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UPC Barcodes – What Are They and Why Do You Need One?

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

UPC barcodes - easy once you know how!

In this day and age it can sometimes seem like a not altogether straight-forward thing to get your music or film on the market. One of the most overlooked issues is that of UPC barcodes. You need to have one to begin selling your product and in this article I hope to help explain what they are, why you need one and how to get one.

To begin, a UPC (universal product code) is a unique, 12-digit code (provided by the GS1, usually at the same time as you purchase the barcode) which is assigned to your product. Commonly known as barcodes, they are scanned in shops so that the retailers can access the price and information on the product. The way they work, once you have purchased them, is that you put the barcode onto your product and send it off to a retailer/distributor. They will then ask you questions about you and your product and enter it in their system under the UPC barcode you have provided. Thus, when your product is scanned at the register, it looks up that information and your sale is recorded. In order for them to work properly, you need one UPC barcode for each product: For example, you would need one barcode for a DVD recording of a concert, but another one for the CD album recorded at the same concert. In these instances, as with all discs, the barcodes would be placed on the CD or DVD cases.

It should be noted that UPC barcodes work well if you are planning on selling your product world-wide. However, if you are going to exclusively sell your product outside of the USA and Canada, you may want to use an EAN barcode. It is pretty much the same as a UPC barcode except that they have a 13-digit code, not a 12-digit one. UPC barcode readers can only read UPC barcodes, however EAN barcode readers can read both UPC and EAN barcodes. It is your choice, but given that UPC barcodes can be read pretty much universally, I would be inclined to go with them as there is little difference in price between the two.

The reason barcodes are important for selling your product is because it makes it very easy for retailers to sell them on. Most retailers, such as Amazon, will not accept a product unless it has a barcode because their retail systems work based on the barcodes themselves.

You should also be aware that if you are selling a CD or DVD, it is important to get a barcode – whether UPC or EAN – which is registered with SoundScan, or register your product with SoundScan separately. SoundScan is the company which records music and film sales and compiles the music and film charts so it important to get your CD registered with them otherwise it will not be included in the charts or the music and film sales records.

Barcodes can be quite pricey, but there are ways to make them cheaper and they are not difficult to buy. The best way to purchase one is though an agency. Companies such as Simply Barcodes are reliable agencies which will give you a unique barcode for a not unreasonable price. It is not necessary that the company from which you are purchasing your barcode is based in the country where you will sell your product, however this may have some effect on how fast they can complete your order. Most companies will give discounts to registered charities and bulk orders, so if you need more than one barcode it will be to your benefit to purchase them all at once. Many of the companies will process your order within a matter of hours, emailing you the barcode as soon as possible. Some of them also print labels of the barcodes and send them to you so that you don’t have to do it for yourself.

I would caution, however, against companies offering you free barcodes and ridiculous discounts: It is very easy to fake a barcode on the spot and if you end up with a fake barcode it is very likely that it may already be being used by another product. This is a waste of your time, a waste of your retailers time, and ultimately can lead to much confusion and you losing a lot of money. Try an find some customer references which legitimise the company, or a certificate from a certified crediting body. It is also important to make sure that your barcode does not have a ‘sell by’ date, that it is a permanent number designated to your product. Also, try to get a deal on your barcode whereby you do not have to renew it or pay annual fees: A one off fee is the most cost effective way to get your barcode!

I hope this article has been informative and helped you on your way to getting your barcode and selling your product!

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How To Get Your CD Artwork Designed

Sunday, April 4th, 2010

Attractive CD artwork means a disc which sells well!

Getting the right look for your CD can be a real challenge.  You want your product to look good and yet still appeal to the right consumer-group.  There are several different roads you can take to get your artwork designed, and by covering them in this articles, I hope to help you make up your mind which one is most suited to your needs.

Perhaps the highest quality design will come from hiring a professional designer to do the job for you.  It’s their livelihood so they’re sure to know what they are doing and will probably have much better software at their disposal to do it with than you will.  The design they come out with will be exactly what you ask for and they can work to a certain time-scale.  However, hiring a professional is perhaps not the most cost-effective way to get your CD artwork designed as they do charge for the hours they work on your design.  However, if you do want one it can save you a lot of your own time and they are not difficult to find:  Simply search in the ‘Yellow Pages’ or on an internet search engine.

The next option is to use an online or downloadable artwork creator.  My favourite is the Artwork Creator designed by Duplication Centre.  It’s very easy to use but still offers you many options for editing your image, without having to spend a lot of time learning how to use new software.  Of course, if you have a program such as ‘Photoshop’ you could always use that.

Though it can be very time consuming to design your CD artwork yourself, if you do decide to take this route, you then have the question of where to get the images you use in your artwork from.  You can take the photos yourself but be warned that unless photography is a hobby of yours, it can be difficult to get high-quality results.  So you could get them professionally taken, but remember that this costs a lot of money.  If you want a cost effective, fast way to acquire photos without having to take them yourself, you can always set up an iStockphoto account.  iStockphoto is a website designed to let you browse through literally thousands of photographs and buy them to use on your products royalty free.

I hope that these ideas help you to decide how best to design your CD artwork to the high quality you would expect and in the time frame you need!

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Tips to choosing a good CD/DVD duplication company

Monday, March 1st, 2010

A good duplication company means a high quality disc

In today’s world, we are constantly offered a choice of products: From the 27 different kinds of jam in the supermarket to the thousands of cars on the market. And it is no less true that there are many CD and DVD duplication companies to choose from. So, how can you choose one that is right for you?

Well, to begin with, make sure you know what your needs are: Do you need duplication or replication? Do you need CDs or DVDs? How many discs will you require? Do you want artwork? What kind of casing and packaging do you want? All these are very important things to take into consideration alongside how high you want the quality to be and whether or not you are willing to compromise on this to get a lower price. It is important to know exactly what you want before you look at which companies to use.

Next, do the obvious: Shop around. Make sure you are getting the best price for your needs! Companies are constantly giving promotions and keeping their prices competitive so that you can get the best deal possible. Within this it is also important to only look at companies which will offer you what you need: It will save you a lot of time and effort if you stick to the guidelines you initially set yourself.

Once you have found a price you are happy with, it generally a good idea to request for a sample of the company’s previous work to ensure that you are content with the product they are going to be offering you: Is the quality to price ratio fair?

It is also a good idea to discuss deadlines and shipping with someone at the company, to make sure they can deliver your discs when and where you need them.

If you are happy with this, then you have basically found your duplication or replication company, and all that remains for you is to place your order and wait for the discs to start arriving!

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How important is it to have a good quality disc?

Monday, March 1st, 2010

A good quality disc is worth buying

It is all very well distributing a demo CD for your band or a DVD advertisement for your company, but if it isn’t high quality it was not get played, will not get looked at, or may not work at all! It is therefore very important that you ensure you get a high quality disc when you duplicate or replicate.

The shallow truth of the world is that first impressions are very important and you nearly always see a CD or DVD before playing or watching it. It is therefore highly important that your disc makes a positive first impression on the consumer: It should have an attractive cover and, if possible, on-body disc printing, so that the person receiving it is inclined to find out more about the disc and thus about the services you are offering! However, it is also good to make sure that the cover and printing on the disc are of high quality: It does not do to have poorly printed images lining your product as it will then look half-hearted and messy – not the impression you want to be giving off!

Aside from this, you want to make sure that disc itself is of a high quality. If the each disc you distribute is not properly checked for glitches, scratches or general levels of low-quality, it may not even work when the consumer tries to play it. This reflects very poorly upon the person or company who is distributing it and could put the consumer off entirely.

It is quite difficult to achieve this level of quality at home: The equipment to do it is very expensive and it is also very time consuming. It is therefore generally advisable to get a duplication or replication company to do it for you, as they will produce a high quality product which will give a good first impression and be pretty much guaranteed to play well. Aside from getting a better finish, you will also save yourself time, attract more customers and not have to spend lots of money on machinery – all this saving you a lot of money in the long run!

So, as you can see, DVD and CD quality is very important to, not only creating a good impression, but also for simply getting the disc itself to work. It even saves you time that you can spend doing something else!

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CD Mastering

Monday, March 1st, 2010

CD Mastering is complicated but worth doing for a high quality CD

CD mastering is the process of taking a song or audio file, editing out the bad bits and increasing the quality of the good bits! It is generally done by professional editors as it is a very complicated and technically advanced process involving editing each individual layer of the song. Mastering a CD can make a good song into a great one, giving you a final master CD that is ready to be sent off for duplication!

Generally, CD mastering takes place in three main stages:

Assembly Editing – This is the stage at which the layers of the track are aligned with one another. The technician will place proper spacing between the cuts and ensure that the song plays through with perfect timing. The places where you tend to get most noises, pops and clicks, the beginning and end of each cut, are generally faded so that the flaws cannot be heard, and any other unintentional sounds are also removed. The different layers can also be cross-faded, to create a marvelous disc ready for printing.

Sweetening – In this stage, the layers of the track are enhanced with special effects. You can apply echo, reverb, and many other effects to the song to make it sound just that bit better. This improving of sound, making the song sound more perfect than perhaps it really was, is known as ‘sweetening’. Many famous pop artists have been criticised for the degree to which the ‘sweeten’ their songs until their voices don’t actually sound like their real voices, but generally technicians only sweeten to a sensible level.

Output – Depending here on whether you are duplicating or replicating, this final process involves two different things. If duplicating, the technician produces a final CD-ROM copy of the disc which can then be played on a normal CD player. However, if replicating, a glass master disc must be created, which can be used on the replication machines almost as a stencil for further copies. The final mastered version of the song if usually ‘auditioned’ for the client to ensure they approve of the sound created.

Because of the high levels of technical knowledge involved in mastering a CD, it is generally advisable to get a professional company to do it for you. However, many disc duplication companies provide mastering as a part of their service, so you can master and duplicate all at the same time!

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Advertise with DVDs

Monday, March 1st, 2010

DVDs are a great way to advertise!

Advertising your company, whether because its new or whether because it simply needs a new lease of life, can pose a tricky dilemma:  How do you make advertising campaigns interesting for the consumer?  Most companies advertise through the internet, newspaper and on television, but very rarely think to advertise through DVDs.  However this can be an incredibly effective way to get your business noticed:  Everybody knows of the highly successful AOL adverts where a demo-disc and information leaflet on their product are posted through your door!

Far from only advertising demos of software, however, DVD advertising can be a way to talk to your customers about what your company has to offer through a short film advertisement.  It is often much cheaper to distribute your film this way rather than on television and it also allows for the advert to be much longer at no extra cost to you!

Many companies are put off DVD advertising because of the thought of having to distribute it, but companies can be hired to do the distribution for you at a relatively low cost, even some of the DVD duplication companies themselves!

There are many pluses to DVD advertising:  For a start, customers will be very impressed with a good quality DVD being personally given to them than they would be a television advert.  It shows a consideration for the individual and, if the disc is high quality, reflects the best in your business.  It is a personal, attractive first impression to give the consumer.  However this impression of quality is only heightened by the quality of the DVD itself.  It is therefore advisable to use a professional company who will produce your DVD at the highest quality possible.

It is also a good idea to use professional companies as, in many cases, they can offer advice on, if not help in, the process of editing your film to its highest standard.  Aside from this, they will also provide a quick and reliable service, giving each disc the necessary quality checks which you yourself may not have the machinery to be able to do.

DVD advertising is an often over-looked form of communication with the public, adding a rare personal touch and providing a good first impression through a high quality disc.  It is also often much more financially viable than advertisement on the television, and can also be referred back to by the consumer if they are having trouble making up their minds.

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The Mp3 Vs. CD Debate

Tuesday, January 5th, 2010

There are pros and cons to both MP3s and CDs - it can be hard to choose between

Across the internet and throughout the media has been slowly growing one of the greatest debates of the digital era:  Which is better Mp3 or CD?  There are many aspects to this argument:  The cost, the environmental impacts, the levels of illegal trade in music and, of course, the quality of the sound itself.

Mp3s are small computer files which hold audio data, which usually takes the form of music.  They became public in the mid-90’s and have only been gaining attention since then.  They can be uploaded and downloaded to and from the internet with great ease and this has lead to a good deal of illegal trade in music and many breached copyright laws!  While the leaders of the music industry have been battling against what is basically digital theft with law suits, some companies have been cashing in on this technological advancement, beginning to sell their songs not only on CD but also as downloadable internet files.  The infamous ‘iTunes’ is a perfect example.  This has, in recent years, created quite a large drop in CD music duplication and for a while some people were convinced the CD would die out completely.

But it hasn’t.  This is for many reasons, not least of which is that the quality of sound on a CD is generally far better than on an Mp3.  This is due to the way that Mp3 files are created:  The original sound file is taken, then compressed into a smaller size, compromising the range of sound that can be heard and losing much of the finer dynamics of a song.  The smaller the file is compressed to, the more the quality of the sound is undermined.  Indeed, it is now being seen that while Mp3s have been sold with the label ‘near-CD quality’ the reality is that most Mp3s are of FM radio quality which is a bit better than the average cassette tape.  The merits of CD music duplication have a long way to go yet!

There is also some degree of satisfaction, especially to musical collectors, in having a good-looking CD collection, with their cases shiny and their covers colourful and individual.  However, these collections come at a price to the environment; CDs are notoriously difficult to recycle while Mp3s make no waste at all.  Having said this, many people download Mp3s simply to burn them to disc in their own homes.  While this is cheaper in the short term, because one Mp3 track is less expensive than a shop brought one, even with the added cost of buying the discs, in the long term, it causes just as much environmental damage.  To add to which, the disc will not last as long and, as I have already discussed, the sound quality will not be as good by far.  Particularly when you take into consideration the care that CD music duplication companies take in setting up their equipment and ensuring the highest quality sound for their products.

There are further side issues discussing the fact that most people listen to their music on personal Mp3 players now so they may as well just download them in the first place.  However, unless you back up your collection to a portable hard-drive, it is very easy to lose all your music through your computer crashing or getting a virus.  The benefit of CDs is that you will always have a hard copy of your collection to go back to.  To add to which, when you are at home, it is surely better to listen to CDs, where the sound quality will be superior to your personal Mp3 player.

In the end, the Mp3 vs. CD debate comes down to what you value.  However, for most people this seems to be the quality of the sound they are listening to.  If this is the case for you, then certainly CDs are a better way to go.  Personally, I feel that CD music duplication has a lot of life left in it yet!

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Music CD Digital Remastering – what is it and what are the pros and cons?

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Music CD digital remastering - is it worth it?

In the current age of constantly developing digital media, it is sometimes hard to keep up with the latest trends. One of today’s most popular buzzwords is ‘digital remastering’. This is applicable to both video and audio files but in this article I shall focus on the idea of audio, or CD, remastering.

To understand what CD remastering is, it is helpful to first know what ‘mastering’ is. When you duplicate a CD, you have an original, or ‘master’ recording. This ‘master’ copy is not necessarily the first recording of the audio content, but is the final edited version of it. For instance, if you are recording a radio-play or audio book, you may wish to add sound effects from another source in after the initial recording. Or, if you are making music, you might want to edit the singer’s voice or to equalize the sound. Many adjustments of these sorts can be made and the ‘master’ copy is the final edited version made before CD duplication commences. In some circumstances there is more than one master copy, for instance many ‘masters’ might be sent out to different CD duplication plants in different regions.

So, the process of CD mastering is the process of making the ‘master’ copy of the CD. Mastering had problems, however, when it came to analogue recordings, for analogue sound loses quality every time it is re-recorded or edited. This can make the audio sound fuzzy or start to hiss. This was particularly the case with cassette tapes.

However, with the advent of digital sound, CD remastering has become the remedy to this cause. When a piece of audio is remastered, very often the original recording of the piece, sometimes taken from before the CD master was even completed, and converted into digital sound, thus the editing can take place again, with no loss to the sound quality, creating a new master which can be used to duplicate the CD and release it again.

The pros and cons of CD Remastering make for a tricky debateBut there are arguments for and against CD re-mastering. Why? If a process makes an old song sound better and gives it a second chance to live, what can be the problem? Well, it depends on how well the audio has been remastered: Many classic albums from bands such as Kiss and the Beatles are now being re-released in digitally remastered form, but to modern tastes and standards. This often includes increasing the volume of a song to levels where the sound becomes distorted and starts to sound very different. this can dissuade people from listening to the music again, often without them even knowing quite why. Aside from this, many people see it simply as a marketing ploy, a way for shareholders in music labels and members of the bands to get even more money than they did the first time the song was a hit.

Despite these criticisms the point remains that, when done well by professional CD remastering technicians, digitally remastered CDs sell very well and do offer a new lease of life to the audio of the past. It also helps to preserve songs and recordings from the analogue era, as cassette tapes and vinyl discs alike become more scratched and naturally degrade in quality over time.

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The Differences Between CD and DVD Duplication and Replication

Monday, January 4th, 2010

CD duplication or replication - there's a big difference, but what is it?

When making many copies of a disc, often it is easier just to hire a professional company to do it for you as it saves you time and, in the long run, money. But there are two different ways of making multiple copies of CDs and DVDs: The first is disc duplication and the second is disc replication. The two are not altogether foreign, but there are some subtle differences which can make a massive difference to which one is better suited to your needs.

The process behind disc duplication involves burning CDs or DVDs the way you would at home, in a disc burner using a laser. However, professional equipment is such that it can burn many copies of a disc at once, using disc burning towers. This makes the process much faster than it would be at home. The discs are then decorated and checked for quality in special machines.

On the other hand with disc replication, CDs or DVDs are copied using a master disc made from glass. This master disc literally punches the digital information onto the disc before the protective layers are added. It thus becomes part of the entire disc manufacturing process.

Although the initial costs of disc replication are more expensive because the glass master has to be made, if you want to make more than 1,000 copies of a disc it is actually cheaper than duplication. But duplication is much faster than replication: Duplication can take from 24 hours to three days, while replication takes between seven and ten days on average.

Also, the type of discs which can be made in both processes differ significantly: Disc duplication will only deal with CD-Rs or DVD+/-Rs, while replication is only for CD-ROMs or DVD-ROMs and also now Blu-Ray discs. This is because CD- and DVD-ROMs cannot be burnt upon and CD-Rs have been taken too far down the It can be hard to decide whether to duplicate or replicate CDs and DVDs so here's a table to make it clearermanufacturing process to then be stamped with the replicating machines. This seems trivial, but it can have a slight difference to which disc players can read them: It is estimated that in the current market that only 98% of CD players will play duplicated CDs while 90% of DVD players will play duplicated DVDs. This could have an effect on your decision: If you need to be able to guarantee your customers will be able to play your product, it is better to replicate the discs! This is because of the way that data is read from the different discs.

Aside from this, there are no real differences in appearance of the discs or the quality of data stored, though it should be noted that duplicated discs can be a little more susceptible to UV damage than replicated discs but this technicality is so slight it only really counts if you are planning on making your disc last more than thirty years!

Good luck with all your duplication and replication and I hope this article has helped you on the way to making your mind up on which is better suited to your needs. Just remember that the most important thing in the decision-making process is simply how many discs you are planning on creating: The basic rule is over a thousand, you replicate, under a thousand, you duplicate!

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Printing CDs at home – it may look cheaper, but is it a false economy?

Monday, January 4th, 2010

Home CD duplication - does it really save you money?

In the current economic climate we are all constantly looking for ways to save money on everything. This is no less the case in the world of CD printing, but while printing your CDs at home may look cheaper on the outside, there is strong evidence to suggest this is in fact a false economy and it is less expensive to get a professional company to do it in the long run.

To start, let’s examine the cost of the CDs themselves, especially in relation to the quality you will be getting. It goes without saying that the cheaper a CD is, the less likely it is to be of good quality: There are no free rides in the digital world and if a price is very low, the chances are that somewhere a corner has been cut in terms of quality. For CDs this may mean a much shorter life span, which means that your CD product would need replacing some years sooner than if you had had the CD produced by a duplication company. Thus, if you print at home, you could be paying almost twice as much for the same product in the long run.

To add to this, if you do home CD printing then there will be far fewer quality tests in place. CD printing businesses have a very high level of standard quality, where each CD is thoroughly tested for any faults. Home CD printing could allow faulty CDs to be overlooked, which means that you might lose very important data or, if you are sending out your CDs to consumers for advertising or commercial purposes, could mean that people come away with the impression that you are unprofessional because your product does not work!

On a similar note, you will get a much more professional finish to your product if you use a CD printing company than at home. The print on the disc will be done using the correct machinery, which it is extortionately expensive to buy yourself. Also, unless you have an incredibly good printer, the booklet and inlay will be of a higher print quality if you use a credible company. A good-looking CD with high quality packaging and an attractive cover and body print will entice consumers and look far more professional. This effect is very expensive to achieve yourself and so, in the long run, it is far cheaper to use a CD printing company.

On a more personal note, it takes a lot of time to produce CDs at home, which ends up wasting a lot of your precious hours! If you pay someone else to do it for you, you may well end up saving a lot of money by achieving other things with your time instead. It also puts far less strain on you personally, especially if you have a looming deadline! Professional CD printers are used to working to a deadline and some of them even offer next day delivery, which means that you can rest assured that the job will be finished on time and to a high standard, without the worry of having to do it yourself.

So while it may look like in the short term it is cheaper to buy that very cheap roll of discs and do all the CD printing yourself at home, it can in the long run mean that your product needs replacing faster (costing you more money!), is more likely to allow a product through which is faulty (losing you precious data or customers, costing you more money!), ultimately does not look as good (again, losing you consumers and giving people an unprofessional opinion of you, losing you more money) and all this only having been done so that you can have more stress and worry! Therefore, I would say, it is less stressful and more economically sound in the long run to get a professional CD printing business to do your CD printing for you so you can relax, knowing the job is getting done fast and to a very high standard!

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