two pieces of corrugated cardboard, recycled from the boxes that your last cds came in. fold up r4w y@ng inserts to make slipcases for the others.

Side question - the difference between whether an album is duplicated on CD or CD-R is purely technical and makes no real difference for the listener, right?

All I can think of is that the disc will look different and some older players won't read CDRs.

CDR's purportedly have a shorter lifespan, though (people seem to disagree on how much shorter, although the lifespan of a CDR seems to range between 3-7 years depending on the brand you choose). You have to remember that a factory pressed CD is printed rather than burned, which makes a difference. You won't hear any difference, however, initially.

UGH to clarify (i'm distracted and at work) the dyes used in CD's are different than the dyes used in a CDR, and the CDRs appear to degrade more quickly.

and never mind, apparently at least according to Phillips, they don't sound as good either: http://www.mrichter.com/cdr/primer/losses.htm

I've never gotten around to having a CD to put out, but I always figured to try and come up with some packaging to wrap around the disc like an old 7" with a plastic baggy (maybe mylar) with a folded card insert.

It doesn't have a spine, but I kind of like echoing the 7" look, as that was the CDR or low run CD of its day.

We (my label) do our own packaging. We get blank recycled card sleeves from Stumptown (who will ship internationally): http://www.stumptownprinters.com/. $15 per 50. We then do our own thing with screen printing, but they can do the printing for you if you want too.

Thanks for the link, that's the kind of thing I'm looking for. I kind of want to get blank sleeves like those, then get stickers made, one for the front with a picture and one for the back with the song names, and just stick them on ourselves. I don't think the rest of my band likes that idea though.

Our drummer wants to only do a vinyl pressing and have a code for mp3 downloads that comes with it, but I was trying to explain how this pretty much eliminates the show album impulse buy for people who don't have record players. Plus records are expensive, right?

We threw around some crazy ideas at a band meeting/dinner last night.

Assuming your doing of order 1000 units, you can expect to pay around $1 per 7". Dunno how much more 12"s are.

CDs can be as cheap as you want. We use plain black CDRs for all our releases, which works out at like $0.30 per CD since we don't even have to label them. Our CD burners get a hell of a workout each release though. With the Stumptown packaging we can then make a run of 500 CDs that look really cool for about GBP 200-500, depending on how fancy we get with artwork. Throw in some change to get them on iTunes and Bleep and the whole thing becomes very cheap, which means we can give pretty much all the takings to the bands. Good times.

you're

p.s. apparently like 70% of independently released vinyl in the UK is manufactured in the Czech Republic by these guys: http://www.gzcd.com/

Lots more manufacturers (including US) here: http://www.fat-cat.co.uk/DIY/resource.php?type=2#Content

Thanks for that Stumptown link. I think we're going to release a $5 ep around New Year's, and the current idea is to get blank cardboard sleeves like you're talking about and slap some stickers w/the album art on them.

No problem, good luck with the EP (and get going if you want it ready for New Year!)

Yeah, it's looking like we're probably going to end up using them too, those blank cd cases are a great deal.

Rad. They are cheap. They look cool too. I think they'll send you square ones unless you specify jewel case shaped ones (which are wider than they are tall). Square is more secure for the CD but jewel-shaped might look better on people's shelves. Make sure you know which you want.

Sorry to ressurect such an old post, but I'm looking for a solution to my label's DIY needs at the moment too. I think I'll go the route of buying blanks from Stumptown too - they do look rather nifty! Just wondered whether anyone had a heads up on places that might be willing to screen print them?

I'm looking for jewel cases for mini/3''/8cm CDs that have a removable CD tray to allow one to put a rear insert in, as per a standard jewel case. Such things are proving rather difficult to locate, as all the mini jewel cases that I can find are the skinnier kind with the CD spindle moulded directly to the rear tray, which is nowhere near as aesthetically pleasing.

I know that such things do exist, as I have one in my collection, but having spoken to the guy who put that out he had rather a struggle finding and getting hold of them and ending buying in big bulk from Sony DADC in Austria, who really aren't set up or open for individual non-corporate/trade purchasers.

Ideally I'd like to buy in batches of 100, but could consider more if necessary and not overly expensive.

If anyone has any leads at all, or suggestions of people/places to ask, then they would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

https://kunaki.com/

^^see if these guys do it? I've never gone through 'em but I have a few friends who use have to self-publish CD shit for cheap and they seem to like it.

Thanks very much rabies.

Sorry, but I should have said that I'm in the UK. Shipping from the US makes it prohibitive to buy transatlantically in smaller qualities.

I'm new here and was wondering if someone could help me out. I just ordered 100 blank cases from stumptown, but now need to figure out where to get CD-R labels. I'm looking for black, and planning to print whit or silver on the label. any one know who sells such things?

If you're interested in eco-friendly CD packaging then take a look at http://www.weeco.co.uk. There are a number of short-run CD packaging solutions and weEco is based in the UK :-)

is it completely stupid to do a 1,000 cd run these days? this is for the ch4nts record, and i can't imagine selling them all since i probably won't be playing shows that frequently (and no one buys cds except at shows, right?). on the other hand, doing cd-rs (for a shorter run) seems kind of lame and anti-climactic.

we still have boxes and boxes of krakatoa sitting in our storage room. we might have even just ordered 500, I don't remember any more. :(

but maybe you are better than we were

1000 seems insane but then i struggle to sell 50

i had this fantasy of making a sort of printable waveform representation that you could print out on sheets of paper or t-shirts even, that you could play back by taking a picture of it on your computer. if it ever took off, you could print up t-shirts that also double as the "CD"

you know what else is annoying...i looked into a couple "eco-friendly" digipak options (recycled plastic trays, or cardboard-y potato starch trays) and they're only available for 1,000+ runs or factory-replicated short runs (which are about as expensive as 1,000+ runs).

Wow, this makes me proud that we actually managed to sell somewhere between 500 and 1000.

Course that was before it became the standard line that no one buys CDs.

my brass band doesn't have a problem selling that many (at least over the course of a year or two), but that band plays a lot more shows and appeals to a slightly older, still-listens-to-cds crowd.

for this, now i'm leaning towards doing 200 - 300 cd-rs?

how do you go about doing a mass CD-R operation? do you kit out a special computer with 8 CDRW drives? or friendsource?

most places that do replication also do duplication (for much cheaper), i.e.:

http://www.oasiscd.com/selfservicequoter/
http://www.discmakers.com/selfservicequoter/
http://cddvdmakers.com/

we still have boxes and boxes of krakatoa sitting in our storage room. we might have even just ordered 500, I don't remember any more. :(

man I was just thinking about how many surplus enjoyment CDs max must have in the basement

@Philip Nunez For numbers like that you would usually get them professionally duplicated, whereby a specialist company produces them for you using dedicated machines with banks of CD-R drives as you describe.