Last month, I talked about having CD’s made in large quantities, but what if you can’t afford or don’t need, large quantities? Suppose you’re in a band just starting out, with a small fan base, or you can’t afford to plunk down $1,000 for a 1,000 CD’s, or you just have a three or four-song EP? You don’t need to spend a ton on having CD’s made. DIY (Do It Yourself). Here’s how:

1. Printing On Blank CD’s. You can buy printable blank CDR’s on line or at Best Buy, Fry’s and others. There are several inexpensive printers available that will print full color graphics directly on a CD — the HP 5100, and the Epson 200 series. They’re cheap, but veeerrryy slow. The big drawback to this method is that you have to feed each CD into the printer one at a time. It’s very time consuming, but you get very professional looking results.

2. Printing Paper CD Labels. Avery Label sells pre-cut paper CD labels with an adhesive backing, and they offer free software to do the printing. Just design the label the way you want with full color graphics, and you can print them, two at a time, on any inkjet printer. Way faster. Use a “CD Stomper” to accurately center the label on the CD and you’re done. The labels are pre-cut and they’re on a standard 8-1/2” by 11” sheet of paper. Not as good looking, but very acceptable results.

3. Printing The Booklet. Printing the booklet is a little trickier. You can print a standard four-panel booklet on a single sheet of 8-1/2” by 11” paper. I like to use a heavy glossy stock photo paper for the booklet. I print full color on the front and back cover and black and white on the inside two pages. Print in “landscape” mode using any program (like “Microsoft Word”) that allows multiple fonts and importing graphics. You can print one four-panel booklet on a single sheet, front and back. Leave some space near the edges for slop when printing the inside pages. I put “cut and fold” lines on the cover page. When you’re ready to fold the booklet, use an out-of ink ballpoint pen to score booklet and you’ll get a perfect booklet.

4. Printing Tray Cards. They now make compact CD cases that don’t need tray cards; they’ll hold the booklet, the CD and that’s it. If you go with regular cases and want a tray card, you can print two of them on a single 8-1/2” by 11” sheet of paper. Use regular 20# paper for the tray card, and the ballpoint pen trick for scoring the paper. You’ll need a program that can turn the edge writing 90 degrees to read correctly when they’re folded.

5. How Many To Print? That’s the hardest question to answer. Most groups are very proud of their first CD and want to give them away to all their friends and family. Three words on this point: DON’T DO IT !!! Your friends and family can afford to buy them. Give free CD’s to radio stations, reviewers and promoters. Sell the rest. Each member of the band gets one or a few for free. If you’re playing a club, make about 25 CD’s to sell there. If you’re not a big name act, you’ll probably only sell about five CD’s, but hey, it’s a start.

6. Open A Group Bank Account. That’s where the proceeds from CD sales go. After a while of selling these handmade CD’s, you’ll have enough money to record more songs, and/or a big enough fan base to run off a 1,000 CD’s. And you’ll have the money in the bank to do it. (Harvey Gerst), ITR Studios, http://ITRstudio. com