I need to rant. I will probably tick some readers off but I’ma gonna say it anyhoo…
Unless you are a band or music promotion site, Please, P_L_E_A_S_E PuhLeeeeeze stop putting music or playlists that automatically start the moment someone visits your website/Blog. Please. I am not anti-music. Heh…I AM a musician…I majored in music in college. I LOVE all styles of music and you would be hard pressed to find someone with more eclectic tastes than I. You should see my iTunes library!
As a web designer I can give you all kinds of reasons why it is unprofessional {and many times ILLEGAL}, but some of you are personal bloggers and really don’t care about presenting a professional web presence. Allow me to give you a few reasons why you still should care.
- I visit your site for inspiration and information. I am not coming there to listen to your daily tunes
- Even though I am a lover of many types of music I am not
normalthe norm. Not everyone likes Strauss, Streisand, Sinatra, the Stones or Slayer. - Some of your visitors will hear your tunes and click and run away from your site before even reading what you have to say. Come on! You are good enough without a song aren’t ya?
- I, as many others, are listening to their OWN music while surfing, searching or working. We want our music not yours
- Since I have my speakers or headphones on it scares the bejeezus out of me when I am deep in silent thought and your music pops up. Seriously! You should see the coffee spill stains on my desk…not to mention how long it takes to scroll around for that damn pause button!
- Again, I get my Martha on and visit many sites at once. I often have
way too manyseveral browser tabs open and if several pages have music then Whoa! What a train wreck that becomes! It’s enough to cause any musician to De-Compose! Get it? de-COMPOSE??? - No, I’m not talking about a Chubby trumpet player. Adding music s-l-o-w-s your site down and requires a longer time for your page to load. There goes your visitor again. Gone in one click
- Unless you wrote the song yourself or have permission of the copyright holder of the work to play it, then you could be running from the copyright cops. The only music you’ll end up with is that nice harmonica playing from your jail cell.
Why I Come
Tastes May Vary
Get Some Web Stickiness
Martha Says to Multitask
The Sounds of Silence
Tab Turmoil
Bandwidth
Support Your Local Lawyer
I know, I know… you say it’s YOUR site and you can do what you want. Yes, it is your decision, but think about it. Is it a rude and self-serving one? If you still feel that you just have to put music on your site then give your readers the choice to play it or not to play it. In fact, I love seeing others playlists and music interest.
End. Of. Rant.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
I agree with you 99% for all the reasons you listed, and I don’t put music on my blog either.
Except there is 1 blog (out of hundreds, maybe thousands I have visited) that introduced me to new music that I was thankful for. I found new favorite artists and songs from her playlist. Normally I will leave a blog if they have auto-play tunes because it irks me so bad. But I have to remember that one, single blog with music that actually impressed me. Very, very rare – but now I can’t be 100% against the music. I’ve reduced it to a 99% loathing instead.
RIGHT ON!!!
Ah, I could not agree with you more on this. One of my kids sent me to some heavy metal group’s page to look at some merchandise and the dang thing scared me to death. At least it was THEIR music. As a fellow musician and former web designer, I can only say “right on!”