Sound Line LLC greets promotional clients with niche products

Joel Schaffer, MAS, knows the benefits of keeping his ear to the ground. As CEO of Rockaway, New Jersey supplier Sound Line LLC (UPIC: 1SOUNDLN), he’s been able to hear the trends coming before many others in the promotional products industry. Sound Line makes its mark by combining traditional greeting cards with audiovisual technology such as USB drives, CDs and DVDs—and content includes everything from music to software programs.

“As a small supplier, Sound Line fills a niche market,” says Schaffer. “We were the first to introduce audio to our industry on a cassette in the mid-1980s. Now we’ve moved on to CDs, DVDs and USBs. To deliver the music, we fused print and technology in the form of a CD greeting card and, more recently, a USB greeting card and digital-download greeting card.”

Read on to learn how Soundline combines traditional greeting cards with functional, mailable technology.

IMAGE 1 Soundline thermal machine web

“The process starts with a design that is modified to fit a CD face and match a printed greeting card,” Schaffer explains. The CD can start out as a raw bag of polymer; 90 percent of all orders start with a blank CD.

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A transfer film with four-color art is fused to the surface of the disc on a robotic machine that applies heat and pressure, thus transferring the image in a thermal process.

IMAGE 3 Soundline open card with usb web

The card is printed on digital equipment then cut and scored, and the two products are then assembled to provide a greeting card with a gift. American-made cardstock is printed in-house to craft the greeting cards, says Schaffer.

“The credit-card USB flash drive is made in China, but decorated and loaded in our facility. The card delivers greetings while the USB, which can be used for future storage, delivers music or even a medical information storage program.”

About Sound Line LLC

Founding date - 1986

Principals - Joel Schaffer, MAS, CEO and Elyse Schaffer, CAS, President

Notable accomplishments - First promotional products supplier to provide audio products, and first to produce DVDs and CDs for the industry

Size of production facility - 6,000 square feet

Number of employees - 14 full time, plus additional part-time staff

Types of specialized equipment - CD/DVD decorating equipment, screening, digital printing

Specialized training - Print and digital-media production

Top Three Products:

CD greeting cards

Custom CD duplication

Variable data printing