Duplication Centre

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

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 Use Duplication Centre’s Artwork Creator

April 4th, 2010

Duplcation Centre's artwork creator will help you make stunning CDs and DVDs

It can be very difficult to get a CD design which is right for your product: But, thankfully, with Duplication Centre’s new online Artwork Creator, you can design and make your own CD design! And, to help you even further on the way to getting the design you want, here are some helpful tips on how to use it…

To begin with, let us examine the basic screen. At the top, from left to right, are the options for a ‘New Design’, to ‘Load Design’, ‘Save Design’ or ‘Upload Image’ from your computer. Below is the ‘Clip Art Gallery’ at the top of which is a drop-down list allowing you to select which category of clip art you which to have displayed. Beside this is the ‘Text Tool’ and to the right of this is the colour chart which can be used to select the background colour. At the bottom of the screen is the ‘Workspace’ in which you create your image.

It is here that the first step in design occurs: Here you pick which aspect of the CD you are designing. You are given the choice to design a 4-page booklet for the insert, the CD/DVD body, a plain card for the insert, the inlay for a Jewel case, a DVD book or DVD wrap. Each option gives you a different space to design in, specifically measured to the design requirements of a CD: The CD body is the actual size of a CD body, the 4-page booklet, the correct dimensions for a 4-page booklet insert. These options are selected by pressing the option tabs at the top of the ‘Workspace’.

Within the workspace, different coloured lines mean different things: A red line indicates the edge of your product, though to allow for cutting errors, your image should go at least to the edge of the page. The light green lines indicate the space in which it safe to put important information. Between the red and green lines will be on your CD, but, again, due to cutting errors, it is not a wise plan to put important information so close to an edge which could potentially be cut off. Dark green lines indicate where the pages will fold.

It is also important to know that at the top of the ‘Workspace’, beneath the aspect option tabs, are two tabs. One says ‘Workspace’, the other, ‘Preview’. By selecting the preview tab, a new window opens with a full preview of your work. To get back to the main screen from the preview, simply close the new open window.

Once you have selected the part of the CD which you wish to design, it is time to select your background colour. Go to the right hand side of the page and find the background colour selector. You can either select one of the colours displayed or click the ‘More Colours’ button to open a new internal window which will allow you to select a colour from a chart. To get rid of it again, simply re-click the ‘More Colours’ button which will now say ‘Hide’. If you have a colour you know that you want already, simply click the ‘Enter Own Colour’ button and insert the hex code before clicking ‘Accept’.

After you have decided on your background colour, it is time to put an image onto your work. To do this you can either use one of the existing images by single-clicking on it in the ‘Artwork Gallery’ (middle, left-hand side of the screen) or upload your own. To do this, click the ‘Upload Image’ button at the very top of the screen. Then, select from your files and folders the image you wish to insert, before clicking ‘Select’. The image will then be uploaded into the workspace.

Once you have an image in the workspace, you can drag it around until it is in the correct position. You can also alter its size by bringing the mouse to the edge of the image until it turns into an arrow. Click and drag until the image is the size you want it. You can make it smaller or larger by doing this!

By inserting an image, you have made a new ‘Layer’. Each image has its own layer. To view the layers, look to the bar at the bottom right side of the screen, alongside the workspace. Drag and drop the layers higher or lower in the list to bring them forward or back. Aside from this, you can edit the brightness and opacity levels from here by selecting the layer then dragging the slider up or down on the corresponding scale in the layers toolbar. Rotation can be adjusted here, too, allowing you to twist and spin your image as much as you want.

The final thing in the design process is to insert the words you want. You could just have a title or you may want to print some lyrics inside your booklet. Whichever way, turn now to the ‘Text Tool’ which is situated near the top of the screen in between the ‘Clip Art Gallery’ and the ‘Background Colour’ selector. First, roll your mouse over the ‘Font’ button (Top left hand corner of the ‘Text Tool’) to decide which font you like. As your cursor scrolls over the font, a preview of it is temporarily shown in the Artwork Creator. Once you see a font you like, simply click on it to select it. Next, choose the size by selecting it from the drop-down list beside the ‘Font’ button. To select the justification, simply click either the right-hand orientation or the centralise buttons (top left corner of the group of icon-buttons in the top right corner of the ‘Text Tool’). Similarly, the button with the double-ended arrow going from side to side orients the text horizontally, as normal. The button with double-ended arrow going from top to bottom orients it vertically and the arrow going in a circle makes the text go in a circle. ‘Bold’, ‘Italics’ and ‘Underline buttons are directly beneath the orientation buttons and the final button in that group, which is a ‘T’ with a coloured block beside it, allows you to select the colour of the text you want. To add the text, simply click ‘Add Text’ and then drag the text to where you want it once it has appeared in the workspace. If you wish to edit the text once it has been inserted, simply double click it then edit the options in the ‘Text Tool’ space.

Lastly, to save your design, simply click the ‘Save Design’ button at the top of the screen. Click ‘Ok’ is a screen pops up, and the image you have created should save on your desktop in and ‘Artwork Creator’ folder. To load a previous design, click the ‘Load Design’ button (left of ‘Save Design’ button) then select the folder in which you previously stored the design you made. Then select the only version of the design which is not greyed out (file type ‘.prj’).

And if it all goes horribly wrong, just click the ‘New Design’ button in the top left corner of the screen which will give you a fresh canvas!

I hope this guide helps you to fill your design needs easily and effectively!

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How To Get Your CD Artwork Designed

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

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?

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

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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Home CD and DVD Burners – what has been their effect?

March 1st, 2010

Get creative - burn your own CD!

Since the advent in the early noughties of the home CD Burner, their progress in technological importance has been astounding: From starting out as a simple replacement for floppy discs, being used mainly in the workplace to store data, they have become an intrinsic part of our technological lives. It used to be that they were a luxury for office men with a lot of money to spend on their computer to a regular feature in our laptops, desktops and even our CD players themselves! In fact, it would be very rare to find a computer which didn’t have a CD burning drive at all!

But what has the consequence been on, firstly commerce, and secondly, our own creativity?

In terms of business, the main issue that has arisen with the advent of the CD burner is that of copyright: We started out simply making each other mix-CDs but people quickly cottoned onto the fact that music could be illegally ripped and burnt from existing CDs and so started to share music this way! The music business has met the trend with full on force and often law suites are now heard of where people are sued enormous sums of money for illegally copying music. Even the film business is feeling the effect of home disc burners as, with the wider distribution of DVD burners, films are also being illegally copied and shared. However, the legal CD survives, first through a sense of honour and second because you will never get the same finish on a disc as you would with a professionally produced copy. The artwork and packaging can never have the same high quality finish as they do when you buy a professionally produced disc rather than using your home CD burner.

However, in this instance the pros far outweigh the cons of home CD burning: To start, CDs are just better than floppy discs for sharing information. CDs are more reliable, store more data and are slimmer. Aside from this, they have expanded creative opportunity for artists world-wide: You can now record and burn your own album at home or produce an amateur film! The opportunities presented to us on a musical and film-making front are now almost limitless! And we can create personal gifts with mix-CDs. I even know someone who keeps a diary through burning a CD each month of the music they were listening to to sum up the mood!

But don’t forget that sometimes in all this creativity that if you want many copies of a disc it is still often more economically viable to get someone to professionally burn your discs in bulk for you. And you will be guaranteed to get a professional finish which would be nearly impossible to create in your own home without great personal expense!

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Tips to caring for your DVDs

March 1st, 2010

Caring for your DVDs is easy - when you know how!

DVDs are becoming common everyday objects in this growing world of technology. VHS is a thing of the past but, though by far superior, the DVD replacement is not a problem-free solution. DVDs, like everything else, degrade over time – but there are things you can do to help keep the quality of your DVD. Though some of these tips may seem obvious and simple, they will really assist in helping you keep a quality DVD.

To start with, just always put the disc back in the case! It’s that simple! And, if the case has a central pop-button to release the disc without scratching it, make sure you use it. And when it is out of the case, make sure it is always held by the edge and the middle hole and try and avoid touching the shiny side. Similarly, avoid placing the disc face-down on any hard surface – this will lower the quality of your DVD significantly through scratching! The same rule applies to stacking DVDs out of their case – just don’t do it! It’s asking for scratches!

Store DVDs out of the sun and away from heat if you can – both of these things can damage the delicate layer of chemicals which helps make up the data on the disc. Also, avoid bending the DVD because, like heat, it can make the disc warp and become more susceptible to snapping. Not only this, but the layers that make up the DVD can begin to peel apart from each other, rendering the disc useless as it cannot be read once DVD quality is lost. This problem of the DVD peeling apart or bubbling can in rare cases also be a manufacturing fault – buying discs from a reputable source helps to limit this possibility in the first place.

When it comes to cleaning, it is important to keep a quality DVD by using a special cleaning cloth to wipe them gently. Wipe it from the middle to the outer edge in one smooth stroke, slowly working your way around the disc, and your disc will last much longer than if you just wipe it down your t-shirt to get it quickly clean. You could also use compressed air to keep you disc clean.

Good luck keeping your DVD in good quality and I hope these tips help to keep your discs shiny and functional!

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Advertise with DVDs

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

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!

Tags: CD, Mp3, Music, Sound Editing, Sound Quality, Technical Discussion
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