This is a guest post from Duncan who is an online marketing specialist and keen blogger representing a producer of natural beauty products and skin care products.
Blogging has come on a long way since its infancy. All bloggers could do back in the day was write a post, give it a title and maybe include a few hyperlinks if they were lucky. Nowadays however there are all sorts of widgets, plugins and extensions to help make the blogging experience a richer one, both for blog owners and their readers. WordPress has undoubtedly had a big part to play in this development, allowing the masses to develop the open source code and customise blogs to suit their needs. The other blogging platforms aren’t too far behind however and their progress is driven by the very human desire to make things better and more engaging.
One such development that many blog owners are taking advantage of these days is music players that they can either embed into their posts or individual pages. A couple of examples of these are the ‘Audio Player’ plugin for WordPress , which can actually be imbedded in any blog if you know a bit of code. Or Groove Shark, which is a customisable widget that will play music on your blog from their own diverse and extensive collection.
Using music on your site can really enhance a visitor’s experience. If you are trying to create an ambiance or have a clear theme on your blog, music can reinforce this. You might also like to showcase your own music on your site so you can get feedback or maybe catch the ear of someone in the industry? What you need to be careful of however is crossing the line between enhancing a users experience and putting them off by forcing your audio choices on them.
It is worth remembering that everyone has different tastes and may not like the music on your blog. Also, these days many people have their own music players open whilst browsing the net and don’t want their songs interrupted by what you think they want to listen to. With this is mind it is rarely a good idea to have music start playing automatically when people arrive on the site, but instead give them the option to turn it on if they so wish.
For example, on this site the music player is closed when people arrive
But if you want to you can open the music player by clicking on the arrow and the song starts to play. In this case it is Michael Jackson’s – Man In The Mirror…classic!
The key is, by all means give your visitors something to listen to when they visit your site and read your posts, but don’t try to force anything down their throats or assume they want to listen to your choice of tunes.
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Tags: blogging tips, music on blogs, Wordpress Plugins
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Twitter: FamousBloggers
says:
Ah! this is so cool Duncan, I never thought about including music on my blog, maybe because I don’t need it regarding my blog niche, so this is why I am not into music on my blog, but maybe some other audio files.
However, I am sure there is lots of bloggers will find this interesting to implement on their blogs.
.-= Hesham @ FamousBloggers is hoping you stop by and read 7 Basic Tips For Designing Your Blog =-.
Twitter: DennisEdell
says:
Is there anything worse then auto-playing music when you hit a site?
That aside, are the two link you provided your choices for the best choices for music?
.-= Dennis Edell is hoping you stop by and read $100 – 10 Winners – Comment Contest! ‘Till Months End… =-.
Twitter: ladybanana
says:
I do not like music on blogs – as I browse I am usually either, listening to my own music, half watching TV or enjoying some peace. So I really object to someone else’s music blaring out at me when I land on their site!
Twitter: tonyknuckles
says:
Haven’t really ever had the notion to add music to any of my sites. Learned early on that this could be a terrible nuisance to visitors as well as those that kind of understand the need for it.
.-= 113Tidbits is hoping you stop by and read February 2010 Earnings =-.
Twitter: extremejohn
says:
Offering music for others to enjoy on your blog is a great way to help keep your visitors pinned to your blog, every once and a while I throw a video or two into a blog post but I doubt I will be instaling a player on the side anytime soon. If I had a music related blog I def. would.
.-= Extreme John @Blogging Ceos is hoping you stop by and read A Day in the Life of Extreme John Episode 7 [video] =-.
Twitter: zigojacko
says:
I generally hate auto play audio on websites unless it’s of nature that you would expect it on.
.-= Geoff@UK Search Marketing is hoping you stop by and read First Interactive Google Doodle Logo to Celebrate Pacman’s 30th Anniversary =-.
One thing that is very important in using music carefully in your blog is to respect the songwriters copyright. Basically, you first need to clear with the songwriter publishers if putting or streaming a song right from your web page does not violate any rights.
It is much better for the website to secure some license to stream copyrighted music (whether or not it is commercial in nature). In this way, you are not only using music carefully but also “legally”.
I know this is hard to do, but some performing right societies like ASCAP are chasing those websites that stream copyrighted music and ending up paying a lot amount of royalties which might be otherwise negotiable (or free) in the first place if the licenses are secured.
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If done is a sloppy manner, then music in a blog will give the site an amateur, almost MySpace-like, feel. Your suggestion to have “off” be the default setting is much appreciated. Also be aware that (in the United States, at least) broadband penetration is only around 25%, so keep bandwidth restrictions in mind too.
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Great post, I feel that the use of any music really requires knowing the audience of your blog as it can really create the wrong mood but if done correctly could really draw people and keep them coming back. I find that chilled out music tends to work the best.
Just found your post. I have a client who wanted to include music on her blog and I talked her out of it. I find it distracting and usually annoying. Now if have a band or selling music, I would give the visitor the option to listen to music right away. Otherwise, I don’t really see the point in music on a blog.
Anyway, I like you site and this was a good post. Thank you.
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i think the best point that he made is to “keep in mind everybody has a different taste in music” I to would be skeptical towards adding music to my blog solely because I know that most of the time I go to somebody else’s website and hear music I am usually turned off to the website. Most people are playing music on their computers already and don’t want to hear music pop on as they navigate the web.
I think this is something everyone needs to be careful of. The last thing you want to do is alienate the demographic of your website. It could easily drive away visitors/traffic.
I like the idea however would having a music player embedded in your site would this not slow down your page load times? Affecting SEO opportunities?
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Twitter: BlazingMinds
says:
Usually the player would slow down your site and most probably turn visitors away, specially if the music is auto playing