from a Disc Makers press release
PENNSAUKEN, NJ March 21st, 2006 Disc Makers, the nations leading independent media manufacturer, is proud to announce the companys 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, wed 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:
Disc Makers success over the last six decades can be credited in part to its strategy of positioning itself as the industrys 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 inch 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 its 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 were damn proud of that."
