a strange balance of supply and demand
- October 17th, 2015
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I’m finding that getting someone to replicate 150 CDs with colour labels costs more than buying A WHOLE NEW PRINTER+EXTRA INK+200 blanks and doing it myself. That’s kind of goofy. Capital expenditures what.
This is relevant to anything at all because Lightscribe (which is how I printed Dick Tracy Must Die, as a DIY project) is very much a legacy technology now, and I can’t get green lightscribe blanks anymore. The closest I can find are what I suspect are remaindered five-colour Memorex multipacks, which makes my per-disc cost $4. Yeah, no.
So yeah, I dunno. I was just going to farm out this mini-run, but now I’m weighing whether just to get a whole new printer just for this. Because then I could use it for other things. Which I likely would. And also, I wouldn’t have to worry about the printing technology going away – at least, not before CDs go away entirely, if they do.
(There are, yes, still some advantages of physical media. Most notably, people like having something you can sign. Also, while less of a problem: no DRM, no subject-to-surprise-licensing-changes. And finally, physical data durability. That’s a pretty decent combination right there.)
Downsides: 1) wtf will I do with this extra device other than this? Nothing? 2) where will I put it? 3) it seems like a waste because wow, a whole printer? (see nr. 1) and 4) um… not sure about four but four sounded better than three for some reason.
I mean, I guess I can say, “my time is worth money” and have it come closer to balancing that way, but the next time I need/want some short-run CDs… yeah.
I dunno. Anybody got opinions?
4 comments on Livejournal, 4 comments on Dreamwidth, 5 comments on Google+.
time.
I have a printer (inkjet) that does CDs and a computer that burns them. I like that because I’m in control of the process. (you can picture me ape grunting like Tim Allen on Home Improvement if you’d like.)
the drawback to that is, I’m responsible. if I don’t make ’em, I don’t have any to sell. and it takes hours and hours out of time that could be better spent writing or recording and other stuff of that nature.
I don’t have any idea what your sales figures are like but mine, while not huge, are steady enough that the time factor is wearing on me.
it’s a trade-off. you have to decide which path suits you best.
Well, that’s the thing, of course. I do like to do weird short runs of special CDs. And I like being able to send snazzy-looking special CDs to things like, oh, I dunno, Grammy Award juries. 😀
(And I separately have news on that, which I’m holding onto until Monday morning, I guess? But a couple of weeks ago, I got an information query from the Academy which made me wonder about something, and yesterday, I got confirmation of something, so we have ROUND 2: FIGHT and aaaaaaaaaaaAAAAaAAAAAAAAAAaaaaAAAAAaaaa!)
But, like I’ve said elsewhere, I can use gold lightscribe CDs for things special short runs, and those will be around a while, given the 15 years of install base. I’d hope, anyway.
But DTMD… those kind of relied on the green CDs still being available. And they’re not anymore. And I’d like to complete that first disc the way I started it, modulo sanity, so I’d like to keep the CD label green and black. And at this point, that means a printer. (And I’d like to keep it purely DIY, since that’s how the whole project was formed. So that’s an argument for doing it.)
Maybe I could, I dunno, donate the printer or something. Or make it a local resource. Or something. Still thinking, I guess.
….as you are probably aware, John has a CD robot that can print a full color label.
Jen: I’m aware, but I also know how busy he is, so that’s what I was thinking there. But if he’s got time, great!