⭐ Official Review Carpenters Royal Philharmonic Review and Comments Thread

How would you rate Carpenters with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra?

  • ⁕⁕⁕⁕⁕ (Best)

    Votes: 38 36.5%
  • ⁕⁕⁕⁕

    Votes: 47 45.2%
  • ⁕⁕⁕ (Average)

    Votes: 16 15.4%
  • ⁕⁕

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • ⁕ (Worst)

    Votes: 1 1.0%
  • Did not listen to this album yet

    Votes: 1 1.0%

  • Total voters
    104
Billboard gets it's rankings from AirPlay, retail scans and digital downloads. I worked in retail music for 30 years, so I’m very familiar on how it works. I doubt there are very many CDs being sold at this time. Target has even gone to total consignment for the music they sell. They don’t pay for stock until it sells, then they return the rest after sales fade. It’s a real shame, but the public prefers downloads now, except for those of us that like still like a physical album, cd or vinyl.
 
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I would like to give that a “like”, but it’s true, and I don’t like what’s happened. The death of the cd and dvd/blu Ray is slow and painful. I will only download what isn’t available at retail or Amazon if possible. Trying to support the artists, but it’s a losing battle. Example: The newest Spencer Day,” Angel City “release is only available as a download. It’s a really nice album and I seldom listen to it anymore.
 
Billboard gets it's rankings from AirPlay, retail scans and digital downloads. I worked in retail music for 30 years, so I’m very familiar on how it works. I doubt there are very many CDs being sold at this time. Target has even gone to total consignment for the music they sell. They don’t pay for stock until it sells, then they return the rest after sales fade. It’s a real shame, but the public prefers downloads now, except for those of us that like still like a physical album, cd or vinyl.
You forgot about streaming. Streaming now accounts for 75% of the music industry's revenue. Sales of digital downloads are way down, and account for barely more revenue than physical formats.

Streaming now accounts for 75 percent of music industry revenue

Music Downloads are Nearing Extinction as Sales Tank 27.4%
 
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Billboard gets it's rankings from AirPlay, retail scans and digital downloads. I worked in retail music for 30 years, so I’m very familiar on how it works. I doubt there are very many CDs being sold at this time. Target has even gone to total consignment for the music they sell. They don’t pay for stock until it sells, then they return the rest after sales fade. It’s a real shame, but the public prefers downloads now, except for those of us that like still like a physical album, cd or vinyl.
But Billboard wouldn’t be ranking based on re-downloaded albums that people have already licensed and downloaded. They would only be ranking based on new downloads.
 
Streaming is great if you live in a well-populated area and never have to worry about losing your internet connection. Here, and I'd wager in most rural areas, if I start streaming a tune and drive out of town, the song will stop playing within anywhere from 2 to 30 miles, depending on what road I'm on. If I find a great album and it's only available as a streamer, there's software to convert it into mp3s or FLACs.
 
About 100 million sold in 2017, but only about 52 million in 2018 (according to this website)

I can’t remember the last time I bought a physical CD. I’ve kept all the CDs I’ve ever bought though, for posterity. Although I can’t remember the last time I played one of them either.
 
But I look at it this way, if you ripped your cd into media files then your listening to your cd.

Spotify all the way for me! With a monthly subscription account, I don’t even buy iTunes downloads any more. I get that the downside is you don’t ever actually own the physical disc or files, but I’m cool with that. The CDs I do own have become a cherished collection from years gone by.
 
Spotify all the way for me! With a monthly subscription account, I don’t even buy iTunes downloads any more. I get that the downside is you don’t ever actually own the physical disc or files, but I’m cool with that. The CDs I do own have become a cherished collection from years gone by.
What if an artist decides to pull all their albums off Spotify? Do you get your money back?
 
What if an artist decides to pull all their albums off Spotify? Do you get your money back?

No you pay £9.99 a month subscription (which you can cancel at no notice, at any time) for streaming access to all the millions of tunes and albums out there worldwide. Most artists are there these days (at least 99.9% all the music I listen to is there anyway). If an album isn’t on there, or is removed, then it no longer shows up or you can see certain tracks but can’t play them or add them to one of your libraries. That rarely happens permanently though. For example if you search for Richard Carpenter on Spotify in the UK, Time comes up but all the tracks are greyed out. This to me signifies the rights to publish it on Spotify in the UK haven’t been secured - yet. Others have said it’s readily available on Spotify in Canada. Karen’s album only recently appeared on Spotify UK but had been available elsewhere for some time. So the rights to each album can vary by territory.

Sometimes a track can “grey out” temporarily, usually meaning the publishing rights have changed hands or the fee for that particular artist is being renegotiated with Spotify. But they almost always come back and they remain intact where they were in your playlists before.

I like Spotify. It suits my needs and my budget. The cool thing with the paid subscription is you can create your own playlists and import from wherever you wish on the Spotify database (subject to availability and territory). You can also title your collections and add your own custom album cover and description. You can then make your playlists public (if you wish), which means others can also follow or add them to their own lists.

Sorry, I digress and didn’t want to hijack the thread but thought I’d answer the question thoroughly for enquiring minds :)
 
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Can you write your Spotify playlists to cd? My car doesn’t have usb so I tend to listen to my physical CDs or my playlists written to cds.
 
The same here. No blue tooth in older Toyota so I need CDs. I have a Bluetooth device that plays over the FM on the radio, but the sound is inferior. I think they did away with FM in England I was told? Not sure. Went to hi def or something better a traveler told me. So cds work best for me too. Plus I like having a physical copy for my collection.
 
Can you write your Spotify playlists to cd? My car doesn’t have usb so I tend to listen to my physical CDs or my playlists written to cds.

I don’t think so because the tracks are encoded, preventing ripping to CD. Some software downloads available online claim to be able to remove the encoding, theoretically allowing you to rip the tracks. I’ve never tried one though. There is however a MUCH easier workaround, but you’d still need usb or Bluetooth in the car I’m afraid:

If you subscribe to Spotify premium (as I mention above), you can at least download all your Spotify albums and playlists to your device’s memory, so you can play them offline in your car at any time, removing the need for streaming. This is also really handy when flying or if you are out of mobile data or coverage, as you have full access to your library direct from your device even when offline. Whether you could rip them from the phone (or laptop) is another question completely, but again I believe the tracks are still encoded even when stored on your device.

P.S. FM is still alive and well in the UK and the most popular form of radio! :)
 
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Good to know about FM. Some tourists told me it was going like in Norway maybe? But not sure. Thx for the update. Online says 2028 for England if it happens. A lot of Europe going digital. Bet it sounds great, but what about cars and amps with FM? Guess there will be adapters if some sort.
 
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From what this video says, in the UK most DAB radio stations are broadcasting at anywhere between 30kbps and 128kbps in MP2 (And that’s for both mono & stereo). Nowhere near the quality for FM & CDs and occasionally getting close to MP3 quality.

And here’s a 2017 CBC article about digital radio in Canada and North America.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/technology/digital-radio-canada-1.3924864

So don’t expect to be hearing Carpenters tracks played on radio in digital anytime soon when it comes to a large market. FM is probably going to be around for years to come (and, seriously, the cost of FM/AM radios is pretty cheap, I think you can get a portable one for like $10 CAD).
 
Google says most of the EU is going to switch over eventually including England. It says the sound is better, but not for everyone. It’s best in metropolitan areas, but not for remote places. Not sure what governments can do to force the change. I live in the US. So far it’s mostly Switzerland changing and Norway completely gone digital. We did that with tv here, but you can still get dozens of stations with an antenna for free. It will take years to convert. That’s why I wrote 2028 as a date for England. It’s far off and they say the sound is fine. I’m sure there are detractors. Not everyone likes every new format. I don’t care for streaming personally. Just my preference. Whatever works best for each person, unless we’re forced to change by our governments or new laws about clogged airways.The British couple were telling the truth then last year when I met them at work.
 
Also...there is a good bit of new orchestra recording in here too. I wonder if this was from additional takes in the original sessions, done on a return trip to London with the RPO or done locally in California with session musicians?
The Royal Philharmonic recorded strings, woodwinds, brass, and harp on all songs on the RPO album although Richard may have decided to keep the original tracks in some places. The rhythm section parts were either from the original recordings or rerecorded at Capitol Records. Drums, guitar, and/or Richard at the piano were each recorded separately where needed. Richard only replaced what he felt could be done better. After the London recordings, Richard made some changes to some of the songs and had another string session at Capitol Records. He also opted to redo some of the woodwind parts with his favorite players here in L.A.
 
The Royal Philharmonic recorded strings, woodwinds, brass, and harp on all songs on the RPO album although Richard may have decided to keep the original tracks in some places. The rhythm section parts were either from the original recordings or rerecorded at Capitol Records. Drums, guitar, and/or Richard at the piano were each recorded separately where needed. Richard only replaced what he felt could be done better. After the London recordings, Richard made some changes to some of the songs and had another string session at Capitol Records. He also opted to redo some of the woodwind parts with his favorite players here in L.A.
Thanks John! Do you have any idea when he’ll be done with these updates and if the physical media will be re-released with updated versions?
 
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