SECTIONS:

DUPLICATION VS. REPLICATION
CD PRINTING
DIGITAL PRINTING GUIDELINES
ARTWORK
PAYMENT OPTIONS
REFUND POLICY
TURN AROUND TIME
SHIPPING
BARCODES
CD MASTER
SCREEN PRINTING GUIDELINES
SHRINK BAGS
ORDER QUANTITY
DESIGN STUDIO POLICIES
FORMS

DUPLICATION VS REPLICATION

Please refer to the following wikipedia links to add insight to the specific differences between the two:

CD/DVD Duplication
CD/DVD Replication

We use Ri-Data for all white faces and Prodisc for silver faces.

CD PRINTING

We use white and silver inkjet printable CDs that have an barely noticable light green tinge on the bottom. The majority of our clients have no problems with this, but if you are looking for silver bottomed (diamond) CDs, we can acquire this for silver faced CDs for an additional $10 per 100 QTY. This option is not available for white faced CDs at this time. Taiyo Yuden Waterseal CDs are available at $0.50 extra per disc. Please ask for these when placing your order. The default for all orders is white, unless otherwise specified.

A crystal clear acrylic spraycoat is applied by hand to all CD faces to help improve moisture resistance and to aid in color fastness.

Colors on the white CD faces appear opaque. Colors on silver CD faces appear translucent and metallic. The opacity in ALL colors decreases by about 50% on silver face CDs. Please see the following example: (click here to see example). For all CD faces lighter colors tend to show up better than darker colors.

Color matching is not available on CD faces. We do our best to use the CD face colors on screen and the colors on your packaging (if similar) to the actual CD face print out.

A one-off sample print out of your CD or DVD (non-duplicated) is available for an additional $30 and will increase your turn time an average of 6 business days due to set up and transit times.

DIGITAL PRINTING GUIDELINES

CMYK vs. RGB (wikipedia links)

(For ALL full color printed cases) If you are looking to get a solid black (if, and only if, your artwork is predominantly black), when creating your digital artwork in CYMK, please make sure that you use the CMYK values for a rich black. Please refer to this wikipedia link for further explanation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rich_black

We print the full color cases in CMYK, however, you view colors on your screen in RGB. Therefore you can not accurately compare colors on screen to colors on print. Likewise, factors such as different types of printers, different types of paper, how your particular program creates colors, and humidity all add to creating your digital output. Because this, it is also possible that subsequent re-order might come out slightly different than the rest.

This is the nature of short run digital printing and more precise color matching can be obtained by larger run offset printing (which we do not offer).

In the event that you want us to more accurately match the colors for your digital print outs, we recommend that you send us a digital CMYK print out of your artwork and request a physical proof. The additional cost on this is $75 and your turn time will increase an average of 9 business days.

Also, because we are short run, we normally do not send a digital proof. One can be requested free of charge (only shows probable alignment and resolution), this will increase the turn time depending on how fast you are able to approve.

One-off assembled samples of your artwork are not available on any package. Physical CD/DVD insert proofs are available for an additional $50 and will increase turn time by an average of 9 business days.

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ARTWORK

Please label your discs appropriately. For example, if you send in a CD master, please write your band name, album title and the words "CD MASTER" directly on the CD face. Likewise, for your artwork CD, please write your band name, album title, and "ARTWORK" directly on the CD face.

Your artwork files should also be named appropriately. We prefer the following format:
(example for package #JC2)

file 1: bandname_4panel_insert_side1.psd
file 2: bandname_4panel_insert_side2.psd
file 3: bandname_4panel_insert_traycard.psd
file 4: bandname_cdface.psd

Please DO NOT leave out your band name in the file name.

If your artwork (any color other than white) extends to the end of the insert/packaging you MUST include the correct amount of bleed. Bleed is necessary so when we cut your inserts down there is not a white border around your art. There should be no text within the bleed area. Also pay attention to the text safety areas (if any).

We accept the following file types:

.psd, .jpg. .bmp, .tiff, .pdf.

Only the .psd file should have any layers. All other files should be flattened with no layers. Also, the template should NOT be flattened in any of these files.

When submitting a .psd please have only TWO layers. One layer being the template and the other layer being your design. This is the preferred file method.

All of the templates you need are located on our website in the "FORMS and TEMPLATES" section. We have a .psd (layered photoshop file) and a flattened .jpg file available for each template.

The spines of the traycard always seem to be a troublesome spot once we receive the file. Your spine must be within and not exceeding the colored spine area. If your design is outside this area it will more than likely be cut off.

Please check the spelling in your artwork. It is not our responsibility and we do not proof read anything. We only check that the design is placed correctly in the template.

PAYMENT OPTIONS

We accept check, money order, cash, Paypal, or credit card*. Please make all checks and money orders out to: Sire Press, LLC. All cash must be rendered in person at our print shop. Please use sirepress@gmail.com for any Paypal payments. Please call for credit card payment. All Pennsylvania residents are subject to 8% tax. *If paying by credit card please add a 3.5% processing fee.

If you are paying via Paypal simply login to your account and click the "SEND MONEY" tab. Type in the payment amount, send it to our e-mail account: sirepress@gmail.com, and select "SERVICE" in the Purchase section. Continue to the next screen and scroll down. In the middle of the page you have the OPTION to CHANGE your payment method. Click "CHANGE" and you can now see different options including ADDING A CREDIT CARD. Continue on until you see that payment has been successfully sent.

Payment terms are 100% up front. Other terms are at our discretion and will be subject to fees.

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We will package all products with enough materials to help aid in the prevention of damage durning transit. With jewel cases (in particular) it is possible that a number of cases might be broken during transit due to normal package handling. UPS will cover any significant damage, lost or stolen packages up to $100. Any additional insurance is not covered, but can be purchased at an additional cost up until the time we ship. The shipment carrier will be responsible for all damaged, lost, or stolen packages.

There will be no refunds for errors in color matching. Minor errors such as different shades of color are normal and part of the short run digital printing method (see notes above). Your product(s) may not be returned without approval from us first.

It is common for some discs to not be able to play in certain players. We use media that is highly compatible with most players, but we can not guarantee that the discs will work in every device. There are many factors as to why this is so, such as, but not limited to, the way your master was created, optical drive types, reflectivity, age of the drive/player, type of dye on the disc, etc.

If you are looking for us to redo all or part of your project please get in touch and let us know what is wrong. We will ask for the product back to assess the defect. If we were found in error and you need new product the turn time will be 10 business days not including time in transit. We will reimburse you for return UPS ground shipping only. We will not accept returns on custom products for any reason other than serious defects in assembly. In some instances a refund will be given, however, we must be given an opportunity to fix the error first.

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TURN AROUND TIME

Our average turn around time is 10 - 15 business days for all orders with a guarantee of 20 business days. Usually things such as bulk CDs and 50 QTY CDs come out faster, but they are not guaranteed. We usually do not ship any later than 15 business days, but it is possible if we are swamped with RUSH orders, that your CDs will come out at our max turn time of 20 business days. Day 0 is considered the day that we receive 1) order form 2) payment in full and 3) approved/print ready artwork by 6pm est. Day 1 of production is the first business day after. Any days off for holidays or otherwise will be posted in the NEWS section on the mainpage of www.sirepress.com. Please take those into consideration when determining turn around time. Turn time also refers to the day we plan to ship the items and DOES NOT include time in transit.

VERY IMPORTANT: If you have an "in hands by" date please work backwards from that date given the time in transit (see UPS ground shipping chart below) and add in the 20 business days. This will determine the day we need the materials in order to start your project. Essentially, to start your project we only need three things:

1) submit the online order form
2) approved artwork
3) payment

The CD/DVD master and RRF can come no later than a week before we ship.

RUSH orders are the only way to guarantee your CDs in hands by a certain date. RUSH fees vary by the amount of CDs ordered, "in hands by" date, package type, and other current RUSH orders. Please inquire about any possible RUSH orders as soon as you can and we'll get you set up with everything you need to supply us. If you aren't sure if the standard turn around time is fast enough for you, you probably need a RUSH.

Please check out our blog post entitled: When Should A Band Set A CD Release Show

SHIPPING

We ship all orders UPS ground unless specified. All international orders will ship USPS International Priority.

Here is a chart of UPS Ground Transit Times from our Philadelphia, PA location:

Effective January 1, 2010 shipping for all jewel case, slimline, digipak, ecopack, amaray, and ejector case packages will be prices as follows: (per 100 QTY)

$15 for Eastern Time Zone
$18 for Central Time Zone
$23 for Mountain Time Zone
$28 for Pacific Time Zone

All other packages will be $15 per 100 QTY. Please inquire about the shipping rates for any other product we offer unless otherwise previously specified.

We also recycle a lot of our packaging material when we ship out to you. So your packages might be stuffed with multiple types of packing material and the boxes might have other labels on it.

UPS will cover any significant damage, lost or stolen packages up to $100. Any additional insurance is not covered, but can be purchased at an additional cost up until the time we ship. The shipment carrier will be responsible for all damaged, lost, or stolen packages.

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We MUST receive a physical copy of your CD master***. When you submit your master please make sure you have a backup and/or additional copy. We will retain your master for our records. We will not ship back your master, so please do not send us your only copy.

Your CD master must also be an audio CD that can be played in any stand alone CD player. If you send us digital files, please note that we will send you copies of digital files back in return (i.e. a CD full of your MP3 files).

Please listen to your CD master all the way through to make sure you are happy with it. We copy directly from you master, so what you send us is exactly what you'll receive in return. We will not add or subtract any ISRC codes, CD-text data, nor will we add any gaps between your tracks. We have no obligation to monitor any materials that you submit for duplication.

Please check your master for scratches and other marks. If we receive a master with scratches or other marks we will send you an e-mail noting the marks. You can either ship us a new master or have us use the current master. Sometimes there is no way of telling if a scratch will effect your final copy since we don't know how deep it might be, so all we can do is inform you of the scratch or mark.

We do not offer audio master uploads because of the multiple issues that can occur during the upload and download process. The safest way for you to receive exactly what you want is to send in a physical CD master that you can check.

CD-Text, Gracenote, and ID3 Tags

We get quite a lot of questions related to how albums and songs are labeled/identified by iTunes, car stereos, and other players and formats. There are 3 different ways that this data is handled, and each will be outlined below.

CD-Text

CD-Text is artist, album, and track title information that is stored directly on a CD itself. It must be embedded when the CD is burned, and it is most commonly utilized by car stereos and stand-alone CD and stereo units. All master CDs burned at Azimuth with the intention of release on CD will have CD-Text written to the discs at no extra charge. CD-Text is NOT read by iTunes, which leads into our next topic...

Gracenote

When you insert a CD into iTunes, the artist, album, and track names (as well as genre, year, and other information) are often pulled up for you automatically. This data is not read from CD-Text, but from a database called Gracenote. Gracenote is an online repository of CD profiles used by many popular kinds of audio software. It is maintained entirely by user submissions (much like Wikipedia) and once an album is catalogued in the Gracenote database, its track information will show up automatically for all users who insert a copy of that CD into their computer and open it in iTunes.

Submitting your CD information to iTunes is quite simple.

1. After receiving your master CD, insert it into your CD drive and open iTunes.
2. Click on the CD from the left-side menu.
3. Enter your artist, album, song titles, and genre for each of your tracks.
4. When you're done, just open the Advanced menu and choose Submit CD track names.
5. That's it! Your disc profile has now been submitted to the Gracenote database.

Note: If another CD already exists in the Gracenote database that has the same number of tracks as your CD with similar track lengths, iTunes may automatically label your songs with the Gracenote information for another artist's CD. But don't worry, you can just change the titles to fit your CD and submit them. Gracenote will store both sets of information and will prompt users to choose which CD is the correct match when they put your album into their iTunes.

ID3 Tags

The first two topics in this section deal with reading track information from CDs, but ID3 tags are how song information is stored in individual digital tracks, such as MP3 or M4A files. If you want to upload your tracks to a website for distribution or just want to send copies of your MP3s to friends and you want the track information to be stored in them, just set the ID3 tags. All you need to do is open your songs in iTunes (on your drive, not on the CD), right-click on a track (or multiple tracks) and choose Get Info. Choose the Info tab on the window that pops up, and you can set whatever info you'd like about your songs.

When overnighting us packages with your master, artwork, etc., you MUST make sure you WAIVE the signature needed for delivery. We aren't always available to sign for packages.

It is common for some discs to not be able to play in certain players. We use media that is highly compatible with most players, but we can not guarantee that the discs will work in every device. There are many factors as to why this is so, such as, but not limited to, the way your master was created, optical drive types, reflectivity, age of the drive/player, type of dye on the disc, etc.

***The ONLY exception will be RUSH international orders and 1 - 2 Day RUSH U.S. orders. We are not liable for ANY error in creating your master disc from digital files that you force us to create. There are no limits to this rule. Once again, we are not liable for ANY errors. We highly recommend that you send us a physical master that you approve of, OVERNIGHT with the signature requirement WAIVED.

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We consider our screen printing to be more of an art form rather than a mechanical process. We are given artistic license when it comes to printing. This means that during the print process certain variables arise that we must circumnavigate. The variables include, but are not limited to, paper texture (such as the craters in chipboard), ink fluidity, mesh count, your design, film, emulsion, dust, water, durometer squeegee, print/cure temperature, paper color, ink type, etc. We will do everything in our power to create a great print for you, however, there are some things beyond our control that create varied results. If you are expecting your final prints to look exactly like they do on your computer screen, please consider a different print process (such as digital or offset). Likewise, we will match colors as best as possible. If you are strict about color we recommend sending us a physical swatch through the mail or referencing a specific Pantone Uncoated number. Please note, that your computer screen DOES NOT show you accurate pantone colors. Please reference a Pantone Uncoated Book.

- We HIGHLY recommend that your designer be accustom to designing SPECIFICALLY for screen printing. Errors in design can lead to delays in production, additional costs, scrapping of designs, etc. We're here to help you out with any questions you or the designer might have. We're super friendly so just shoot us over an e-mail or call!

- Our registration is within 1/16" on most prints. Similarly, our front to back printing has the same amount of error. Likewise, our cutting error is also typically 1/16".

- IMPORTANT INFO ON TEXT/DESIGN: We do the following on our end to check to see the printability of text and thin parts of your design: we type the word "TEST" in Arial 10pt. in all CAPS. the lines that make up that word are all uniform and your text/design should be NO less than the thickness of those lines.

- The brown kraft chipboard color is approximately the color of a brown paper bag from the grocery store. We have numerous examples on our site. Please take this into account when selecting your ink color(s).

- Extend any bleed past the cut line.

- When choosing the option of clear/matte vinyl stock for your business cards or other types of prints, please note that most inks become translucent to some degree. Therefore color matching is not guaranteed, especially since the ink takes on different shades in different light. We also print on the matte side of the stock. The opposite side is a clear polish side and while we CAN print on that side, the ink will scratch off, but BUT rub off.

- Please make sure that the image we will be printing is 100% black, meaning, if you want us to print BLUE, submit your design so the design layer is BLACK. Likewise, make sure there is NO greyscale or shading of any kind (i.e. 100% black). If you choose to do a halftone, please note that results might vary from print to print. Also certain dots might be lost during the burning and print process due to numerous factors.

- At any point if you are unsure of what you need to do, just send over what you are working on and we'll let you know what's up. If it's something super easy for us to fix we'll go ahead and do it. If any graphic design is involved we will tell you what needs to be done or let you know how much it will cost for us to fix it for you.

BARCODES

Unfortunately we do not offer barcodes directly from us. The amount of requests for barcodes we've received would not make up for the cost to registrar with the UCC.

If you'd like a barcode please visit this site: http://www.mozian.com/upc.html

It might take up to 48 hours for you to receive the barcode with mozian. Once you receive the barcode simply drop it in your layout, or we can drop it in the layout for free.

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The common term people use for generic plastic CD covering is "shrinkwrap". If you are looking for the exact same type of wrap that is commonly found in retail stores, you are looking for "overwrap" or "cellophane wrap" which is applied just like wrapping a holiday gift. "Shrinkwrap" is heat sealed on all 4 ends using a heat gun and heat bar. We use "shrinkbags" which is similar to "shrinkwrap", except no heat bar is used and only 3 sides are fully sealed. Please note that this DOES NOT mean that your CD will come flying out of the wrap. The 4th side is still wrapped fairly tight around the case. (click here to see example)

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The minimum order QTY is 50 for most packages. If need be you can request smaller quantities, however, the price will jump significantly higher. Larger price breaks start at 100 QTY and also generally tend to occur at 300 QTY as well. All of the packages in our Full Color Printed Cases line start at 100 QTY.

For pricing on x50 QTY of any product, take the per piece price of the hundred QTY below and multiply it by your amount. For example: if you want 250 QTY of Package #JC1, take the per piece price of 200 QTY and multiply it by 250.

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DESIGN STUDIO ARTWORK POLICIES

Payment for all artwork done by Sire Press must be paid in full before we begin. Also for us to begin, we will send a short questionnaire that must be filled out in full with nothing left out. Soon after, you will receive a comp of either all or part of your design at which time you must let us know your thoughts in detail. We will work with your ideas and corrections to obtain a final comp. We will not come up with multiple variations of your design. We will work with your ideas on one theme and then expand on that in the direction you desire. You must also spell check to make sure we didn't miss anything. The speed in which we go from concept to final product is determined by the quickness of communication between the client (you) and Sire Press and the current work load of the designer. We typically tend to send the first comp within 5 business days or less and then wrap up the project 5 business days or less thereafter. Day 0 of Production is the day you approve of the artwork. It will still be 10 - 15 business days for Production.

All of our design pricing is based on the fact that you will be getting your products printed with Sire Press. If you are getting any designs we create for you printed elsewhere, please let us know, as you will be subject to a different pricing structure.

Our pricing is MORE than competitive compared to other design studios. You will be paying a fraction of the cost for the same (if not better) quality of design. The only time you will get better pricing is if you do it yourself, have a friend that will do it for you, or work with an amateur studio. Please do not haggle the price.

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FORMS

ALL orders MUST be submitted using our Online Order Form. ALL CD/DVD orders (except blanks) must have a Replication Rights Form (RRF) filled out. These items can be found in the "FORMS and TEMPLATES" section.

You can submit the RRF digitally via e-mail or physically via snail mail. Production will not begin until we receive: 1) Order Form 2) Approved Artwork and 3) Payment. Duplication will not begin until we receive the RRF and CD Master.

Please fill out the replication rights form to the best of your ability. If any areas are uncertain please leave them blank and if we need them we'll get back to you. The most important parts that you'll need to fill out is the artist name, content, album title, track listing, and signature. PLEASE LEAVE THE CUSTOMER NUMBER AND SELECTION NUMBER BLANK.

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