Disc Makers
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Disc Makers | |
|---|---|
| Type | Private |
| Founded | Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1946) |
| Founder | Ivin Ballen |
| Headquarters | Pennsauken, New Jersey |
| Key people | Marris Ballen (CEO) Tony van Veen (President) Michael Allen (EVP, Finance) |
| Industry | Music, Independent Music, CD Manufacturing, and Manufacturing |
| Products | CD Mastering (The SoundLab, CD Replication & Duplication, Short-run CD/DVD Duplication DVD Authoring, DVD Menu Design, DVD Replication Duplicators & Printers Blank Discs & Supplies Digstation Merch Judo Marketing |
| Website | www.discmakers.com |
Founded in 1946 by Ivin Ballen, Disc Makers is primarily a CD and DVD manufacturer that caters to independent musicians, filmmakers, and small businesses.
In addition to its manufacturing plant in Pennsauken, New Jersey, Disc Makers has offices in New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle, Atlanta, Nashville, Puerto Rico, and Berkeley, CA.
Disc Makers was started in 1946 when Ivin Ballen began pressing 45s for record companies in Philadelphia and New York, at 1626 Federal Street. His son Morris Ballen joined the Company full time in 1959 at age 21. During the years leading up to 1982, the Company progressed through various formats such as vinyl LPs, 8-tracks, and audiocassettes. By 1982, Disc Makers made the two popular formats – vinyl LPs (66% of company sales at that time) and audiocassettes (33%).
From the 1940s to the mid-80s Disc Makers was a commodity supplier to the music industry, selling to record companies in New York, Philadelphia, and the Baltimore/DC area. With the popularization of home and project recording studios in the early 80's a new DIY record pressing market began to spring up. In 1983, Disc Makers began to actively target its marketing to smaller, independent clients (mostly musicians who needed runs of 500 or 1,000) who required more service. In 1984, the company opened a branch in New York City to better serve this market, and sales began to rise. In 1986, the compact disc was introduced (the first successful new audio format since 1969), and Disc Makers began selling that format in 1988 in small quantities – as few as 300 CDs. Disc Makers began by subcontracting the CDs from outside vendors. Disc Makers went from a regional company to a national presence by expanding their marketing and offering 2-day delivery at ground shipping prices.
Also in 1986, Disc Makers began offering complete packages including printing, and the present model was established. The company was the first pressing plant to offer complete packages to artists, which included color separations, jacket printing, label printing, mastering, plating, and record pressing. This model has been copied by most companies that offer manufacturing services to independent artists today.
In 1987, Disc Makers opened a sales office in Puerto Rico. In 1991 Disc Makers began printing in-house instead of buying print from record industry trade printers. This reduced turn times for clients, and fast delivery became very popular.
In January 1995, Disc Makers moved to its present location in Pennsauken, going from a 40,000 sq. ft. facility to 80,000 sq. ft. Also in 1995, Disc Makers acquired Music Annex, a Fremont, CA cassette duplicator and CD broker, and got its presence in the San Francisco Bay area and Los Angeles. In 1996, Disc Makers entered the B-to-B market for CD-ROM, adding more printing capacity and in 1997, die cutting, folding, and gluing facilities were installed. Then in 1998, Disc Makers purchased Martin Audio, a Seattle CD broker. Disc Makers’ NJ building was expanded to its present size in late 1998, when the company began replicating CDs instead of subcontracting them from trade CD replicators.
Also in 1998, in response to customer demand, Disc Makers began selling CD duplicators. By 2004, duplicator and media sales were 25% of Disc Makers’ total sales. Also in 2002 Disc Makers began offering DVD replication services. By early 2005, Disc Makers was replicating and mastering DVDs in-house. In 2005 the company also began assembling its own tower duplicators in house. And Disc Makers began a regional expansion program by opening two offices in Chicago and Atlanta.
In 2006 Disc Makers was purchased by Corinthian Capital Group and is no longer family owned. [1]
