My wife and I each used to do CDRs and we found them to be somewhat unreliable, with returns. Sometimes they just wouldn't play, especially in older CD players. This was despite burning them at the slowest speed the CD burner would accept.

We tried LightScribe for labels, which takes far too long; stick-on labels, which are messy to print and can come off, ruining someone's player; and printing inkjet labels directly onto the CD, with far too many off-center and messy prints.

For our more recent commercial releases, we use Oasis. I've noticed Oasis is beginning to offer more packages for short runs, although the price to set up the master is the same whether you make 50 or 5000, so it seems to be unprofitable unless you make at least a thousand.

The difference is in burning a CD (via your home CD burner and CDRs) versus having a professional glass master pressed.

So, I really don't have a good, economical solution for you, except - perhaps - the newer trend of digital download cards, where you sell a customer a code to download your tracks and artwork, with no physical inventory. I'm starting to sell more digital download cards at my concerts now than CDs.

BIAB 2025 Win Audiophile. Software: Studio One 7 Pro, Swam horns, Acoustica-7, Notion 6, Song Master Pro, Win 11 Home. Hardware: Intel i9, 32 Gb; Roland Integra-7, Presonus 192 & Faderport 8, Royer 121, Adam Sub8 & Neumann 120 monitors.