Barcodes for your CD or DVD - the full picture!
In most cases these days it is advisable to have your CD or DVD product barcoded for identification purposes and for ease of sale at retails outlets. The questions always asked are ” How do I get a barcode number? ” or ” Can you supply me a barcode number?”. In order to answer these questions accurately we need to establish exactly what the purpose of the barcode is and how it is made up.
The main purpose of a barcode is for identification. It is an unique code for every barcode that allows the retailer or carrier of that product to program the details of that product into their system and identify it when scanned. The barcode number is what makes it unique so that every product will be correctly identified. But what makes the number and how can you be sure it will be unique? Well this is where not all CD replication companies will tell you what information is carried in a barcode.
Not only is a barcode for identiying the actual product but it also identifies the OWNER of the product. How? Well in order to create barcodes you need membership with GS1 (see www.gs1us.org) . The membership number you are assigned makes up the first set of numbers in EVERY barcode you create hence carrying the identity of the OWNER of the product (this can also be known as the vendor code). The next set of numbers within the barcode is the product code that is created by the owner (it could be the product catalogue number or simply start at 0001 for the 1st product then 0002 etc). The final number is known as the check digit which is calculated by a set algorithm using the main numbers (don’t worry - there is software that does this and creates the final barcode itself!). Therefore because each member has a unique number, they will assign an unique catalogue number for each product to their membership number and with the check digit always calculating with the same algorithm you can be sure of getting unique barcode numbers for every single product.
So why will not all DVD replication companies tell me this and why should I care? Well some companies offer a “free” barcode if you were to place your order with them. Sounds attractive doesn’t it but consider this! When you remember every barcode contains an unique membership number which therefore identifies the owner of the product carrying that number, if you were to place a ”free” barcode as offered by some CD manufacturing companies, that would identify your product as owned by that company! Now of course this is not the case and also technically speaking it is not allowed (again see www.gs1us.org for further info)
Florida based CD Manufacturing and DVD manufacturing specialists Digital Disc Duplication USA do NOT offer these “free” barcodes as an “incentive” to win your work because we do not think it truely helps you! We will offer the FREE service of making the barcode for you if you provide your number and we can even add it to your artwork if required so that it scans properly but your product is your product and therefore all identification should confirm that.
There are other legitimate ways of obtaining a barcode number - for example if you are releasing your CD through a record label or have an exclusive distribution deal - the record label or distributor may priovide their barcode number because your product will be part of their product range and therefore identified accurately.