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Background Static - the musical question
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A feature I played around with in my early days on the web is the use of background sounds
on my site - midis and wavs.....the verdict....not a good idea.
I have seen people literally jump out of their chairs when music suddenly started playing upon entering a
site. That's not a good way to start a relationship with a visitor.
The feedback I received on the subject was that people will generally do one of two things when they hit a site that has background music.
a) Turn down the sound
b) Leave immediately - cursing, yelling and planning your destruction as they go...
Music is such a personal thing that I guarantee whatever tune you are playing, it will offend someone.
And once again the ever-present issue of load time...whatever bells and buzzers you add to your site will slow it down. From what I have been able to ascertain, you have 10 seconds at best for your page to be fully loaded.
Bear in mind that there are still many people out there with dialup
connections.
There are exceptions to this rule of course, it depends entirely on
market that you are targeting. If you do try implementing background music,
study your site traffic statistics carefully
afterwards to see if your visitor:page view ratio drops. That will be a clear
indicator whether people are finding it to be so much of a distraction that
they simply leave your site.
If you really feel the need to have a background midi playing on your home page, just as in the case with Flash animations, give your guests a choice to switch it on or
off, before it actually begins.
Michael Bloch
Taming the Beast
http://www.tamingthebeast.net
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