Disc Makers Celebrates 60 Years of Innovation, Growth and Independent Music Manufacturing

Pennsauken, NJ-based disc replicator and duplicator manufacturer continues to thrive as the undisputed leader in optical disc manufacturing for independent artists, filmmakers, and businesses

March 21, 2006, (Pennsauken, NJ) — Disc Makers, the nation's leading independent media manufacturer, is proud to announce the company's 60th anniversary and kick-off of its year-long celebration featuring a revamped Independent Music World Series that will award cash and prizes worth over $250,000, nationwide instructional seminars for independent artists, exclusive manufacturing plant tours, and special offers to new and loyal customers.

Plus, as a special commemoration of Disc Makers' 60 years in business, the company is giving away 60 extra discs absolutely free to every customer who places a new CD or DVD replication order during 2006.

"My father Ivin Ballen started the company in 1946," explains Morris Ballen, Disc Makers' President. "The secret to our success then, as now, is to treat every independent customer as a major customer, by offering them the highest quality, super fast delivery, and an unmatched customer experience. After all, without these independent artists, we'd long be out of business."

Today Disc Makers stands alone as the undisputed leader in optical disc manufacturing for independent artists, filmmakers, and businesses, producing 20,000 titles every year and building thousands of disc duplication systems. The company pioneered many of the features and services currently taken for granted in the music and film industry - and some that to this date have not been copied - including:

• Complete turnkey packages for CD and DVD replication (which didn't exist before Disc Makers started offering them).
• Integrated in-house manufacturing, printing, and packaging (the company is still the only replicator focusing exclusively on independent customers), which has allowed unrivaled turn times as low as 7 days for a complete package.
• A free barcode, allowing independent artists to sell their products at retail (now commonplace in the industry).
• Free bundled extras designed to aid indie musicans and filmmakers, including free marketing guides, CD Baby, Taxi, and SonicBids membership offers, store display units and more.
• Premium board packages like jackets and Digipaks at indie-friendly prices.
• A "no fine print" money-back guarantee on its replication services.

Disc Makers' success over the last six decades can be credited in part to its strategy of positioning itself as the industry's most vertically integrated manufacturing company. Everything is done under one roof in its Pennsauken, NJ plant — graphic design, prepress, printing, bindery, post-production mastering, glass mastering, replication, packaging, and fulfillment, as well as building its own duplicators. The company has been able to bring down the cost of production and deliver the savings directly to the customer, plus condense turn times to the quickest timeframes quoted in the industry.

Another of Disc Makers' key competitive advantages is its principle of remaining format neutral through 60 years of technology changes (78 rpm shellac, to 45s, to 12" LPs, to 8-tracks, to cassettes, to CDs, and now to DVDs), while dozens of other manufacturers have dropped out. In an age of booming digital music sales, big business record labels and shrinking mass market CD sales, the company maintains a market leadership position in most of the markets it targets, and is well positioned to continue that with emerging technologies such as HD-DVD and Blu-Ray.

"When I started at Disc Makers in 1987, the independent Do-It-Yourself spirit was just beginning to emerge," says Tony van Veen, Disc Makers' executive vice president. "Today it's widely accepted that as an artist you need to make your own CDs as a first step to kickstarting your music career. As a musician, I understood what the market wanted: ease of purchasing, a no-hassle experience, fair pricing, and a company that stood behind the product they made. And that, to this day, is what Disc Makers stands for. This company has truly revolutionized music manufacturing for independent artists. Many well-known artists, like Will Smith and Eminem, started their careers here, and we're damn proud of that."

Another way Disc Makers has changed CD/DVD manufacturing sales as well as hardware sales was by going direct to end customers through comprehensive direct marketing programs. Replication services were traditionally sold through outbound telephone prospecting and face-to-face sales. Duplication equipment was always sold through a value added reseller channel. Disc Makers changed the sales paradigm by putting those services and products in its full color 52-page catalog - published 3 times each year -- and successfully selling them through direct marketing. Disc Makers also adds a local presence to key territories by operating storefront locations in Los Angeles, New York City, the San Francisco Bay Area, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, and Puerto Rico.

The milestone anniversary year will be highlighted by the eleventh annual Independent Music World Series (IMWS). Over 5,000 performers are expected to enter the competition and Disc Makers has sweetened this year's pot by boosting the total prize package to over $250,000, in addition to guaranteed slots in prestigious music conferences and free recording time in select studios.

For more information about Disc Makers, go to www.discmakers.com.