Website music can drive you wild.
Music can soothe the savage breast, but on a website, it can drive you wild.
Let’s say I work at a computer in a short cubicle in a quiet office. Back at home, there’s a hole in my dining room wall that the plumbers made in an attempt to get at a problem pipe. I have a few minutes, so I search “drywall companies” and see that ABC Drywall, Inc. is near my house. Cool. I go to their site to see what types of projects this company handles.
The home page opens, and instantly, loud, frenetic bluegrass picking nearly blasts me off my chair. Adrenalin starts pumping, and I’m thinking, “HELP! MAKE IT STOP!” But I CAN’T TURN IT OFF. There’s no “Music off” button. I could mute the sound on my computer, but that takes too long. I’m out of there as fast as I can hit “Command-Q.” My next-cubicle neighbor peers over the partition at me, frowning. I shouldn’t be looking into drywallers on the company computer anyway, but you can’t call drywallers at night.
If the objective was to get rid of Web visitors as quickly as possible, ABC Drywall, Inc. definitely achieved it. I’ll call XYZ Drywall, LLC, instead. Their site is nice and quiet.
So if you have your heart set on playing your favorite music on your website, whether it’s cowboy yodeling, Hawaiian ukelele tunes or heavy metal, please also provide a “MUSIC OFF” button. If you do, your visitors may stick around long enough to get your message and decide to do business with you. And that would be a good thing.
