Packaging your cd used to be a significant effort. Labels had to be printed  then pasted on the CD which often did not look quite perfect. Labels are not cheap either, never mind including the CDs inner sleeves , back cover etc. All of this tedious and not inexpensive. I believe that the advent of LightScribe has changed what packaging a CD entails and has dramatically reduced the amount of work and the costs. LightScribe is a technology that allows one to print images upon the face of a CD. The image are printed in grayscale upon a brazzy looking background. The result can be very appealing. For example:

As one can see a very beautiful CD can be made. The CD itself can be made appealing and one does not have to rely on expensive labels and CD cover artwork to create a professional looking product. Of course just pretty artwork is not all that should be placed on a CD. The appropriate information is the typical :

• 1. Album name
• 2. Artist name
• 3. Tracks

Less obvious:

• 4. UPC Code
• 5. Copyright tag
• 6. User registration id (special order)

The independent musician has several avenues to distribute music. For example CDBaby and digital download providers. One avenue is that artist can do the work. These would be “special orders” , the cost would be slightly higher to the music fan but the fan would receive a customised product, with special artwork and even engraved with the listeners name or perhaps an engraving appropriate to a gift for a special someone. The sky is the limit. I plan to later blog about ideas on how the artist can provide the fan with more value beyond the music and at the same time keep more of the profits.

I’m using LightScribe on Jon Raney’s CD which we will be sending to the U.S copyright office tomorrow. For now we kept it simple:

Click on the image for a larger view.