About oh….ten years ago I remember landing on a website and all of a sudden there was music playing

How cool I thought that was. I remember thinking “man, this Internet is really awesome!” Well that was 10 years ago when music on a website was the new thing and being surprised or I should say annoyed by music today on a website is so…….well, 10 years ago.

You see here’s the thing. If I wanted music I would’ve gone to my iTunes or went to a site that specializes in delivering music that I like to listen to and therein lies the real problem with having music play on your website. The odds that many people will not like the type of music you play are pretty high. Some say “well it’s just elevator music and it’s easy listening“. Hmmm, and how many people would say that they love elevator music? I mean, how many times is that phrase “elevator music” used in our jokes?
It doesn’t really matter what the genre, it’s going to alienate somebody and in today’s eCommerce environment you can’t afford to alienate anyone.

I recently ran a poll on Facebook to more than 400 industry professionals and asked the question “How do you respond when you land on a website and automatically hear music?” Every single vote was “I scramble to find the off button!” The ironic thing is that most of the time that button is not easily found and you’re getting angry or frustrated just seeking for it. When you finally find it hidden in the bottom corner of the website in tiny little letters you click it and hope the surprise sound didn’t wake up the baby because the night before you were watching YouTube and had the volume turned all the way up.

Ok, so you move on to the next page on the website and Wham!
The music starts again! That’s it! Goodbye!

Are you starting to get the picture?

The Internet is an “On Demand” environment and music that I did not ask for is unwelcome and bothersome. This goes for any other weird sounds too. I was on a site the other day and all I could hear was the sounds of a forest with birds and everything. I had my headphones on listening to my iTunes while searching for something and I thought I was hearing things. I was pretty certain I didn’t download anything like that to my iTunes library. Then I realized it was coming from the dang site I was on. Arghhh!

The last thing about music on your website and I think the most important thing is what I began with. It gives your consumers the wrong impression about you. It conveys that you are out of date and out of touch with the ever evolving technology that’s not only available but has become what Internet consumers expect from their online experience. They expect the new not the old. They expect the revolutionary not the nostalgic. They expect to get what they ask for and not be surprised by what they didn’t ask for.

Let’s leave the music to iTunes. Impress your consumers with the power of your content and the value of your product.
Elevator music belongs in……well, the elevators.