CASA - the contemporary a cappella society

Too Few? Too Many?

Written by Freddie Feldman

Tuesday, 13 December 2005

A lot of the groups I produce ask me how many CDs to press, and it's always just (like minutes!) before they place their manufacturing order. Remember, always think ahead. Last minute decisions will never get your anywhere you want to be. It is a pretty straightforward question with a fairly easy answer, and will only require a few minutes of thinking.

The smallest quantity most manufacturers will do is sometimes 300 or 500. Don't order these quantities, if you can afford to possibly get 1000. The price difference, per unit, between quantities under 1000 and over 1000 are significant. I've heard that many companies will actually print a 1000 copies even if you order 500, because it costs about the same for them. Then, later, when you need 500 more CD's they sell them to you at a "discounted reorder price." They set the good pricebreak at 1000 for reason, use it. If it sounds like you'll never sell 1000 CDs, you'd be surprised, people will still want to buy those things years later.

When should we place a re-order for more CDs?
Plan ahead and you'll never be without discs. Don't wait until you have 10 CDs left before ordering more. Set a certain amount, and when you hit it, order more. You really need to base it on how fast you're selling your album right now. Take your average album sales per week, multiply that by 5, and that's how many CDs you should have left when you place your re-order.

Let's say you ordered 1000 CDs to start. You're selling 20 CDs a week. That means that you should re-order more discs when you have 100 CDs remaining. This way, if you continue to sell at 20 discs a week, you'll be covered for the three weeks it might take to get your next re-ordered batch of CDs. I've padded it a little, because you never know when you're going to sell a bunch more in a week.

You never want to be completely out of discs. If you don't have CDs, you're not going to sell CDs. If you plan ahead, get them just before you need them, you'll be all set!

Freddie Feldman and his studio, VOCOMOTION, are a Discmakers Platinum Studio Partner.