Call it another sign that Boston remains matchless of America�s great music cities: Disc Makers, a major producer of independent CDs, just opened a branch in Cambridge.
To make sure its presence is noted, Disc Makers is not located in a tucked-away office staff space, simply where people can go out it, videlicet, a stock in Central Square at 36 Prospect St.
�Boston is one of our biggest markets,� said gross revenue supervisor Ted Deacon. �By opening a storefront, we�ll be easy to discover and we�ll make it clear we�re a leader of the industry.�
Berklee College of Music is 1 notable client. And the large number of local rockers, folkies and jazz players makes Boston a perfect spot for the 10th positioning in the United States for Disc Makers, a New Jersey-based firm that started out in 1946 as Vinyl Makers.
To observe the store�s opening, the company will host a show at the Middle East on Thursday with five Boston bands. All are satisfied Disc Makers customers: Jackelope, To the Masquerade, Static of the Gods, Black Betty & the Bad Habits and Deftchild.
Disc Makers is one of the few CD manufacturers to operate its own production plant, so it can design, photographic print, package, master and push CDs entirely at its headquarters in Pennsauken, N.J. Among its competition, only Oasis presses discs itself.
Disc Makers� dim-witted Cambridge shopfront will do nothing simply take orders for its New Jersey plant (Disc Makers� local competition, Nimbit, meanwhile, offers full album design at its Framingham headquarters). The cost of manufacturing CDs has become increasingly affordable. A band can order 1,000 CDs with a wide-eyed jewel-box and a single-page insert for just $.89 per copy. Disc Makers buns also plan your CD package, with prices ranging from $290 to $690. Only motivation a few copies for friends? A short order of 25 CDs can be done in 5 days for $3.14 per disc.
And Disc Makers isn�t only about fashioning discs. Want to publicise your band with T-shirts, hats, postcards or stickers? Disc Makers is at your armed service. An rules of order of 24 black-and-white T-shirts is a mere $99.
The commercial music industry may be in free fall but, despite the regular, long-term refuse in CD sales, independent artists stay ever hopeful. Disc Makers� CD gross revenue are up 11 percentage in 2008; its DVD replication gross sales have jumped a banging 22 percent.
After 60 geezerhood as a family business sector, owner Morris Ballen sold Disc Makers to the Corinthian Capital Group in 2006. Last month, Disc Makers bought CD Baby, an online music store that sells CDs by some 240,000 sovereign musicians.
The CD manufacturing business has been booming with one exception: Nearly every musician at once owns a computer capable of combustion CDs, so small orders plummeted a few long time ago. Yet Disc Makers hasn�t minded up totally on the short-run market.
�We plan on bringing a duplication machine into the Cambridge authority,� aforesaid Deacon, �so musicians seat just dash in and get a few CDs made while they wait.�
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