Some webmasters (particularly beginners) like the idea of adding background music to their web sites. There are several ways to do this: a link to a music file, an embedded radio control allowing the visitor to play the music at his/her convenience, and music that automatically plays when the page is opened.

It is the last option, that heinous act of forcing your music on your hapless visitor, that we're talking about here. When faced with this dilemma, don't. Here's why.

1. Sounds like a squeaky door. MIDI files use the computer's speakers to create the sounds, thus the files are very small and easily downloaded. However, this creates a synthesizer-type sound that only vaguely resembles the original composition. In today's world of crystal-clear MP3 sound, MIDI sounds like a creaking door. It grates on the nerves like nails down a chalkboard. The only person to whom this sounds good is the beginning webmaster who thinks it's neat that s/he *has* music at all.

2. Competing Themes. Do you know what else the visitor is doing while viewing your web page? Take me, for example. Nine times out of ten, I have music playing. Usually MP3s that I ripped from CDs, but occasionally I'll pop in a CD I haven't ripped yet. There's nothing like enjoying Sting's "Fields of Gold" overlaid with Nine Inch Nails. Grrrr. Don't assume that just because your website occupies 100% of your focus that it does the same for your visitor.

3. Caught. Some folks like to take a minute or two break at work and surf a new site. There's nothing really wrong with that -- smokers take a minute or two break all the time -- but your boss won't agree when the music spills out over the cubicle farm. Quickest 'back' click you ever saw. And no, this visitor won't come back to your site.

4. Everybody else does it. The average surfer looks at dozens of web sites in one surfing session. You want yours to stand out. If every cool site you go to has John Cage's background music playing, and you copy it for your site, guess what? You've lost some originality. Some webmasters would use this argument as a reason to put music in the page ... but ask yourself: do you want your site to be remembered as the one with the really cool X on it or the one with the annoying music?

5. Closed doors. Congrats. With background music, you are unwelcome at many private search engines and link collections, FFA pages, web rings, banner exchanges and other traffic-building tools. How you're going to build traffic to your site is your guess.

6. Useability. A number of groups cannot deal with background music. The blind, who use text-to-speech programs to "read" your page's content out loud, for example, can't hear the content and so can't figure out how to turn it off. Dyslexics can be thrown by the noise interfering with their ability to concentrate and read correctly. A good webmaster provides a site that is readable by all people.

7. They're coming to get you. Who owns that music file you're using? Do you? Some artists don't even own their own music -- look at John Fogerty, for example. If you're converting something into MIDI or WAV for use on your site, you're probably breaking the law. If you're ripping something for use on your site, you're definitely breaking the law. If you're copying something you found on the Internet, you could be breaking the law. You won't know until they come knocking on your hosting provider's door and your site goes down. Why risk it?

Perhaps the best reason not to auto-play background music comes from the answer to this question: Why? Why do you want it? Because it's cool? Well, yeah, so were pet rocks and look how long they lasted. Unless you have a compelling reason to do so, don't. It's better for everyone, all the way around.

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