Irish barcodes on CDs duplicated & packaged overseas - is it possible?

Denalihighway

Hi lads - I originally posted this in 'Music' but maybe this is a better place for it. Since a lot of you guys will have been involved in the latter stages of recording projects this might have come up a few times...

I'm investigating overseas duplication and packaging of CDs for our album at the moment. Unsurprisingly the prices are fantastic but the biggest stumbling block seems to be that overseas duplicators / packagers cannot put the right barcodes on the album for selling in Ireland.

Surely we're not the first band to look abroad for this and other people have got around the problem? I've dealt with a couple of companies who say they can't do it.

Can you apply for barcodes here and then supply the overseas party?

Any info greatly appreciated.

Sham Squire

To be honest I found that barcodes were not necessary for a release. It depends on what you expect from the release. If your just popping it into a few shops yourselves and then selling it at gigs and from your own website it's really not necessary. And when you put it into somewhere like Tower records in Dublin, they slap their own barcode on it anyway. If your really pushing it with a big PR campaign and expect sales in the hundreds and fancy seeing it on the charts then there's a website you go to and pay something like 30euro to generate a unique barcode. I'm afraid I can't remember the site address but there's more info here http://www.imro.ie/music_makers/pub4.shtml
Once you've got the generated barcode you just include it in your artwork for the Cd and the duplication place will just print everything up as normal.
Another very useful resource for independent releases is www.cdbaby.com
Have a good read of that site, it's really helpful.
Best of luck with it.

tweeky

You will need a barcode for iTunes, better to have one than not.

Sham Squire

I didn't need a barcode for iTunes. I'm on there and selling tracks. If you go through cdbaby they will sort out digital sales for you (basically they will make sure your on a load of different online music sellers and make sure you get paid).Maybe if your going to iTunes on your own you might need one.

Denalihighway

cheers for that
I didnt know it was as easy as buying a barcode and including it in the artwork, for some reason I thought the manufacturer always did it. 30 quid to get one sorted seems well worth it seeing as though we'd hope to get a bit of radio-play etc and some sales, Bulmers commericals, Glastonbury headline slots...the usual like

iquinn

Denalihighway wrote: »

Hi lads - I originally posted this in 'Music' but maybe this is a better place for it. Since a lot of you guys will have been involved in the latter stages of recording projects this might have come up a few times...

I'm investigating overseas duplication and packaging of CDs for our album at the moment. Unsurprisingly the prices are fantastic but the biggest stumbling block seems to be that overseas duplicators / packagers cannot put the right barcodes on the album for selling in Ireland.

Surely we're not the first band to look abroad for this and other people have got around the problem? I've dealt with a couple of companies who say they can't do it.

Can you apply for barcodes here and then supply the overseas party?

Any info greatly appreciated.

GS1 Ireland should be able to answer all your questions-
http://www.gs1ie.org/sections/Products/GS1IDKeys/NeedaBarcode

They should have all the info you need.

Denalihighway

thanks
one last question you might know the answer of - would you normally need a trading name to get a barcode?

iquinn

Denalihighway wrote: »

thanks
one last question you might know the answer of - would you normally need a trading name to get a barcode?

do you mean a CRO number?

i'm not 100% sure.


info@gs1ie.org
01 2080660

Denalihighway

yeah I guess a CRO number or whatever? Perhaps you have have registered as a label to sell the CD yourself? I'll find out easily enough I'd say
thanks

tweeky

Sham Squire wrote: »

I didn't need a barcode for iTunes. I'm on there and selling tracks. If you go through cdbaby they will sort out digital sales for you (basically they will make sure your on a load of different online music sellers and make sure you get paid).Maybe if your going to iTunes on your own you might need one.

You do need a barcode for iTunes, CD Baby basically sold you one without asking as part of the package.

Sham Squire

tweeky wrote: »

You do need a barcode for iTunes, CD Baby basically sold you one without asking as part of the package.

They did ask and I said yes. I didn't mention it as it's not a barcode that's recognised outside of the US so if your looking for an Irish barcode, you'd still have to source it yourself. And if you go via cdbaby then you don't have to worry about dealing with iTunes, they sort all that out (and more) for you.

johnnylakes

try www.sonikpollen.com

you can also buy an international barcode...I can't remember where we got ours right now... google it...basically they will email you a jpeg or pdf or whatever of your individual barcode..then just add it to your CD artwork or whatever...most shops will add their own barcode anyway so maybe check with where you intend to sell and see if you need it...

best of luck

tweeky

A Barcode is also known as a UPC, A Universal Product Code!
All barcodes are "international" including the "CD Baby" ones.
If you have a barcode on your product it makes it easier for shops to account to you using the one reference code.

Sham Squire

You need to do more research before you come on here starting arguments. The UPC barcode are used in North America and Canada and have a number less than the European EAN and are not eligible for inclusion in the Irish charts without adding a number.

tweeky

I didn't say anything about the Irish Charts, i merely stated that the barcodes can be read worldwide whether 12 or 13 digits. Since 2004 the US has been accepting 13 digit barcodes as well as 12.

Frootboy

You can have a UPC barcode or an EAN but you must register either of these with Chart Track in order to chart in Ireland. Registering in the Irish Chart is nothing to do with the country of origin of your barcode. You must be registered with Chart Track in the UK who handle the Irish Chart. They will add
a number to the start of any 12 digit UPC so you do not need a separate barcode for Ireland.

Denalihighway

Alright folks
Sorry havent been around for few days...I have to say 15 posts later and I'm confused

Have we established that a UPC is a UPC (regardless of whether it's 13 or 14 digits) and they can be adjusted accordingly by the stores/third parties etc in other territories? Or is this debatable? Is it that a 13 digit one can be adjusted into a 14-digit for overseas etc but not the other way around.

Regarding GS1 (re providing an Irish barcode) - this is what they came back with:

"Thank you for your call. Please find attached an application form to register and join GS1 Ireland, together with an application form to obtain your unique barcode Licence.

Registration: The GS1 Ireland registration fee is €415 Euros which is a once off payment.

GTIN 10 €100 (excluding %VAT)
GTIN 1,000 €284 (excluding %VAT)
GTIN 100,000 €1,310 (excluding %VAT)

All the Fees are charged at the standard Vat rate.

Once you apply for your annual barcode licence you will be allocated by a unique 13 digit barcode licence formed by a unique company prefix, your bank of numbers, plus a check digit (last digit) always calculate by a formula to give you uniqueness on all your barcodes. All the licences are self calculated and manage by the company always compliant to our user guidelines and support it by our website tools (check digit calculator).

etc etc"....

So it would be at least €500 to get this? Jabus Christ. It wouldnt be worth it just for a few sales out of the indie stores etc, I'd hope to run most traffic through the web.

So obviously I'm missing something... Sham you mentioned paying €30 for a barcode - who was the provider?

I also checked out the Chart Track thing but found very little info but admittedly havent pursued that much just yet..

Sham Squire

Alright man,
Well it was two years ago that I did it and I can't remember where I bought the barcode from and according to the other lads my info is out of date anyway as when I did it I needed to get one barcode for here and another from CDBaby for the states. You should definitely check them out if you haven't already at www.cdbaby.net it's a mine of useful information you'd be surprised how many CDs you might sell just from people checking you out there. They also get you on all the online music sites which is another minor stream of income that just ticks over while your doing your own thing.
As for the cheap Irish barcode just google barcode with the pages from Ireland bit checked and you should find someone who is already a member of that GS1 thing and they can dish out barcodes for a nominal fee.
Best of luck and if there's anything else I can help you out with drop me a pm.

Denalihighway

thanks Sham.
I'll defo be looking at someone like CD Baby for digital distribution, we'll have our own website selling the whole download and the physical album with our own prices but then we'll need something like that so people can download track by track if they want and as you say there's other associated benefits etc.

Regarding this chestnut of the barcode, I think I may have established that our CD manufacturer can slap an EU barcode on the CD and as long as you supply this barcode (regardless of its form) to Chart Track then they just use that information and track the sales. The manufacturer is in Poland in case anyone is curious. I don't know if the situation would be different if they were outside the EU. We sourced some interesting places in China but shipping is prohibitive and in the end we chickened out to be honest , it would have been interesting. If I find out anything else in the meantime I'll post
Cheers

seandempsey

Hi,

Im new to the board so here's my first post!

I can never really get my head around UPC's etc. So im asking a question that hopefully someone will answer!


Im releasing my second single, actually its an EP, but still. I am going to order a BARCODE online with a US Company. They supply 12 digit UPC Barcodes and they said that it WILL work in Ireland....

Now does this mean that it will work in ireland and be eligible to chart in Ireland or does it mean that it will work in ireland but not be eligible to chart??

Also, when the EP is on sale on iTunes and someone buys just ONE song from the EP, does that count seprately from someone who buys the whole EP?




And lastly,

When im going to release the EP is this all i need to do...

BARCODE on the CD!
UPC NUMBER for iTunes!

And how do i register with chart track?


Thanks alot

Sean

http://www.seandempsey.tk