Question about small run CD manufacturing...

[cvac]

A friend is working on a project and wants to get CDs made. The catch is he only wants 100 copies and wants glass-mastered CDs, not pro-printed CDRs.

Does anyone know a reputable plant in the U.S. or Canada that can do this? Most plants I have looked at for him have minimums of 300+.

Alternatively, if there is a place outside of those locations where they can do it in a cost effective, but high quality fashion, please let me know. Reliability and the ability to ship to the U.S. for a reasonable price is key.

[chris23]

Check out 8Merch.

https://8merch.com/

You can get 100 glass-mastered discs in various sleeves (tray, eco, digipak) for about 300 to 400 USD. The company is based out of Poland, but, at some point this summer, they also opened a location in New Jersey.

They do a great job. But the best thing they have going for them is that they can cover the warehouse and shipping too. So, if I have a CD I need shipped in the EU, I have it shipped from the EU warehouse at EU shipping prices. If I have a CD I need shipped to the US, I can ship it within the US via the NJ warehouse. But, to be honest, with current US shipping prices, it probably just makes more sense to ship CDs from the EU to the US. I know that sounds stupid, but, hey, I'm not Louis DeJoy.

The down side to 8Merch: It took them 2 months to get the interface set up for me to sell the CDs from the NJ warehouse. So, when I released my last album, I had to basically drain my EU supply to cover both the EU and US orders. Really pissed me off. But, nonetheless, here I am thinking "I don't know of a better alternative for both printing in low batches AND dealing with the costs of shipping overseas."

[cvac]

Check out 8Merch.

https://8merch.com/

Thanks for the recommendation. I will pass it along to my friend. Do you think they have worked out the kinks with the drop shipping/warehouse NJ stuff by now? My friend would probably just want the CDs to sell directly from his own website. I'm not sure how many European customers he has, but that's a good thing to keep in mind. His label mainly does hip hop and some electronic music.

[chris23]

I'm not convinced they've worked out the US/NJ side of things yet. I can't help but sense that I'm a test case for them. Either that, or they're dropping the ball for a lot of people.