Should Websites Have Music?
Mary Bowling | 17 January 2006 |
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This question has been the subject of debate for some time. The answer has a lot to do with the music, of course, and the type of website it lives on. For instance, I once ran across a site for a motorcycle club that blasted “Born to Be Wild”, accompanied by revving engines and roaring pipes. It certainly got my attention, and was fun, too, for a while….a very short while. The novelty quickly wore off and the music became an annoyance.
Website music can also be disturbing and embarrassing. What if you’re surfing the ‘net at 3 am and Born to Be Wild suddenly comes blaring out of your tinny laptop speakers and wakes up the entire household? There are many other places where music coming from a pc is inappropriate, such as at work, at a library or in a class. Yes, we all have the option of muting or lowering the volume of our pc’s, but who hasn’t been caught off guard? When you are, the first reaction is to leave the offending website immediately.
A recent study here at Blizzard Internet Marketing showed the bounce rate for a client’s homepage went from over 67% to less than 33% within a month after music was removed from the website. Keep an eye out for an upcoming article with more details about this success story.
Yes, music can add another dimension to a website. It can set a mood and may even encourage conversions, in some instances. Unfortunately, it can also cause people to leave and never return. So, the best way to deal with providing music on a website is to give visitors the option to listen to it or not. Place an audio button on the page that people can turn on if they wish to listen to your music, more importantly, turn it off when they’ve had enough.
Mary Bowling - Blizzard Internet Marketing, Inc.
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