March 6, 2001
NEW INTERNATIONAL CD DUPLICATING SERVICE ASSOCIATION FOUNDED AT REPLITECH 2001. LOCAL BUSINESSES UNITE TO BETTER SERVE CUSTOMERS.
IDDA - the International Disc Duplication Association was inaugurated on February 22nd, 2001 at a meeting at Replitech in Los Angeles, California. The meeting was initiated and chaired by Bernhard Kirschner of Sydney, Australia.
The International Disc Duplicating Association has been created by organizations involved in the relatively new but growing service of duplicating onto recordable discs, known as CD-R. Disc duplicators use CD Recorders to "burn" each disc on recordable disc media, compared to replicators who use glass masters and stampers to manufacture the discs.
Founding members come from several US States, Australia and the UK. Members include companies and organizations that duplicate, label and pack CDs, manufacture and sell automatic disc duplicating machines, label makers and trade magazines.
CD duplicating onto CD-R is a growing service industry, with thousands of services worldwide, ranging from small organizations with just a few duplicators or burners, to those with 100s of CD burners. It is estimated that 4 billion CDR discs were sold last year, of which 40% were used by professional duplicators, with the market growing to 10 billion discs within 4 years.
The purposes of the association are:
Ethical matters to be addressed are copyright, technology changes such as Napster, quality standards, business ethics, with members in good standing having the right to use the organization’s logo.
Information on products will be disseminated through the IDDA’s website, www.discdupe.org, with forums for members to discuss problems and solutions. These forums should help members distinguish hype from help.
Urgent questions facing disc duplicators are whether there is a CD-R cost v quality problem and finding a method of printing onto CD-R in color cheaply and quickly. Other questions are at what level of automation of production is viable, and which equipment does or does not perform satisfactorily.
Individuals cannot commit resources to testing their raw materials & depend on manufacturers' claims as to accuracy, aging and appearance. Trade magazines have done some excellent work, but their resources are also limited. Members of IDDA will be able to develop relationships with other members, leading to trust that they can unload work between themselves. There is sometimes a need for a LA client to need several hundred copies of a disc in each of Houston, Boston, & Sydney that day. By using electronic data and label design over the internet this is easy, provided you have been able to build up a trusting relationship with an IDDA member in a different city.
Most members of IDDA are locally based and do not see either replicators or in house duplicating as competitors. Replicators serve the long run market better, and many will find IDDA a useful organization to join. Currently in-house duplicators do so because of convenience and confidentiality reasons. Members of ADDA through promoting the availability of their services and their integrity and professionalism, should be able to do a better, faster and cheaper job than those who try and do it themselves.
Many IDDA members will be coming from the duplicating of audio and video tapes, or duplicating floppy discs, and who have entered the growing disc duplicating market to ensure their survival and future growth.
Members of IDDA will be able to organize joint purchasing plans, giving savings in the costs of services, media & equipment.
A classified section for manufacturers is planned, and a publicly accessible list of members and services will be available at www.discdupe.org or discussion matters where interested parties can comment.
Not only is an annual meeting of members worldwide planned during Replitech North America, but also city, state and country branches which can meet locally.
Annual membership costs just US $50 per year for 2001, which will be used to the benefit of the membership.
Founding committee members include:
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For list of members, see www.discdupe.org and select the button “MEMBERS LIST”
For more information, please contact Bernhard
Kirschner,
Chairman, International Disc Duplicating Association
Sydney, Australia
Phone 61 2 9954 9885
Fax 61 2 9922 4801
discdupe@hotmail.com
Or Jeff Starfield,
CD\Works, Boston,
Phone 617 782-5884
jbs@cdworks.com