Websites, sound and music.
One of the first things new web designers are tempted to do is add sound to a web site.
Many times though, this is a bad idea because sound slows pages down and often times, annoys people.
The rules of sound on a website:
- If it doesn’t help the web site to communicate the message – you should not have sound.
- Give users a choice whether to listen or not.
Like any other aspect of a website, the decision to add sound should be well thought out.
… just because you like the first few seconds from Dark Side of the Moon, that doesn’t mean looping the mp3 will help your home repair website.
But if (for example,) you had a home repair tip or two, then it would make sense to provide a few mp3’s that people could download – if they choose to.
The best two ways to add sound to a web page:
In a nutshell:
- Just link to mp3 files. This is the easiest way.
- Embed a Flash based mp3 player so that people can play mp3’s right in your web pages.
There are other ways (Windows media, Apple Quicktime) but the above two are universal and easy to work with, for both the web designer and website visitors.
One last point, if you use a Flash mp3 player to add sound to your website, this will prevent people from copying your mp3’s. Well, it will make it much harder.
Stefan Mischook
www.killersites.com
www.killerphp.com
January 3rd, 2007 at 11:42 am
yes man of all the methods to play a sound in the site i feel the flash funda is the best. in other way it askys you to download the mp3 or wave file. whats the use of that and also you cant mute the sound. but in flash you can do that and also can add a funky equiliser effect to amke ti look good and attractive.
January 8th, 2007 at 1:46 am
So, how do you “Embed a Flash based mp3 player so that people can play mp3’s right in your web pages”?
January 8th, 2007 at 2:52 am
I may have the need to use the Flash player option. Is there a link to some freeware code to setup this solution? Do I *have* to use the Flash program to create the player, or are there some 3rd party open source versions available?
ThanX a mi||ion,
“Flashless in Winston, GA” — Jon Slate
January 8th, 2007 at 5:25 am
Hi Stefan,
you’re right. It’s pretty annoying, if you search sometning with Google, find maybe 20-30 sites you want to look at, open each hit in a new Tab and suddenly different music pieces start to play and you don’t know, under which Tab it’s playing…
There’s a funky and free Flash mp3 player you can download at http://www.marcreichelt.de/spezial/musicplayer/#english
Greetings from pretty warm Berlin
cob-web
January 9th, 2007 at 11:44 am
Stefan,
I’m still surprised to see more “professional” sites with sound on auto. Even if I know your site is about music, that doesn’t mean I want to hear it as soon as I enter!
For those of you looking to add a Flash MP3 player, check out this link:
http://www.jeroenwijering.com/?item=Flash_MP3_Player
Jeroen is a genius! His players are very easy to setup. If you need any help, just visit his forum. Feel free to contact me as well (through the contact page on my site).
Glad to help!
Taurus
http://taurusbeats.com/
January 25th, 2007 at 5:56 am
the one big problem with other methods are, that most of the time it tels you download the sound instead of playing it, and that is not what i want, so it is hopeless. and most of the people dont even download it. complete waste of time..
Regards
Amitav Roy
Web Designer