Friday, July 17, 2009

Kunaki for DVD replication and ordering.

Kunaki is a DVD/CD duplication and distributor for producers, artists, videographers and anyone who wants to sell CDs or DVDs on the net. Unlike other online DVD duplicators and replicators Kunaki works more like a machine than a company.

Visit Kunaki and download their special software. It allows you to set up the art work for your DVD (or CD) and then upload the product to their service. Once uploaded you can sell directly through their web site via a shopping cart or buy your own DVDs and sell them yourself.

All of your questions about their service can be found on their web site so I won't repeat them here. My task is to give you my experience with using Kunaki and let you know any issues I ran into.

Frankly I had never heard of Kunaki. They apparently do little to promote themselves. I have used LULU and Createspace and have been happy with Createspace. Not so happy with Lulu.
Bill Mecca mentioned Kunaki and I wanted to check it out.

First, I like the idea that they are not a company but act more like a machine. It cuts down the waiting.
For instance if you use Createspace it can take a month or longer to get your title up and available. Once you create your DVD you then mail it to Createspace (up to 10 days to get there and be 'officially' received) Even if you overnight the DVD expect at least 7 days before you get a email indicating they received it. Then you wait a couple of days for Createspace to make and send you a proof. 5 days to get the proof back and if it's okay, you can then go online and let Createspace know it's proofed so it can appear online to buy. You will wait another 10 to 15 days for it to show up on Amazon.com.

If the proof is not what you want, doesn't work or there are issues, you start all over again.
It took me two and a half months to get my UFOS 1973 DVD on Amazon.com. Part of that was the normal shipping and wait time but I had two tech issues with the title. Something they should have made clear. Anyway, I do love Createspace but I hate the time it takes to get a title up and running with them.

One thing Createspace has over Kunaki is they can automatically get your title on Amazon. With Kunaki you have to do that yourself. But Kunaki has many things going for it too. Like their cut...

First, you can't beat the price. $1.75 per disc. That includes the DVD, DVD case, silk screen printing of the disc, color paper sleeve for the case and a color insert. Yeah. $1.75!
It's ok if you faint now, I'll wait.

Add in about $3.00 shipping and they handle the credit card purchase.
You can get up now.
Compare that to doing it yourself! Duplicating, assembly of the cases, shipping it yourself, cost of materials, etc. Please don't faint again.
You can buy one or one thousand. They ship in 24 hours. They can ship to you or your client.

Their software is pretty fool proof. You upload your artwork and it shows you the front, back, spine and inside of what your DVD will look like. They also say the upload is bit-per-bit an exact copy of your DVD. And if the software fails for any reason during the upload, it will pick up where it stopped and will not miss any data. That includes if you stop it or you have to reboot. Of course this depends a great deal on your network speed and connection. Not failure but speed.

I have DSL but it's not the fastest DSL out there. It took me a couple of days to upload 3 gigs of data. So for that time I had to dedicate a single machine to the upload. I say "a couple of days" because there were times I paused the upload to do other things with my PC. Depending on your network connection and your PC it may take longer or less time.
The software they provide never hiccuped. It labored along just fine feeding the signal to Kunaki.

And I must say, even a couple of days of uploading was faster than sending a DVD, even though I probably chewed all my nails off during the process. True to their word, the software never failed. (Note to self, get a faster connection!)

By the way, if you have a Mac you are out of luck. The software is "PC Only." Kunaki recommends you get or borrow a PC to upload then you can do everything else on your Mac.

After my very long wait to upload my title it was a peice of cake ordering a proof and getting the links to sell the DVD. It's all provided on their site after you upload the title.
One thing though, they send you one proof free. Just one. You can't get a free proof for each title you upload like Createspace. The one they send you is free so you can see their quality and workmanship. You can buy more for $1.75 if you want to.

Kunaki is not for everyone. They don't set you up a pretty store. The software is not fancy. The page to buy the dvd with it's cart system is not fancy, and they do no promotion for your title. It will be up to you to market your DVD.
They are a machine.
You design the case & DVD artwork, put your DVD in the drive and their software compiles it into a .exe file. Then you start the upload. When it's done you can get the links to your title and start selling. They handle the credit card processing, assembly, and shipping of your show. Your done.

I have only one negative issue with the Kunaki software. After I prepared my title and pressed the "launch" button the software simply disappeared. Poof. Gone. Apparently that button was supposed to close the software and launch the .exe file. It didn't and it took me a while to figure out I had to manually click on the .exe file and launch it. After that it was all good, but it was confusing because the software gave me no clue that would happen.

Otherwise I was very happy with my Kunaki experience. I see much potential, like selling on Ebay and drop shipping from Kunaki. Plus you make more profit by using Kunaki. Amazon will eat you up with fees. Createspace is better but still pricy.

Would I recommend it? Yes. Go to Kunaki and read. Read everything. Then give it a try!
I'll let you know how the proof looks when I get it. In the meantime here is a tutorial to help you with the software. ;-)
J


6 comments:

Joseph7933 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Joseph7933 said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
joseph7933 said...

I use Kunaki all the time. For $1.75 per unit, I have no complaints. They are fast, Usually 3 business days from the day I order, to when it arrives at my location.
There are a few downfalls though.
They only do 2 panel inserts, as opposed to 4 like createspace does. And one sided traycards, also unlike createspace. And the print on the discs bleed unevenly past the printable area. Minor details though. My experience, and I have probably 20 different titles there, try not to use dark colors toward the top of the CD image. And use all their guidelines, they are there for a reason.
As for createspace, they want a minimum of $4.95 per unit. And yes, createspace will get your stuff on amazon.com, but they get the lions share of the profits. If you sell a CD for $10 on amazon, first createspace will take 45% off the top, then another $4.95 for the CD, what is left over? $0.55. That's all you get. If you want your stuff on amazon.com, use tunecore. There is a 1 time fee to get the CD uploaded to tunecore, then an annual fee thereafter. (the initial fee is about $30, and $20 a year thereafter. But you get 2, 4, 6, or 8 page inserts, (all the same price) 2 sided traycards, everything full color. Amazon keeps 60% total. So a $9.98 CD, you keep $3.99, and tunecore will add your stuff to amazon MP3, itunes, and every other MP3 store out there, at $1 per store, per album. As for Kunaki, I recommend for the sole purpose of it being a retail-ready, plastic wrapped CD, for $1.75.
Any questions, feel free to ask.

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