5 Reasons Not to Put Music on Your Website

Posted on November 2, 2009 in , Website Design & Usability

No Music, PleasePutting music on a website is a cringe factor we continually deal with in our web development and consulting business. The web is a great place to be creative, but some creative types forget all about usability when implementing their vision.

Here is my list of usability (common sense) reasons not to put music on your website:

  1. It’s not 1999. This music on websites business was a pretty big deal when the “Interweb” (internet) was in its infancy. Now that the web is all grown up, the  idea of putting music on a website is passé and will make your website appear older than it is.
  2. You’re wasting bandwidth. Why slow down the entire site? Adding music files increases your website’s load time. Some may argue that in the world of high-speed internet it really does not matter. But I disagree. Anything you can do to increase your website’s efficiency – and avoid trying the patience of potential visitors – should be considered. Every millisecond counts. Think like the Olympic swimmers and competitive cyclists who strive to shave off every extra millisecond to set new performance records.
  3. You’ll alienate visitors who are on the job. The majority of web browsing is done at work. This fact alone is a major caution against putting music on your website. The last thing you want is for a visitor to regret that they dared to visit your website because you surprised them with an annoying song that alerted your coworkers or your boss of your activities.
  4. You can’t please everyone. Your website is serving many different users, each with their own music tastes. You can’t make everyone happy with a website. Adding music only serves to further segment your web users into those who like the music, and those who don’t enjoy it or understand how it fits with your content. Some people may just plain hate the music you have chosen and never return as a visitor/customer. Simply not worth it.
  5. If it was a good idea, iTunes would be doing it. iTunes is the world’s best known brand selling music online. Guess what? There is no music on their website. You can click to sample anything in their entire library, but when you are on the iTunes home page, it stays silent. I rest my case.

Emily Dickinson said it best-  “Saying nothing…sometimes says the most.”