Computer and Web Articles

You told your webmaster to make sure that music plays the instant a visitor arrives on your homepage. I mean, you LOVE that music; it just gives the right “feel” to your site. It really sets the tone and represents your company’s products and/or services.  The music makes your website feel more relaxing/energetic/fun/enter your own adjective here.

As a professional web designer, I strongly urge you to consider not automatically playing music upon your visitors’ arrival to your website. Why?

• Your visitor might already have music playing on her computer’s speakers – trying to play your song play over the top of your visitor’s music is rude, and it’s pretty darn confusing when one suddenly hears two songs playing at once.
• Your audio file could potentially be causing your site to load much, much slower than it should be loading.  This detracts from your users’ overall experience while on your site.
• Your visitor might have his speakers turned off or his audio on mute.  What’s the point of playing music if this is the case (especially if the music is slowing down your site)?
• Your visitor might be viewing your website at a location where things need to be kept quiet – such as a work cubicle, or their living room at night after the baby has been put to sleep.  These people will assure you that they do NOT appreciate sudden, unexpected noise coming from their computer.
• It may be difficult to believe, but I guarantee you that many, many visitors to your site will really, really dislike your music.

Unless you’re a musician, singer, or band, people likely visit your website to learn more about you, your products, and/or your services. They didn’t come to listen to music that you thought was cool.

If you really, really, really love your music, the very least you can do is give visitors the option to press a Play button if THEY want to listen to that music. And go ahead — track the number of clicks that Play button receives.  You might be surprised at the incredibly high percentage of visitors that pass on the option of playing that funky music.