Music on Websites

[Joseph Westrupp]

First off, I did a quick search and didn't see any topics about this, but if I missed any, I apologize for being repetitive.


It's been a rather lazy Saturday for me and out of curiosity I spent some time googling local photography studios to see what kind of services they offered etc. Out of a dozen or so websites, nearly all of them had some type of music start playing as soon as the page loaded. My immediate reaction whenever this happens is to x out of the page asap to make it shut up because I can't be bothered to search around for the (usually) tiny pause button. Had I been a customer that alone would have prompted me to look elsewhere for services.

And so I'm wondering how many of you put music on your photography websites or enjoy it when others do? I know the sites I visited represent a rather small cross-section of a greater collective, so is this common nationally/globally as well?

If you do enjoy/use it, what kind of benefits do you think it provides?
If you dislike it, how would it affect your likelihood of becoming a customer?

I'm with you; I've shut many a page because of music. I'm not entirely sure why I find it so offensive (notwithstanding the possibility of having my system volume up too high and getting an ear-splitting surprise).

As for the likelihood of my becoming a customer, the chances decrease drastically if there's a musical site.

 

[cliffy13]

Nothing annoys me more than surfing and finding some site music drowns out the decent music I am listening to on Real Player,and as others have said its a complete waste of bandwidth and to my mind serves no purpose at all

 

[dnavarrojr]

Nothing annoys me more than surfing and finding some site music drowns out the decent music I am listening to on Real Player,and as others have said its a complete waste of bandwidth and to my mind serves no purpose at all

I feel the same way about Flash Only web sites... They are annoying and I hate not being able to bookmark a specific page because it's embedded in flash. I don't mind flash videos or galleries as much, but make your main site HTML.

 

[GerryDavid]

99% of the time I hate it when a website has music, but I was checking out a local photographers website and the music he choose really added to the atmosphere of the page and viewing the pictures. In this case I didnt mind it, and it got me thinking about putting some music on my website down the road. But from the response here, I think 99% of people hate it and may close the page before looking at it. I know ive done that in the past.

 

[Canon AE-1]

I find piped music on websites cheesy and a waste of bandwidth/time. The same goes for autoplay embedded videos - annoying..or pretentious flash animations with 'skip this' buttons.

:thumbup:

 

[Infidel]

I equate it to email spam....why do spammers even bother? Do they think it works? C'mon...deliberately circumventing spam filters? How is that a good way to win customers? Does anyone fall for that anymore? Has anyone actually tried to buy a Rolex or some Viagra because of a poorly spelled email that they received? I guess I find it rather invasive to have music start cranking out when I'm web-browsing; the vast majority of the sites I visit do NOT have music, so the ones that do really get under my skin. Almost everyone hates it, why bother?

 

[xjoewhitex]

Annoys me, I usually close the site if it has some type of music playing.

 

[Joseph Westrupp]

I equate it to email spam....why do spammers even bother? Do they think it works? C'mon...deliberately circumventing spam filters? How is that a good way to win customers? Does anyone fall for that anymore? Has anyone actually tried to buy a Rolex or some Viagra because of a poorly spelled email that they received?

You'd think that, but the fact they continue must indicate some success.

 

[flightless_beaker]

I equate it to email spam....why do spammers even bother? Do they think it works? C'mon...deliberately circumventing spam filters? How is that a good way to win customers? Does anyone fall for that anymore? Has anyone actually tried to buy a Rolex or some Viagra because of a poorly spelled email that they received?

You'd think that, but the fact they continue must indicate some success.

Yeah but 30 emails a day on male enhancement I'm sure only goes so far