Sunday, March 22, 2009

What's The Diff? CD Duplication vs. CD Replication

When you're in a particular industry it's pretty easy to take what you know for granted, and to assume that other people also know what you know.

Despite that little nugget of truth, I'm often surprised how many people use "CD duplication" as a very broad term covering all manner of CD manufacturing... and... how many people have no idea what "CD replication" is.

Having said that, there's absolutely no judgement being passed of any kind on that matter... it's just one of those 'things'. But I digress.

CD duplication is easy and quick to do, and it's best suited for small quantities of discs. It's the very same process of 'burning' CDs that you would do in your own computer except the duplication of CDs is done on a larger scale using duplication 'towers' that can burn several discs at the same time to make it more time efficient and cost effective than duplicating one at a time.

CD replication is the actual creation of CDs from scratch - also referred to as 'pressed' CDs or 'stamped' CDs - and is the highest quality and most durable method to produce your discs. Each disc is custom made, being injection-molded from polycarbonate pellets with the data physically added as an integral part of molding process. Because of the set-up costs and time involved to replicate discs, this process is best suited for larger orders and orders not required in a super-super rush.

At the end of the day I think that most people want the higher quality and durability of the CD replication but, when only a few discs are needed or a super fast turn-time is required, CD duplication is the way to go.

Additional info is on our website about this topic.

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