DanDisc

DanDisc was a Danish compact disc and cassette manufacturer, officially operating under this name from September 1987 to October 1996 when, following a company merger, it was re-named to SDC DanDisc. The main office was located at their CD production plant in Sakskøbing, with the sales office in Copenhagen, MC manufacturing in Hellerup and a satellite plant in Oslo, Norway via daughter company Bel Produksjon A/S. History The company DanDisc Production A/S was established early 1987 on the initiative of leading members of the Danish music industry with Bent Fabricius-Bjerre as chairman of the board. The company erected their own manufacturing plant - the first in Denmark to press CDs - in the small town of Sakskøbing the same year. The first production line was delivered by Musitech and the first DanDisc-branded CD pressed there was 16112029 on 29 September 1987. A second production line was added in September 1989. In April 1992 an in-house glass mastering facility was inaugurated; until then, glass masters were provided by various companies in Malmö (CDM (10)), Hamburg, France (Digipress), and Switzerland. At this point in time, the plant produced 10 million CDs per year and working to add a fifth production line. In order to increase the market share in Norway, DanDisc co-established Norwegian CD manufacturer Bel Produksjon A/S as a joint venture. A production plant in Oslo was inaugurated in June 1994. On 1 January 1995, Bel Produksjon A/S became a daughter company when DanDisc increased their ownership from 50% to 75%. At the Sakskøbing factory, the production capacity doubled in 1995 with the instalment of new machinery, of own packaging facility, and the addition of a new warehouse. In September 1995, daughter company DanCassette was established for production of audio music cassettes. DanCassette was co-owned with Lydstudiet PS and located at the latter's address in Hellerup north of Copenhagen. Cassettes manufactured by DanCassette were branded as DanDisc. Covers and labels were initially delivered by external suppliers in Oddense (Skive Offset), Nysted and Germany. In April 1996, Skive Offset established a daughter company Sax Print under the roof of the Sakskøbing plant, with an initial yearly production of 30 mio. items. In October 1996 DanDisc merged with Scandinavian Duplication Centre (SDC) and became SDC DanDisc. The re-branding from DanDisc to SDC DanDisc was progressive: The switch in the matrix strings of their own glass masters took place between 7 and 9 February 1997, whereas the DanDisc brand remained in some glass masters made by third parties until 1998. The DanDisc name and logo continued to appear on CD artwork throughout the late 1990's, and on certain reissues even later. Logo The Dandisc logo is the symbol ↀ in a circular shape. ↀ symbolises "DD" as in DanDisc and is also an archaic symbol meaning "one thousand". Identification by cover, CD label or cassette shell DanDisc can sometimes be identified by a DanDisc logo and/or stylised text "DanDisc", "DanDisc Denmark", "Made by DanDisc", or "Made in Denmark by DanDisc". • Examples: 5168106, 2138141, 5330669, 15553361, 4419668, 14182410, 15651077, and 13239896. Credit such releases with "Made By DanDisc", but do not deduce that CD's were glass mastered or pressed by DanDisc solely based on an artwork credit. Example: 9059970 has "Made in Denmark by DanDisc" on the CD label but is in reality a reissue from the period 1999 to 2005 glass mastered at Universal M & L, Germany. Identification by CD matrix Glass masters made by third party provider During the early years from 1987 to 1993, and again in rare cases in 1998, the glass master production was outsourced to third party providers. The following matrix string patterns are known, with approximate years of appearance (where [Cat#] is the catalog number): [u]1987-1992[/u]: DANDISC [Cat#] CDMxn, where x is either "0" or "A" and n is a digit from 1 to 4 • Examples: 9930303, 1506066 Credit such released with "Glass Mastered At" CDM (10) and "Pressed By" DanDisc. [u]1988-1993[/u]: DANDISC DIGIP [Cat#] • Examples: 4997216, 15964290 Credit such released with "Glass Mastered At" Digipress and "Pressed By" DanDisc. [u]1988-1989[/u]: DANDISC [Cat#] @ x, where x is a digit • Example: 6197422, 665376 [u]1989-1990[/u]: (Mirrored) DANDISC [Cat#] xx, where xx is a double-digit • Examples: 2379561, 759271 [u]1992-199x[/u]: DANDISC [Cat#] • Examples: Dolphins, Dolphins, Dolphins, 9430056 [u]1998[/u]: DANDISC [Cat#] GMx1, where x is either "0" or "A" • Examples: 1203826, 5403987 Credit such releases with "Pressed By" DanDisc. Do not add a "Glass Mastered At" credit as the glass master providers are at the moment unknown. Own glass masters In April 1992 DanDisc started producing their own glass masters. The following matrix string patterns are known: [u]1992-1997[/u]: DANDISC ✶✶ [Cat#] ✶✶ [yymmddxx]{/zz} • Examples: 14714376, 11919859 [u]1993-1996[/u]: ↀ DanDisc [Cat#] [yymmddxx] DanDisc ↀ • Examples: 1591306, 13922519 [u]1995-1995[/u]: ↀ DanDisc [Cat#] ↀ DanDisc [yymmddxx] • Example: 14476589 [u]1995-1997[/u]: ↀ DanDisc [Cat#] [yymmddxx] ↀ DanDisc • Examples: 11322237, 1467081 All these patterns contain a unique sequential date identifier of the format [yymmddxx], sometimes throughout 1992-93 with an optional postfix {/zz}. It refers to the date on which the glass master was manufactured: - yy is a double-digit number indicating the year 19yy - mm is a double-digit number indicating the month - dd is a double-digit number indicating the day of the month - xx and zz are double-digit numbers Examples: • 14714376 has matrix string "DANDISC ✶✶ OLGACD 92058 ✶✶ 92051108/02" indicating glass master date 92-05-11 i.e. 11 May 1992. • 13922519 has matrix string "ↀ DanDisc PCCD 8088 95031503 ↀ DanDisc" indicating glass master date: 95-03-15 i.e. 15 March 1995. Credit such releases with "Glass Mastered At" DanDisc and add the date identifier (without the optional postfix "/zz") as catalogue number. [u]Note:[/u] 2CD sets from the re-branding period 1997-98 are known with a mix of DanDisc and SDC DanDisc matrix strings. Credit such releases with both entities. • Example: 848899 Mastering SID codes Only known mastering SID code is L401. It appears in three different variants: [u]From November 1994 to July 1996[/u]: L401 (large, without IFPI prefix: example) [u]From September 1996 to November 1996[/u]: ifpi L401 (often partly hidden in the matrix-mould border: example) [u]From November 1996 an on[/u]: L 401 (small, without IFPI prefix and a space between L and 401: example) Mould SID codes Generally follow patterns IFPI 68nn, where nn is a double-digit number.