How Disc Makers Stacks Up Against Other CD Manufacturers: A “Secret Shopper” Experience

Estimated reading time: 6 minutes

Every now and then, I hear an artist say something like, “Disc Makers’ CDs are expensive. Why would I pay more?”

It’s a fair question. I’ll readily admit that our CD prices may not be the cheapest. So, why would anyone pay more for their CDs?

Well, we wanted to find out. Instead of arguing about it, we decided to test the waters.

Table of Contents:
• The “secret shopper” exercise
• Catching problems before printing artwork
• The ordering experience
• How turn times were quoted
• Comparing product quality and pricing
• Wrapping up

The “secret shopper” exercise

We recently decided to try a secret shopper exercise where we compared Disc Makers with two other well-known CD manufacturers. To do this, we placed an identical CD order with three different companies by using the same master, art file, order quantity, and packaging for each order.

To keep things fair, we remained anonymous. None of the companies, including Disc Makers, knew who the buyer really was. Out of respect, let’s keep the names of the other companies confidential. We’ll call them Competitor A and Competitor B.

We placed our orders, then we evaluated the experience across a number of factors that are important to artists, including the ordering experience, the prepress review of the supplied art files, communication with the manufacturer, turnaround times, and product quality.

What happened was pretty revealing.

Catching problems before printing artwork

The first test we set up was to see who could catch problems before printing the CD artwork. We intentionally inserted two very common mistakes in the artwork: a low-resolution image and a missing font. These are exactly the kinds of problems that artists submit all the time.

Here’s what happened.

Competitor A rejected the job because of the missing font, but missed the low-resolution image. Competitor B didn’t flag either issue. Disc Makers was the only company that proactively caught the low-resolution image before production. We flagged the low-resolution image for the customer and got them to upload a high-resolution photo instead, which prevented a visible defect in the final product.

That catch may not seem like a big deal, but it’s an important one. As a cd manufacturing company, we at Disc Makers, and our competitors, are the professionals. We do this for a living. You, the artist, don’t make CDs for a living.
Therefore, as best as possible, Disc Makers tries to anticipate client errors and prevent orders from going bad due to an artist’s inexperience.

This doesn’t work 100% of the time. For example, if you misspell your grandmother’s name in the thank yous, we won’t catch it. But our processes do catch some common technical problems.

The ordering experience

The next thing we compared was the ordering experience and the customer communications.
Disc Makers handled everything through a single online portal. You get a quote for your project, upload art and audio files, and review and approve proofs all in one place.

During the ordering and quoting phase, both of our competitors relied heavily on email workflows, requiring repeated uploads and fragmented communication. It’s not a huge deal, but it does add some friction and frustration, as well as potential delays.

Disc Makers provided detailed updates throughout the process. This included order confirmations, production statuses, a shipment confirmation, and shipment tracking. We offer optional text alerts so that you’ll never have to worry about missing an important message.

Also, Disc Makers was the only company with an online dashboard where an artist can log in at any time and see their live order status.

As for the competition, Competitor A communicated minimally. Competitor B provided a few limited updates and even made a customer data error.

Ultimately, every company completed their order. But if you ask me, when you’re releasing music, communication does matter.

How turn times were quoted

Perhaps one of the biggest differences between Disc Makers and our competitors was how turn times were quoted.

I’m not just talking about the time it takes to make the product. I’m also talking about the time to get and approve a proof.

When you order from Disc Makers, the turn time that you’re quoted is from the date the order is received until the date it’s shipped. Your quoted turn time includes the time it takes for proofing and prepress review of your files to make sure that everything is correct and ready to go into production.

The competitors’ turn times don’t include that proofing time. In other words, their turn times are not from the time that the order is received. Instead, they’re from the time that the proof is approved and the job goes into production.
That makes a huge difference.

Disc Makers quoted 6–8 days and the order shipped in 8 business days, within the range quoted. Spoiler alert: That made us the fastest overall.

One competitor quoted an 8-day turn time and the project took 12 days to complete. The other advertised 4–6 days, but the real end-to-end time ended up being 16 business days.

These turn times can mean the difference between having your product in hand for your album release party or standing there empty-handed. I can’t overstate how big of a deal that is.

Comparing product quality and pricing

While turn times are very important, the most significant difference we found was in product quality.
For as long as you have an album available, that product represents you.

And when the product finally arrived from all three manufacturers, the difference was visible.
As far as audio, all of the audio was identical across the three manufacturers, as it should be with a digital audio product. But visually and physically, the products were clearly different.

Remember what lead to this secret shopper experiment in the first place? It was CD pricing. Why would anyone pay more for their CDs? Let’s talk about that.

Disc Makers’ price was the highest of the three companies we tested. This didn’t surprise us and probably shouldn’t surprise you either. We don’t strive to be the cheapest, but it’s not for the reason that you may think.

You see, at Disc Makers, we are hyperconscious of how important your physical product is for you. When a fan buys your CD, that disc represents you, your music, your brand, and your reputation.

That’s why we use better equipment for higher image resolution and brighter colors. We print on higher quality paper and board, so your product feels sturdier. We include extra production steps like the UV coating that really makes a difference in the look of the product.

We invest in extra staff to answer your questions by phone or email and to do all those important quality checks that I pointed out earlier.

These things all cost money, and that makes our product a bit more expensive.
But if you ask any one of our hundreds of thousands of happy customers, the small premium you pay is worth it.
Or as one of our customers put it bluntly:

“Saving a few dollars doesn’t feel so smart if the final product looks cheap.”

Wrapping up

The goal of this exercise wasn’t to embarrass anyone. At Disc Makers, we respect all of our competitors. Each one of them shipped a workable product and they all helped keep the physical media ecosystem alive.

Our goal here was to understand what artists actually experience when they place an order and whether any potential price differences were worth it.

And I’m pretty proud by what we found.

Disc Makers delivered the strongest overall experience. This included better prepress oversight, faster turnaround from order to shipping, and clearer communication.

We used higher-quality materials, and most importantly, we built a better-looking product. It’s a product that will make you look like a big-time artist.

That’s why we’re in the business and that’s what you’re looking for, isn’t it?

You can watch the original version of this blog as part of our Indie Music Minute series on the Disc Makers YouTube Channel.