Smart Music

Chances are that you just finish your musical masterpiece and recorded it on a CD.  Now you’re in the final stages of creating your musical product, but just need a CD cover design.  We are here to help you decide how to accomplish this, whether you’re looking to make a CD cover scratch or looking to outsource your CD cover label.

How To Make A CD Cover

The first step to make a CD cover is to come up with a CD cover design.  Several artists use programs such as Adobe Photoshop to create an image for their CD cover label.  Generally we recommend that you start with a 912x912px dimension for your CD cover labels.  We like to start with a high-resolution image; however, later if you feel that you need a lower resolution you can always compress the image file.

To get design ideas for CD cover we recommend that you do a simple CD cover search on the Internet to stem your creativity.   Once you have a few ideas, use the Web to find tutorials on how to get the visual effects that you're looking to add to your CD cover.  Your first CD cover may take you over edge of wearing the programs that you are using to create your first CD cover.  And time invested now will be well stocked as the next time you create a CD cover you will to do it much quicker.

When finished with your CD cover design, it's time to print your new artwork.  It's recommended that you take your CD cover to the professional printer to give you professional quality.  If you have a high quality printer at home you can opt to print your own CD covers; however, you'll most likely spend as much money on toner and ink cartridges as you would in having your CD covers professional printed.

How To Outsource A CD DVD Cover

If you're limited on time you can always outsource your creation of your CD DVD cover.  It's recommended that you start a simple web search to look for graphic artists who specialize in CD covers.  Next choose three graphic artists and requests quotes for your CD cover design.  Don't necessarily choose to graphic artist has the lowest quote.  It's wise to look at the artist’s portfolio and choose the graphic artist that has the best work yet the best price.

If you outsource your graphics work often times the graphic artists will have a relationship with a professional printer.  Therefore outsourcing the graphics for your CD cover should be one-stop shop for creating your CD cover.  Another consideration is if you're having your CDs professionally made you can send a CD company your image file created by the graphic artist and they will give you a finished product including printed covers.

There's lots of ways to create your own CD cover.  It really comes down to how much money and how much time to spend.  If you have the money it's recommended that you just outsource the creation of your CD cover.  However if you have a slight artistic flair, why not create your own CD cover.  It really comes down to your passions and how you want to spend your time and money.