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FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions
Do I need a Barcode?
Audio Music CD Albums & DVD Videos need a barcode to get onto shelves of music stores & distributors.
The Brand Owner of the Intellectual Property needs to contact GS1 for an NZ registered EAN-13 number.
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Toll-Free Phone Number: 0800 10 23 56
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Email: info@gs1nz.org
A GS1 One Number membership is available if you only need one barcode. It costs $129+gst (one-off fee applies), which includes a free verification (worth $85 to non-members). Amstore recommends that Barcodes are Verified by GS1 before approving any Production.
What is CD-Text?
CD-Text is an extension of the Red Book Compact Disc specifications standard for audio CDs.
CD-Text is burned or pressed onto the CD and allows for people with hardware players (in your car or house, typically) to see album title, track title, and artist information without consulting any database such as Internet-based Gracenote Media Recognition Service (CDDB).
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Please let abc Amstore know when you have included CD-Text on a CD Master as if we are Replicating or Duplicating your CDs, then we know to look for CD-Text when we quality check our processes.
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We can also add/edit CD Masters & DDP Files for ISRC Codes, CD-Text, Artist and other details, and on request provide full PQ Report.
What are the DVD Logos?
On April 14, 2000, DVD Format/Logo Licensing Corporation was born. Its birth was a mutual effort of the ten companies that originated DVD Format back in 1995. For more information please see: www.dvdfllc.co.jp
What about DVD Zoning?
In order to zone a DVD Video disc, it needs to be produced through Replication (as opposed to Duplication) the disc's zone is added by the Replication plant at the time of creating the stamper for that disc.
The minimum order size is 500 units if you wish to zone your order to regions other than New Zealand's.
DVD Videos on DVD-R & DVD+R media can not be zoned.
What is Gracenote?
The original CD format (Red Book Compact Disc) did not include the disc name, the artist, title or track listing information and so a supplemental database, Gracenote Online Database (CDDB) was created to keep track of this information.
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When you insert a music CD into your computer, the software player application on your computer uses the Internet-based Gracenote Media Recognition Service (www.gracenote.com) to first identify the CD, and then display the artist, title, tracklist, and other information. Most commercial music CDs do not contain any of this information on the CD itself, although increasingly some have CD-Text.
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How do I submit new CDs to Gracenote?
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To submit CD information to the Gracenote music recognition service, you need to have the CD at hand and you need to use a licensed application with an Internet connection – such as iTunes, Winamp, Yahoo! Music Engine etc.
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When you have a licensed software application installed, place the CD into your CD-ROM drive, and the software will access Gracenote to try to identify the CD. If the CD is not identified, you will be asked if you’d like to submit the information about the CD such as the Artist, Album name, Year of Release etc.
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Once a CD’s tracklisting is in the Gracenote database, anyone playing that CD in their licensed player will have it recognized by the Gracenote service. Keep in mind that it often takes up to 48 hours for a new submission to show up in the software application.
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Common issues when registering with Gracenote:
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How do I submit edits?
Much of the information in the Gracenote Music Recognition Service (CDDB) was initially submitted by users and there are inconsistencies. To fix a problem you find, email a copy of the incorrect entry to Gracenote to gracenoteSupport@gracenote.com with both the incorrect information and the corrections.
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My CD matched another artist, what happened?
The identification process involves creating a “discid”, a sort of “fingerprint” of a CD created by performing calculations on the track duration information stored in the table-of-contents of the CD and relating this to artist, title, track listing, and other information on the database. Sometimes CDs can have very similar identifying characteristics this means that the characteristics of your CD and another match. The way to fix this is to submit the information for your CD, thereby allowing everyone who has your pressing to get a match with the right information when they put the CD in their players.
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Why doesn’t iTunes show my CD-Text?
iTunes 7 or later can burn CD-Text disks, but iTunes does not read CD-Text: it uses Gracenote instead. However, the burned disk will display properly in any player which supports CD-Text (and many systems do).
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What are ISRC Codes?
ISRC (International Standard Recording Code) is the international identification system for sound recordings and music video recordings. Each ISRC is a unique and permanent identifier for a specific recording which can be permanently encoded into a product as its digital fingerprint. An encoded ISRC provides the means to automatically identify recordings for royalty payments.
Recorded Music NZ is our national agency on music and allocates the country and first owner codes to members for encoding on all audio, audio-visual recordings as a method of identification. ISRC codes are entered (added) at the time of mastering a CD by a studio. For more information please see: ISRC | Recorded Music NZ ® - We Love Music
We can also add/edit CD Masters & DDP Files for ISRC Codes, CD-Text, Artist and other details.
Which Master Disc formats can we process?
Please supply us with a fully functional and tested/played Master, unless some additional work is requested of Amstore.
For Audio Masters:
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Please supply as Physical Red Book Audio CDs (Standard Audio CD playable on normal non-MP3 stereos). If you don’t supply a Red Book Audio CD, but supply files in formats such as MP3, AIFF & wav we charge a $45+gst minimum mastering fee to make a Red Book Audio CD.
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We can accept DDP Masters for Replication.
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Please don't supply audio on CD-RWs as we cannot duplicate or replicate them.
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For Digital Content Masters:
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Please supply CD-ROMs CD-Rs or DVD-Rs. Do not supply content on CD-RW or DVD-RW media because if multiple sessions are recorded onto those discs then some drives can get confused when reading them.
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Also avoid Packet-writing Masters, because we have issues reading them.
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We can add Autorun/Autostart functionality if requested for a fee.
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For DVD Video Masters:
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Please supply finalised/closed DVD-R or DVD+R.
What is PAL & NTSC and why do they matter?
New Zealand & Australia use the PAL television broadcast standard while others, such as the USA, use a different standard called NTSC.
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Whether a DVD is PAL or NTSC is determined at the time of Authoring.
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PAL & NTSC format DVD Videos will play on PC or Mac with no issues but DVD players and TVs vary in their ability to recognise and play different formats from other regions. Therefore it is likely that a disc reader from an NTSC region cannot read a PAL disc and vice versa.
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PAL format can be converted to NTSC format and NTSC format can be converted to PAL but to retain image quality the conversion usually needs to be done with professional equipment.
Should I go with Replication or Duplication?
Click Here to read more on the differences between the disc production methods of Replication and Duplication.
What is Recorded Music NZ?
Recorded Music NZ is the industry representation and licensing organisation for recording artists and their labels. They collect licence fees from broadcasters, webcasters, businesses and organisations that play music in public. They then distribute these royalties amongst rights holders and NZ recording artists based on the recordings registered in their database.
If you do not register with Recorded Music NZ, they can’t pay you. Recorded Music NZ also cannot distribute royalties retrospectively, so it’s important to keep your registrations up to date!
Can we do re-runs, repeats and reissues of previous orders?
Yes! We have always tried to keep an archive of the materials used or created for projects over the past 20+ years so that we can rapidly do an accurate re-run of a previous order!
What is Rich Black?
It is an ink mixture of solid black over one or more of the other CMY colours, resulting in a darker tone than black ink alone. A typical rich black mixture might be 100% black, 40% of each of the other three inks (CMY).
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By default, Photoshop will create “Rich Black” with 250% ink coverage. You should make adjustments to colour settings and/or individual colours to produce a black that is no more than 230%.