It?s a typical situation. You?ve been putting a lot of energy in your craft and people are starting to talk about your band. You?ve played a few shows and everyone is asking for a CD. I used to think that in order to release your own CD you would go out and play a bunch of shows and then someone would come out and sign you. They?d take care of everything. They?d set up the recording studio, organize the artwork, and pay for it to get manufactured. That?s not the case these days.

At present, technology is readily available for any budding musician to record, create, and duplicate CDs. CD duplication involves CD-R media. CD-R prices have dropped dramatically since the first CD Recorders were available on the consumer market. This makes it an affordable option for anyone who wants to copy their own CDs and pass them on to friends, family, or fans. This is a great option for the young band that is still getting their feet wet in the music industry. Duplicating a limited amount of CDs can keep a limited budget in place.

If your band is at the point were your ready to start selling your CD your best option is to make a retail-ready CD and having it replicated. What is a retail ready CD? These are the same CDs you find in the music stores by the major label artists. They have great artwork printed on CD inserts, a nice tray card insert, silk screened art on the CD, and they are shrink-wrapped.

The retail-ready CDs are not duplicated, but Replicated. This means that an exact replica of your CD master has been stamped out on all of the CDs. CD Replication is the way to go if you are serious about selling your music for profit. In fact most music stores will not sell duplicated CDs. Think about it this way. It is illegal to sell or profit from duplicating copy written material. If you tried to sell CDs that have been duplicated to a retail store you?ll more than likely get turned down. How are they to know that it is really your band? One of the best anti-piracy practices that CD manufacturing plants have instituted is the verification of copyright and ownership through a International Property Rights Form. Filling out an I.P.R. form ensures the CD Replication plant that they are not infringing on anyone?s copyright.

CD Replication not only shows that you value your art enough to have it made retail-ready, but also cost effective. I?ll break it down in general.

DIY CD Duplication

Total $1495.00

Typical CD Replication Package

Total $1000.00

These prices are very approximate and are only used for the purpose of estimating the difference between CD Duplication and CD Replication. Lets dig in a little bit. I?ve already illustrated some of the benefits of CD Duplication and the benefits of CD Replication. You can see above that you are spending approximately $500 more taking on the CD duplication responsibilities yourself and only getting 100 CDs!! Having your CDs Replicated costs less and someone else is doing the work. You can spend the time you?d spend on CD duplication and practice your chops or promote your upcoming CD release party, saving yourself $500 that you can use for items like merchandising, t-shirts, stickers, and posters.

Whether you choose CD Replication or CD Duplication, you?ll need to do some research. There are plenty of resources available for CD Duplication and you probably own everything you need. It is up to you and your band to decide which option is better depending on what level you see your band on. Are you a band that plays parties or small clubs, or is your band seasoned and touring? There are benefits to both. Find a local CD manufacturer in your area and ask for their recommendation. Most CD manufacturers also offer quick turn high quality CD Duplication with printing on the CDs. Keep rockin?!

Blake Stoffregen writes for many websites including Crystal Clear Sound CD & DVD Replication. Crystal Clear Sound provides cd, cdr and dvd duplication and replication services and offers packages from disc only to retail ready.

While at your local record store, browsing for CDs, you notice how slick and professionally manufactured your favorite artist?s CDs look. This may be kind of disheartening if your band?s last attempt at a demo was burned on your home computer and labeled with a black felt tip marker. Why not step it up and have your next recording manufactured professionally? There are numerous duplication and replication labs out there that are very affordable. The process is very simple, requiring only a couple of things from you. What do you need to start your CD duplication project?

1.CD Artwork
You will need to create the artwork for your CD face and the artwork for any inserts. An insert is the artwork that is displayed in the jewel case, which includes the ?booklet? that comes with many CDs. To create these files, you will need an image editing/creation program. I recommend using Adobe Illustrator, or Adobe Photoshop. But there are many different programs available for you to use that will work just as good.

When creating your artwork, please take in mind that most print houses (CD duplication facilities included) print everything in CMYK format. CMYK refers to the different inks used to print your artwork.

C= Cyan

M= Magenta

Y= Yellow

K= Key (Black)

Fun fact: The reason that black ink is represented by a K and not a B is to prevent it from being confused with Blue.

Fully explaining CMYK printing is an article in itself, and most of you will not need to understand it in any more detail. Just remember that when you open a new file in your graphics creation program, you need to set the file format to CMYK. Also, for high quality printing, your artwork will need to be at least 300 DPI. DPI stands for dots per inch, and is a measure of printing resolution, in particular the number of individual dots of ink a printer or toner can produce within a one-inch space. If your artwork is any less than 300 DPI, the final print will most likely be blurry. Refer to your CD duplication house?s documentation for any further information, as specifications vary from company to company.

2.Audio Files
All audio is converted to .CDA format when pressed (replicated) or burned (duplicated) on to a compact disc. If you have had your music recorded professionally, they will provide you with a ?master?. A master is the original copy of your recording on a disc (or tape), used to create CDs and records. CD quality audio files are usually presented to your CD duplication house in the form of uncompressed 44.1 kHz, 16-bit stereo .WAV files. You will need to check with the company that is manufacturing your CDs, because like your artwork, specifications vary from company to company.

These two items prepared correctly, will net you a fine looking (and sounding) batch of CDs. Keep in mind, video buffs, that most of these duplication companies also duplicate DVDs. I hope that all of you, musicians and filmmakers, realize now that it doesn?t take that much to bridge the gap from amateur to professional quality media. Bring your next project to the next level!

Jason Cole and DiskFaktory.com offer great tips and information regarding CD Duplication. Get info about DVD Duplication as well by visiting http://www.diskfaktory.com/tips/CD-duplication-tutorials.asp.