Creative Design Digital Music Posts

CD Pressing, Design for CD Packaging and Social Media Graphics, Music Promotion, Digital Distribution, Social Media Support and more… Birnam Case Study

karen
01/02/2017
0

CD Pressing, Design for CD Packaging and Social Media Graphics, Music Promotion, Digital Distribution, Social Media Support and more… Birnam Case Study

We’ve been working with independent musicians for over 30 years now and consider ourselves very privileged to be able to continue to work with a huge number of dedicated and talented musicians. We know that sustaining a career in the music industry is not easy and we like to think that we offer a complete service, supporting artists through all the stages of an album release and beyond.

A few folks have said that they thought we only offered CD, DVD and Vinyl pressing (well, we have built a reputation for that over the years). We actually do a whole lot more, so we’re introducing a few case studies to demonstrate and explain about the broad range of services that we offer.

The first case study features Liza Mulholland, an independent musician based north of Inverness. Liza came to us early in 2016 when she was planning her debut solo album. She wanted to have physical CDs in attractive packaging to sell at her gigs but also fancied the idea of the album being available to download and stream. She was keen to achieve widespread radio airplay as well as press and online reviews for her work. We discussed various packaging, design and promotion options and put together a full package covering all of Liza’s requirements.

You can read the case study HERE.

Liza gave us some really nice feedback, here’s a short excerpt:

‘Although technology and the internet have revolutionised the music business, making it much easier for musicians to release their own music, it still involves a lot of work. To be aided throughout the process, and relieved of much of the stress and hassle, has been a huge benefit and one that I would highly recommend. Self-releasing a solo album can feel a wee bit lonesome, with the burden of the whole project on your own shoulders; with Birnam CD at my side I felt like they were taking care of everything for me. Even better than that, I’m now getting nice reviews coming in and plays on radio stations I previously didn’t even know existed!’

Look out for a few further case studies over the coming year. We welcome, listen and pay attention to all feedback and we’re constantly striving for ways to build on and improve our services. In 2016 we revamped our website to make it more ‘user friendly’ and easier to navigate. We’ll be continuing to streamline and build on our range of services in the coming year and beyond, so please drop us an email with any suggestions or comments.

Creative Design Music

CD Printing – using a white base

karen
19/08/2016
0

 

CD Printing – using a white base

A CD disc has 3 different areas and the surface of each area is different. There is the main playing area, made from polycarbonate plastic which is coated in silver on the non-playing side, an ID ring – which is a shiny metallic silver colour printed onto the inner plastic ring – and a clear plastic hub. The recordable surface and ID ring are not constant silvers, and if you are not using a white base then the different areas can significantly affect any finished design.

A white base is used to provide a neutral base layer and covers the ID ring and inner plastic hub. It basically acts like white paper, providing an even surface for more accurate colour printing. When printing CMYK onto CDs we would recommend that you specify a white base as printing CMYK onto a disc without a white base results in a washed out finish.

If you would like your disc design to include some ‘silver disc shine through’ either the basic silver shine through or some part of the design/colours printed direct onto the silver disc then we would suggest you use a custom white base. You will need to supply 2 different artwork files – one with your full design which will be printed onto a white base, and another showing just the area you would like knocked out. Remember, if you are undertaking this then it is important that the 2 separate artwork files are accurate, if there are any spaces or overlaps between the white base design and the second knocked out design then the end result will mean that the finished disc design will have outlines or halos, the colours will be different if any overlap is present and the design will not look sharp – so it can be a bit tricky.

We would generally recommend using a white base for disc printing. Give us a call if you need any more information – we’re always happy to help.