Many songwriters, artists, and small businesses have CD-burners to create one-off CD's to distribute in their promotional packages. That's okay if you only need one or two but you're restricted to either stick-on paper labels, which have a tendency to peel off over time and jam in some CD playback units, or bulky print-ready blank media, which is more expensive and available in only a few surface colours.

Burning discs on a home system is also tricky business, with all of the compatibility issues for reliable playback on other CD-players. It's important that the integrity of your master is checked through the entire duplication process.

In addition to promotional copies, many find that they need small runs of retail-ready product to sell directly. In the past, the minimum quantities for printing and CD replication (usually 300-1,000 CD's) have made it difficult for those on limited budgets. Short-run duplication is now offering a more cost-effective solution, without sacrificing quality. The fast turnaround times and greater flexibility possible with short-run duplication make it an increasingly popular and cost-effective option, while maintaining professionalism.

Some of the other most frequent users of short-run duplication include schools (educational software, multimedia yearbooks), companies distributing multimedia presentations or online staff training manuals, graphic design companies wishing to showcase their portfolios, software companies needing internal distribution copies or pitching new ideas to possible buyers, and many more.