What's your opinion of music to set the mood for say a designer's site or a network's site that owns a lot of services?

Something that sounds good, is classy, and it wouldn't make the user not go away from your site? Of course there will always be a visual player so the user may switch to another track or suspend the music from there on out.

It is a no-no for me.
BGM is good for music/movie related websites only.
And this of course, is my opinion :)


This topic somehow took me back to early 90's websites with midi background musics.
oooh! nightmarish! :nervous:

Great, thanks for reminding me of a site that used to use the Popcorn song in midi format. LOL

Well, I've been playing around the idea for a few weeks. And the sites where it is used usually cater to your not so average person or group.

Something like a Gotan Project song or if it's a restaurant, something like a Pink Martini song. I like immersing the user into a world of detail and calmness.

I'm also playing around with the idea on what platform to build the site on. PHP with, JS/Jquery, and AJAX, or an entire Flash, AS2/3, and XML driven site? I just have the dream of doing it and I can get it done. Plus, if I'm funding it, there really is no $$$ limit. :)

Don't ever do it. I always have music or TV running on my computer while browsing the web so I just close any site that plays music.

That will not be nice and professional.
If it is a flash animation, you can add some light music (only if the situation demands).

I agree with BurakUeda. Background music should only be on musicians' websites. Even then, I sometimes find it disagreeable.

It is a no-no for me.

I agree to this as well. Many people feel distrubed by sth like this (for instance when you're sitting in an office...) and tastes a very different.
Moreover, many people use and play their own music on their PC, thus a background music embedded in your homepage would disturb them and even can make them leave your page, and you certainly don't want this ;)

Regards,
Constantin

Just be sure to make sure that you're fully licensed to play the track on your website. An unexpected bill from a royalty organization wouldn't be fun.

Great, thanks for reminding me of a site that used to use the Popcorn song in midi format. LOLEnjoy :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9N4ckFN96-k

Great, thanks for reminding me of a site that used to use the Popcorn song in midi format.
EXACTLY what popped into my head when I opened this topic!
Enjoy :)
Timeless.
It sucked then, too. :D

I think having music start up as soon as the page loads is very annoying. I don't care if it is a music site. If you want to have music playing the user / visitor should at least be able to control it.

I agree with what the rest of the people say - I have my own music playing, I don't want to hear yours. If you insist on having something available, make a link to it and then those who would like to listen may click to do so without impeding on the rest of us. The link will also save you some bandwidth since only those who want to listen will be doing so instead of automatically playing for everyone ;)

I want to punch every developer of every site that I've gone to and some noise/music starts blaring on my speakers!

I think it's annoying IMO. If you want me to hear music, give me a 'play' button to click.

Well that's what I had in mind. Having a notice come up and asking the user if they want to play the music.

I have to always turn the music off when I visit a photographer friend's site.

Here's the song I've been looking into. I'm trying to guess how much it would cost for a royalty fee.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVMsEcLnOxE

Any site that I've seen in the last couple of months using music has a nice big pause or stop button at the top right or left corner. So it's easy to stop the playback, but I figured I would give them the choice. Keep the opinions or ideas coming. :) This is cheaper than hiring someone. :roll2: I kid!


Edit: Alternatively, I could setup a slider with an on/off control while showing the past work or something important.

I don't see that specific song on here, but have you tried jamendo?
http://pro.jamendo.com/en/

Also it's not a matter of choice, it's a matter of surprise. It's super mega annoying when a site loads and unexpectedly begins playing music loudly because your speakers are turned up. ;)

Mike, thanks, but they didn't have what I wanted. :( I'll do a similar query tomorrow on Google and go through the results, thanks for helping out, though. :)


Okay, so I just came across this site that gives the user a choice before entering the site.

http://pcmusic.ca/pcmusic.html#intro


Cool or not?

Depends on the type of site really. I used bg music on a ecommerce website for online gaming.

The problem is when people change pages it reloads the song each time a page loads.

A trick I used to solve this was to put the song in the header of index.html, and have the content of a file use an iframe with 100% width and height and have the source load your actual home page. Now every new page they load will load in the iframe, and the browser doesn't actually change from the index.html.

;)

most annoying thing in the world.

Main reason - Lots of people listen to their own music while on the computer (itunes) so when you automatically play music it clashes with what's currently playing and both play at the same time.

Why take the chance? Research has proven the majority of users do not want to hear music on websites

If you are going to do it, I would set the volume in flash at 50% or less as I hate it when I go on a site and my speakers are turned way up!! Scares the crap out of me !! Also have a really big stop button so people are fumbling around your site trying to shut it off. Make the controls easy ti find!!

Cheers
Alexis

If you are going to do it, I would set the volume in flash at 50% or less as I hate it when I go on a site and my speakers are turned way up!! Scares the crap out of me !! Also have a really big stop button so people are fumbling around your site trying to shut it off. Make the controls easy ti find!!

Cheers
Alexis

What's your opinion of music to set the mood for say a designer's site or a network's site that owns a lot of services?

Many people will exit the site almost immediately it starts making sound.

Mike, thanks, but they didn't have what I wanted. :( I'll do a similar query tomorrow on Google and go through the results, thanks for helping out, though. :)


Okay, so I just came across this site that gives the user a choice before entering the site.

http://pcmusic.ca/pcmusic.html#intro


Cool or not?

Not.

When people go to a site, they want to go to the site, not go to a question before getting to the site.

Hi,

Simply don't. I have yet to visit a site meeting my taste in music and I hate when anyone intrudes upon my privacy that way.

And if you insist on presenting a choice button, do NOT preload the song! There are still enough users around who're on smallband access who will thank you for not squandering their time.

I have only seen maybe one or two designs that were some multimedia design firm that actually used a calm decent melody to fit their website that somehow worked.

For the most part though, I can't stand music in the background on websites, I usually have to find the pause or mute on the site, and if there isn't one, I have to go mute my computer lol. I just find it to be a distraction and a bit annoying :D

This so reminds me of the websites 5+ years ago with one solid color, some weird colored text and music, maybe some glittery font, lol...

Yeah, I agree, it's a no-no. I would scramble to find the stop button once it starts playing, or just press Back as quickly as possible.

Moreover, it tends to clash with my own music off my Winamp. (And besides, background music on a website is so 1990s. :P)

In my opinion, the only time background music on a website is appropriate is during slideshow, presentation, etc..

Music on a professional website? Negative.

Music on a personal blog where you are free to be yourself? Yes

Music on a slideshow? Yes

Music on a presentation? Yes

Unless it’s for an entertainment website, I wouldn’t recommend it.

I found a workaround in the form of a demoreel.


To the person who said entering things and leaving if they make noise, I hope anyone of the other sex doesn't read that post. :roll2: