(idm) the people vs. diy

From Noah
Sent Thu, Mar 25th 1999, 20:03

>>" i would recommend, however, ditching the cd-r method and fronting the
>>money to a duplication plant. save you time and headaches..  " 
>
>if I only wanna make 50-100 copies of my cd, HOW do I do this without
>having to ALSO pay BIG MONEY (~$500) for a glass master?  it's just NOT
>cost effective.

you're asking HOW? well, that's the thing. there is no easy way to make
only 50-100 copies of your cd. every plant that i've seen has a 500 disc
minimum. 

you can burn them yourself, if you have a cd-r, but it is very time
consuming, and throwing down the $500 for duplication saves you that. if
you think that you can make a good portion of that 500 back by selling your
work, then that's the best bet. plus, when you have 500 copies of your cd,
you can afford to throw them around, give them to random people, bring them
with you to shows, etc etc. im sure you can see the advantages of that.. 

also, to my knowlege, a glass master is not needed for (most? several?
some?) plants. they can take a regular old cd-r. 

i guess it depends on how serious you are about what you're doing. if
you're just making a few copies for friends, then home burning is the way
to go. but once you start the process of going to a printshop for artwork,
and burning and labeling 100+ cds in your own spare time, you start to
question if it's really worth it. i've easily spent at least $300 on my
'diy' homeburnt cd so far. had i invested that money in a plant, i'd have
500 copies of my cd by now, and i would've saved all the time spent doing
silly production things, and been able to write more music instead.

noah