on Nov 11th, 2006
Kill the Music!
Please do me a favor and forget about putting music on your website. Nothing will make me click on my back button quicker than being broadsided by an ear full of cheesy techno music. I don’t want any music to play on your website unless I click on a play music link. The offense is even greater when your uninvited racket drowns out the MP3 that I happen to be listening to. Just because you can put music on your site doesn’t mean you should.
When I was at work the other day, one of my coworkers left the computer speakers’ volume at a high level. Since I wasn’t listening to anything, I hadn’t noticed. I visited one of our diamond suppliers’ websites and almost had a heart attack when their obnoxious music jumped out and smacked me in the face.
Web surfers don’t expect music to start playing when they go to a website, so don’t surprise them. If you feel that there is a good reason for music, let the user decide whether to play it by offering a play music link.