Official Carpenters Web Site

[350hunny]

I just noticed one thing (at least) missing with that website of Carpenters.

You never hear any of the Carpenters music from the homepage.
So I wrote to the webmaster to add some of their songs to play.

I've visited some other artists' websites and enjoyed their hits coming from the speakers but I wonder why I haven't thought about it with our duo's homepage!

Didn't any of you care?

I've been to Dionne Warwick's website and it is not too bad.
http://www.dionnewarwick.info/

 

[Harry]

I personally REALLY dislike music forced at me on ANY web page. It slows down the loading, and if your volume is up a bit high it can be quite annoying.

If music is needed on a page, there should be the option to turn it ON, not forced on the page viewer.

Harry
...feeliing STRONGLY about this, online...

 

[350hunny]

Oh, that's an idea.
I usually turn it off if it's too long or uninteresting.

It seems like an unwanted ad on tv and radio but actually it's their business chance so I don't exactly care about it.

When I was young I'd listen to the radio waiting for my favorite songs when they played I'd sing along it made me smile

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

I'm with Harry on that one, sometimes it freezes up your system too & you end up having to re-boot, usually the background midi's are either too soft or too loud.

Agree that it should be an option to turn off or on not hidden so the user is forced to have to hear it. That goes with any site.

 

[andywithaz]

well i guess I should take the midi files off my site. Wish there was a way that I could make them optional.

 

[thestitch]

There are now some updates that Becky added to the website. It's "old" news for us, but it's nice to see it officially. The links involved are "News" and "CPAC". The latter officially announces the news of Bob Newhart appearing with Richard on October 2nd for the center's 10th anniversary. There is also a link up for ticket purchase.

Marilyn

 

[Mike Blakesley]

There's nothing MORE annoying than hearing music on a website, unless the user asks for it. Like Harry said, it slows down the loading -- especially for a dialup user, which is still over half of the US population -- and if you sit on a page for more than a minute, the song starts to repeat and that gets REALLY annoying.

 

[Rudy]

There's nothing MORE annoying than hearing music on a website, unless the user asks for it. Like Harry said, it slows down the loading -- especially for a dialup user, which is still over half of the US population -- and if you sit on a page for more than a minute, the song starts to repeat and that gets REALLY annoying.

I use a little filter called Proxomitron that kills any type of background music. It's a "proxy" in that it sits between the internet and my browser and intercepts the incoming pages (the HTML code, actually) and rewrites it if needed. One filter removes any type of background or embedded sounds. I use it mainly, though, to kill pop-up or pop-under windows, to kill other "garbage" that ad sites leave behind, and prevent sites from installing or running scripts that I'd care not to run. It even kills ad banners, Flash advertisements, and animated images. It also has a bypass list so I can browse trusted sites without filtering. I remember over a year ago, someone posted a link to a really poorly laid out Carpenters website--I created a filter to kill the background "wallpaper" image and change the text to black, along with killing background music. And what a surprise to find out I could actually read the site after I did that!

 

[moog]

Welp, 10 years later, and the website still sucks.

It's not that the information is bad- it's fun hearing the tidbits from Richard. But it's not like it's that hard to just find a professional-looking template and copy and paste the information into it, and it's not like the money isn't there to hire an actual webmaster. I'm still surprised that with Richard's commitment to quality (especially when it comes to the Carpenters) that he let it go out like that (so much so that people thought it was either fake, or that his kids did it- and this would've been a DECADE ago!)

He was always displeased with the way the Carpenters were marketed back in the day. Since everything is online nowadays, he has the chance to market the Carpenters exactly the way he always wanted to- as classy, professional musicians- to even rewrite history for a new generation of fans as far as their "image" is concerned, and to really solidify their legacy as professionals- and never took it.

For example, Herb Alpert's website is really nice. So is Brian Wilson's. So is... well, pretty much everybody else's.

With Richard not answering letters, it seems the only "official" correspondence comes from the (not often updated) Carpenters Facebook page. I'm not sure who runs it, but I'm guessing it's someone at Universal who isn't all THAT familiar with the Carpenters.

Sigh.

 

[song4u]

Welp, 10 years later, and the website still sucks.

It's not that the information is bad- it's fun hearing the tidbits from Richard. But it's not like it's that hard to just find a professional-looking template and copy and paste the information into it, and it's not like the money isn't there to hire an actual webmaster. I'm still surprised that with Richard's commitment to quality (especially when it comes to the Carpenters) that he let it go out like that (so much so that people thought it was either fake, or that his kids did it- and this would've been a DECADE ago!)

He was always displeased with the way the Carpenters were marketed back in the day. Since everything is online nowadays, he has the chance to market the Carpenters exactly the way he always wanted to- as classy, professional musicians- to even rewrite history for a new generation of fans as far as their "image" is concerned, and to really solidify their legacy as professionals- and never took it.

For example, Herb Alpert's website is really nice. So is Brian Wilson's. So is... well, pretty much everybody else's.

With Richard not answering letters, it seems the only "official" correspondence comes from the (not often updated) Carpenters Facebook page. I'm not sure who runs it, but I'm guessing it's someone at Universal who isn't all THAT familiar with the Carpenters.

Sigh.

He obviously isn't concerned about it. He seems quite satisfied with his life now and being 'retired' basically. Maybe one day one of his children will be interested enough to do it. But I don't see Carpenters music ever being forgotten, and think how much is still available online via Ebay and YouTube.

Me, trying to look on the bright side.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Just think we were so excited back in 2004 when this thread appeared just look at our comments......fast forward to 2014 and look at us now........it's not how I envisioned it to be.

 

[moog]

I know. I was reading all the optimism of "oh, it's bound to get better!" ...nope.

 

[Mike Blakesley]

For example, Herb Alpert's website is really nice.

Well...it isn't that nice. It's hard to navigate and sort of clunky. It IS better than Richard's in that at least you can buy music off of it. Richard is undoubtedly missing out on a lot of sales by not making his an e-commerce site. I suppose, if Richard is fully retired, he's just said "screw it" to the whole website thing -- but you'd think that he'd have a business manager or SOMEBODY who would say, "You know this website really needs to be better."

I have a feeling that Herb and Richard are both guilty of this phenomenon: (1) Not being really all that interested in worrying about a website, and (2) having somebody, like a friend or relative, or a friend of a friend, who dabbles in web design say, "I can handle that for you, want me to take care of it?" and (3) just agreeing, to get out of thinking about it. And then (4) never really paying attention to the website after that. Out of sight, out of mind.

 

[Rick-An Ordinary Fool]

Richard is undoubtedly missing out on a lot of sales by not making his an e-commerce site. I suppose, if Richard is fully retired, he's just said "screw it" to the whole website thing -- but you'd think that he'd have a business manager or SOMEBODY who would say, "You know this website really needs to be better."

Just think if he had sold stuff on the official website since 2004-2014 (even sprinkling in some bonus track downloads hey Now & Then) I believed all monies could have been recouped from funds lost through the years it would have been a win/win!!

Yes....I love CᴬᴿᴾᴱᴺᵀᴱᴿS