Time for Your Music CD
Replication or Duplication?

cd manufacturing image

Music CD replication or duplication is the final stage in your music CD manufacturing process.

You will, after your mastering session, have in your possession a Red Book standard master disk. You are now ready to get copies made for sales and distribution.

You can of course burn CD's with your computer at home. You'll obviously find this process too slow and tedious as you can usually do only one at a time, which is useless for larger quantities. There's a time for DIY and this isn't it.

You should, for a larger quantity of CD copies, use one of the host of CD replication companies, services and packages available to you.

You'll want to compare services to make sure you get the best quality work done, for the best price. You'll find that short-run CD replication, with fewer copies made, costs more per copy than large volume CD replication. Luckily with so much competition in the market there are good deals to be had, even with lower volume orders.

You could do a quick check on the reputation of any CD replication company by doing a search for their name in Google. You may also want to ask for recommendations on music production forums.

You can always save up and buy your own CD duplication equipment, though I've been advised that this is not the best way to go about your manufacturing.

The demand for CD has taken a nosedive as you know by now. There is still a huge demand for it even with digital downloads and streaming on the rise. Yes, you can release all digital if that makes sense to you, just be sure you're not leaving potential revenue on the table by not offering a physical product.

You may also want to consider creating special edition sets which combines your CD with other physical products.