Pages & sites with sound

[DJoftheCoven]

One of my favorite things for a website to have is a little bit of music to listen to while I'm browsing, which is why I've been looking for audio to use for different parts of my personal website. On the version of my site currently up, I already have a track playing on the front page--but in case any of you weren't caught up with my posts (and I don't expect anyone to do that, lol) I'm planning an overhaul of my site for a better and more personalized layout. I'm using eggramen layouts currently, and I'd like to try my hand at making one more suited to my own tastes.

How would you say you go about choosing music for certain parts of a website, and would you say there are any social faux-pas to make in regards to picking audio for a page?

[Melooon]

I don't think there are any faux-pas's (I actually really don't like the idea of faux-pas's in general). Although I personally find it annoying when a page has overly aggressive anime music or something

In terms of picking music.. pick music you like, something you actually want to listen too. It's nice if you can theme it to your pages subject in some way, but I don't think it's essential. In some cases you might want more ambient sound rather than music, or maybe not! It all depends on the vibe your going for!

[Guest]

In the olden days, back before browsers had tabs and we'd typically only have one website open at a time, I liked having background music. It was a cool feature that added to the immersion, especially on sites that used Flash or Shockwave. But with so much multitasking going on these days, I'm thankful that browsers now show you which tabs are making noise and let you mute them with one click.

[AloeVega]

I think it's pretty cool when websites have music play in the background, it adds character to the site and lets your viewers see what kind of music you like! I do often listen to my own music while I'm browsing, though, so it can be very jarring to have music play out of nowhere.

The best way I've seen it done is, when a site has a page where you have to click an icon to actually get into the main part of the website (I know the name of these type of pages is somewhere in my memory, but it eludes me right now - whatever), they'll have something that says the site automatically plays music, and has an option to disable it! I actually don't disable the music very often, but just having a warning lets me pause my own music - or, if I'm really into what I'm listening to, I will disable the automatic music.

[debleb]

BGM is cute and adds character! however i do think extended auto play audio is kind of annoying, so on my own site i just have an audio in the navbar that you can click if you want to.

other than music i like sound effects a lot too. my site has little “kweh” sound effects whenever you click on a link. it just makes the experience of browsing so much more fun and tactile.

[Guest]

I personally view the music on my site as part of the experience of viewing my site, so I always stick autoplay on but with incredibly lowered volume so that no one gets a headache when visiting my site. (I only recently worked out how to do this and I'm so sorry to anyone who visited my site before now LOL)

Because of my view, I love listening to other sites autoplay music too! But quite often the volume is too loud for my sensitive ears haha... I do appreciate the fact that other users might find autoplay annoying, so I'm always happy to see sites that have the option to pause music. 

I just wont ever implement that myself LOL. It'd feel like a chunk of my site is missing, knowing that users will likely pause the music if the option is there.

[tarraxahum]

I love loud music way too much, so instead of autoplay I opted for a visible player you can toggle with a button  Otherwise (as I quickly learned while struggling with accidental autoplays) I'd jumpscare even myself, what is there to say about poor unsuspecting visitors

[Y2KStardust]

Autistic here; I much prefer a toggle, I 100% get why people like to put music up on their sites but personally if a page starts playing music at me unprompted I'm going to mute it 

I do like seeing the song suggestion and the little play button, sometimes I'm in the mood for new songs! Especially if the player has volume controls built in 

[Skykristal]

I personally love music, especially loud music (I'm the type of person who listens in a way other people can still hear it even if I have headphones)! But when it comes to music on websites, I don't like them 80% of the time. The other 20% consists of gentle calm background music playing at a very low volume. Visiting a site and getting loud music thrown at me instantly is horrible. Rock, nightcore etc. The music itself is cool, but not if it autoplays. If someone has music on a site and it's not gentle, please have a toggle/switch. I'll happily listen to your music when I'm ready and interested.

When it comes to my own website, I don't use any music. Unless we are talking about my old art archive (wix), which has background music. This type of music is the only kind I like for websites. Atmosphere and relaxing. For anything else I either wish people would have a switch, or don't use it all together, at least not for autoplay.

With other sound (such as button clicks) sound effects are very cool! As long as the sound effect isn't shocking me even at 8% volume lol.