Feb 7, 2012 0
Why Music on your Website is a BAD idea!
If you aren’t in a band, a solo artist, a composer or in the music industry, having music play on your website upon page load is just a bad idea! Even if you are one of these people, consider having your users hit ‘play’ instead of the music loading automatically.
A few years back, it was popular to have music playing on your website. Quite frankly these days, it’s a sign of being an amateur.
Following are some things to consider if you think your website really needs music:
Copyright Infringement
Unless you specifically paid for the rights to use the music you are playing on your website, you could potentially be sued.
It’s Distracting
Take the scenario of someone working in an office environment with their speakers turned on…they happen upon your website that is playing music; it can be very annoying and distracting to that person and others around them. Besides being distracting, this could very well cause that person to immediately close your website before they even get a chance to see what you have to offer. Remember MySpace? If you do, there‘s a good chance you’ve come across a profile that had some crazy metal music playing and you found yourself either searching frantically for the stop button, or just closed the browser.
People’s Taste Vary
I have a wide variety of taste in music, and one of those is techno. Now granted, I generally like to hear it in a club setting but imagine if I put some techno trance music playing in the background of my website, complete with a hard thumping bass line. While I may think it sounds extremely cool, I’m very likely to annoy, say… my mom, for example. If my mom happened upon a website with techno music playing, she would most likely be frightened or at the very least, be extremely agitated. What you think sounds great, might have just the opposite effect on someone who is really just looking to get at your content, minus the ‘cool’ bass line.
Clashing Tunes
Many people are already listening to streaming music while they are surfing the web. If they happen upon your website that is also playing music, the two are going to clash, and never in a good way.
Interferes with Screen Readers
Another huge issue to consider is how visually impaired people access your content. They use screen readers, which actually reads web content to them. If your site has music playing in the background, it can be difficult for them to turn off and may result in a complete interference with their screen reader.