When LightScribe first launched in 2004 (according to Wikipedia), it really did not take off as a viable solution in the duplication market right away. In fact it wasn’t until 2008 when LightScribe became truly adopted into the duplication market. Much of that has to do with the development of larger standalone tower duplicators developed by Vinpower Digital, but also due to a major reduction in media costs.

The new standalone towers from Vinpower Digital were a vehicle which made the technology more relevant in the duplication market because printing one off discs were too time consuming. By enabling up to 15 drives to print simultaneously, time became less of a factor allowing the technology to became a more excepted method of labeling CD’s and DVD’s.

Now that the hardware mitigated one barrier to entry, the second barrier, high prices, was a tough nut to crack. Fortunately the division behind the LightScribe technology was committed to its success and realized that the media pricing had to be within an acceptable price of inkjet or thermal printable discs. So they encouraged LightScribe disc manufacturers and sellers to bring the price within a range more palatable with the consumer.

Where LightScribe discs once costed upwards of $1 a disc initially, they are now available for less than $0.30 a disc which is well within range of standard printable media, especially when you factor in the cost of ink or thermal ribbon. In fact LightScribe has become the most cost effective publishing system if comparing the cost of hardware and consumables. If you factor in that an inkjet publishing system is upwards of $2,000 ~ $3,000 and a thermal publishing system is even higher, a few hundred dollar LightScribe tower saves a significant amount of money just from the initial purchase. Then you take into account the cost of ink or thermal ribbon and you have a huge cost savings going with LightScribe compared to more traditional disc printing.

So the choice is clear, especially in financially difficult times, duplicating and printing your disc titles using LightScribe is a far more viable and cost effective method.