Generic CD-R Nitemare

A local rock band that I had recorded a while ago wanted me to burn 100 cds for them. I own the Primera Bravo which allows me to burn 25 cds while I take a nap. It even has a feature to verify the cds and will spit out the bad cds and keep the good ones. This is a great way of making sure that a band doesn't pay for a bad burn.

The band had ordered some cd-rs online. I didn't think much of it. One of the members showed up to my house with a roll of 100 cd-rs. I went to town burning cds. I walked away. When I came back minutes later, 4 cds had been spit out of the machine and 4 had been burned properly. AAHH!! This wasn't what I had bargained for.

Needless to say, after going through the entire stack of cd-rs, it turns out that 40 of them were rejected by my Primera Bravo.

The moral of this story is generic cd-r cost a lot more than you think. The band will have 60 cds for their show tonight instead of 100 that they were counting on. They thought they were getting a good deal for 100 cdrs but it turns out that it wasn't such a great deal for only 60 cdrs.

I need to point out that my Primera Bravo was spitting these cds out before it even started burning the cd. It wasn't like the burner is messed up. The cd's simply weren't even writable.

Use Name Brand CD-Rs

If you buy CD-Rs at your local electronics store you might get boned for some serious cash. However, I've had great luck finding clearance deals on Sony, HP, and various other brands of cd-rs when I keep my eyes open. I try to stop by Staples every once in a while to stock up. Sometimes, you'll find some truly amazing deals when a store is overstocked or just trying to clear them out.

It seams the real risk is when you start buying bulk cd-rs online. There are lot of crappy cd-rs floating around. So if you are going to order a large quantity, you may want to think twice before buying cheapy cd-rs. They'll probably cost you more in the end.

Cheap CD-Rs Will Cost You Time

I remember back when I bought 500 cheap cd-rs. I had to use them and I didn't want to waste them. Well, I should have just thrown them out. When you burn a cd for a band and they live two hours away, the last thing you want is for the cd to not even play in their car. This means that not only is that cd-r wasted, but I have to burn another cd (a higher quality cd-r) and then mail it to them. The time it takes to go out of your way to fix problems caused by cheap cd-rs is enormous. Your time is to valuable for cheap cd-rs